Religious Practice & Fantasy: Goat's Law

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

Mike theorized in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/the_old_crowd/message/1863 :

<< "Goat's Law":

- Where the author of any given work of fantasy fiction takes a
positive stance toward the contemporary practice of a religion which
poses questions basic to the narrative, the practice of that religion
is unlikely to be directly portrayed in the fantasy societies created
by that work.

- Extension: In fact, the more positive the religious stance, the more
"secular" the portrayal; the more negative the stance, the more
"religious" the protrayal. >> 

According to me, that is not true of fantasy authors who are Wiccans
and similar kinds of Neopagan. 

By the way, I ENJOYED all the books mentioned in this comment. Some of
them I re-read when I was in my teens like listies re-read HP as
adults.

A nasty person could even accuse some of writing fantasy only as an
excuse to write about their religion. (A not extremely good book
titled THE RIGHT HAND OF DEXTRA comes to mind, or is it exempted by
the pretense that it is science fiction because of being set on
another planet where all this stuff is not supernatural because the
laws of nature are different there?)

But I am thinking of authors who write fantasy because that is what
they do for a living, and presumably also as a vocation. Diana Paxson
-- I think of her first two 'Westria' books, back in the 1980s, whose
titles I cannot recall, but which were reviewed in one Paganzine as
dull boring stories whose rituals should be 'stolen' for real-life
use. 

Marion Zimmer Bradley -- I was thinking of her Darkover series (which
completely fails to 'pass' as science fiction), where as MZB over time
became more 'out' about her religion, the religion in the stories
became less a decorative flourish (like: "This is a fantasy so people
will cuss "By Aldones!' instead of 'By God!") to something [some of]
the characters felt sincerely. A glance at amazon.com to try to find
the titles of the first two Westria books reminded me of The Mists of
Avalon (which would have been less dull if it were shorter, i.e. if
she hadn't become so successful that no one was allowed to edit her
writing) which is *unquestionably* NeoPagan propaganda.

(The 'no editting!' demand was also the flaw of her book, title I
cannot remember, about a planet named Isis/Cinderella. That one
doesn't get into this reply because it was a feminist rather than
Pagan diatribe.)

What should be said of Katherine Kurtz's LAMMAS NIGHT?