If you are
going to become a Pagan at some point you’re going to have to deal with
Christians. Many, many of us in the
Pagan movement have some kind of background in Christianity. Either we were one, we were raised by one, we
have family members who are or we live or have lived in an area that is predominantly
Christian. Let me make this abundantly clear to those who can hear me. I am not in any way against the teachings of
Jesus. He taught love, respect, and equality. I consider Jesus to be a Bodhisattva, an
enlightened one, whether or not you believe in his demi-god status. Even as a Pagan I still continue to work with
him. Many people who come to me and ask
me to pray for them, to do readings for them, to light candles for them define
themselves as Christians. I will go to
Jesus, since I feel these people hold a covenant with him, as I do with my
gods, and ask him for healing in their lives.
When I pray to him, on their behalf, I have never been turned away. I feel my relationship with him is one of mutual
admiration and respect.
I did the
Christian thing for many years, as I was told to by those around me. When I began to study Buddhism I began to
have a series of dreams, of being chased. I consulted my local pastor who told
me: In your dream, if you can, turn around and face the person chasing you and
ask them what they want. It took a few
tries, but it finally worked. I turned
around and said, "WHAT! WHAT DO YOU
WANT!?" The man, dressed in a grey
business suit, was exhausted and out of breath.
"I am so glad I finally caught you.
I've been chasing you for months" he said. "I want you to know that this journey
that you are about to go on is okay."
It took me a while to understand that this man was Jesus and he was
giving me his blessing. He was sending
me on a journey.
I have never
rejected or belittled Jesus. I think he was a good man and if you choose to
follow him that is fine with me. But you
need to know your history. You need to
understand what the church has done, and is continuing to do to those who are unbelievers
or those they deem as other. If you are
a Christian you need to understand why you are a Christian, just as I
understand why I am a pagan. Is it because
it is what you chose? Did you look at
other religions to see if they fit you and what you believed? Or are you Christian because that is what you
were raised to be. And how did your
family become Christian after all. My
guess is that it was at the end of a sword or a gun.
When Christianity
came to Europe at first it kind of co-mingles with Paganism. Even moving their holy days to coincide with
Pagan ones, because they were having such problems try to eradicate
Paganism. There was a time, among the
Vikings when many people were both Christian and Pagan. You had to be both to trade. Christianity in
many ways became about trade. If you
were not Christian, many would not trade with you. Finally many of the kings converted to
Christianity and deemed that their lands would become Christian. Oh the king of the Danes comes to mind, as well
as the ruler of Iceland. People were
often forced to convert, many Pagans who refused were murdered. Charlemagne was one of the worst, murdering
5,000 at one time for failure to convert.
And let’s not even begin to talk about the burning times. Okay you forced me.
The burning times,
is as it referred to by Pagans, is called the Inquisition by others. The church was determined to root out all
Pagans, Jews, Moors, and others who did not fit into their way of
thinking. The majority of these crimes
happened from the Middle Ages until around the Salem Witch Trials. While Pagans are still being killed in other
areas of the world today, it is not to the extent that happened at this
time. Now I have heard the argument that
there was LSD growing on the grain during these times and that's what caused
everybody to go crazy. While that might
fit in some cases, it does not cover the period I am talking about of several
hundred years. Many of the women who
were killed were healers and midwives. Many, probably most of these women were
not Pagans but Christians. The church
had a monopoly on healing. It only came
from Jesus. How many died? We don't know.
Theories range from several thousand to over a million. I can tell you this. I have read accounts of entire towns in
Germany being left with no women in them.
There is even book on how to torture witches and others until they
confess. Now you tell me how that fits into what Jesus taught.
It was
always difficult to be a woman, Southern, smart and Christian. When I began to ask questions I was told,
"lean not into your own understanding." In other words don't think for yourself. I remember the night I asked a local pastor;
oh I could not have been more then 13 or so, where God’s parents came from. He
became violent and belligerent with me, and began screaming, "don't you
ever ask that question again!" I
have always felt that the church is trying to keep women down. There are still churches, besides Catholic,
that refuse to ordain women. They say,
"oh well Jesus had no female disciples." Oh yes he did, Deborah and Mary Magdalene,
and others. Just most of them are so obscure or their books have been omitted
from what we know as the Bible today.
As I said
before I have no problems with Jesus. I think he was a good dude. I think he came in fulfillment of the Jewish
law and is a savior for the Jewish people. I however am not a Jew. My main problem lies with Paul. It is Paul who takes Jesus teaching in the
early days and twists it. Women are told
to not cut their hair, to submit to their husbands, to cover their hair, and to
keep quiet in church. It is Paul who
begets the old inequalities.
And then we
have the problem of the Bible itself, a compilation of books written over
time. Much of this mythology comes from
other Middle Eastern sources and stories.
The Gospels are not written until almost a hundred years after the death
of Jesus. So how much is accurate and
how much is urban legend at this point is really anybody’s guess. And yes I grew up in the South where I routinely
hear, "the Bible is the infallible word of god!" I think no religion is worth a damn without
science, debate, history, and understanding to back it up. You have to understand why you believe what
you do, and in what context your religion came to be.
At some
point you may be accosted by Christians who want to save your mortal soul,
because that is what they are taught to do.
Your best block is to beat them at their own game. Ask them questions as to why they believe
what they do? What do they know about
the history of their church? And my personal
favorite comeback when they tell you, that you are going to burn in Hell is,
"no it's your Hell. You burn in it!" or another of my favorite is, "at least
I will be among friends. Sounds like it is going to be a Hell of a
party!" Hell, as we know it in the
western world, was unknown to the pagan religions, prior to the coming of
Christianity.
I was told
as a Christian that when I died I would join the chorus of the dead eternally
giving praise and glory to god.... What???
Who the hell wants to do that for all eternity! I have family and animals I want to see. I have questions I want to ask, people I
would like to meet. Is their god such a megalomaniac
that he has to have people worshiping him at all times??? I have read the Old Testament, and if that is
your idea of god, no thank you. He is mean
and vengeful, and vindictive and cruel to his own people. He tells his followers to go into cities and
slaughter men, women, children, and dogs and then take over their lands. All the while saying we should not
murder?? He makes no sense.
If you want
a real story of not making sense read Judges 19, where a man sends out his
concubine, to be raped so he won’t be raped by men. They rape her to death and then he cuts her
into 12 pieces and sends them all over Israel.
When I brought this story up with my pastor and asked him to explain
this to me and why these women were treated like this. Why would god and these men, their family do
this to them. He looked at me dumbfounded
and confused, and could give me no answers.
Pagan gods,
well at least from my experience, are not like this. Our gods are our friends. They want to help us in our daily lives. Many of us do not believe that our gods are omnipotent,
nor do many of us believe that are all powerful. You cannot just simply say a prayer, do a spell
or make an offering to make your life better.
YOU have to put the work in. They
will help where they can, and perhaps give you opportunities, but you have to
show them you are willing to work on your issues.
What kills
me today about the church is it's blind hypocrisy. I got really, really tired of pastors and
others in the church being against things like drinking, dancing, and
cheating. Yet being at the dance hall on
Saturday night with their mistress in tow, and dragging a cooler behind them. Kids came out and told of horrific abuse,
sexual and other wise, and the church would demonize the child and keep the
abuser, because he was so well thought of. Obviously the child must be
lying. Women were being abused and were
told it was their fault and that they needed to submit to their husbands, and churches
having strangle holds over towns. I grew
up in a small town that is basically run by the local Baptist church. Many, many times they have tried to pass a
law allowing the selling of alcohol in this town. Hoping this will give the economy a boost and
allow more businesses to come in, but the church stands up and stirs its member
to vote and it gets shot down. The result is the town dying, and church thriving. But I bet you go into almost any of those
church members’ homes and they will have some kind of alcohol in it.
And then
there is my cousin. I have known since I
was 6 years old that my cousin was gay, although he did not officially come out
to me until he was 19. It makes me very
sick how many Christians treat gays in this country, and I’m not talking about
Westbourgh here people. This everyday
belief that gays are somehow sick or mislead.
That they can "pray the gay away,” or beat it away. That the gods did not make them just as they
are. That somehow they chose to be
gay. As many people in the gay community
have told me. "Why would I choose
to be this way???" At no point in my life do I ever remember sitting down
and saying, "I am going to be straight or bi -sexual." And I bet most of you did not either. No our sexual orientation is hard wired into
our brains. It is written on our DNA. It is how the Gods made us. And yes
WWJD? Your right. Let’s see he touched the untouchables, saved prostitutes, hummmm.... I bet he would love
and accept them just as they are.
That is
another problem I have is not with the church but its members. Many of them want to take scriptures out of
context. I have read the New Testament. Nowhere does it say anything about gay being
wrong. It isn't until you go back to the
Old Testament do you find this. Oh wait didn't Jesus come in fulfillment of the
law and erase all the old laws. So those
laws you want to try to uphold that are in the Old Testament now don't matter,
or if you are going to follow all the old laws then you have to follow them all
including things like not working on the Sabbath, not wearing certain types of
clothes, oh and being Kosher.
First they
had to convince the Pagans of this idea of sin and then that if they didn't
convert that they would burn in Hell, another new concept. Conversion by terror. Oh and let’s talk about Satan, because you’re
going to be asked repeatedly if you serve him.
Satan is a Christian construct.
He has been compared at times to Loki, as they are both considered to be
gods of chaos. But I think that is
unfair. Loki has his place, without
chaos we would not know order and balance. This idea we have of Satan today is
of a horned, sometimes red god. This is
the churches attempt to demonize our gods.
In most Indo-European pre Christian faiths there is some type of deity
or nature spirit with horns. Frey, Cernunnos,
and Pan all have horns. Why? They are Gods of the hunt, Gods of the
woods. They often represent our hunter
gather aspect. They are male fertility
personified. As for the red part, I
think, this comes from the Dagda, as he is sometimes not only called the red,
but seen as red. Goats have horns. deer have horns, when did having horns become
a bad thing???
Here are my final
thoughts on this subject. Remember they cannot
prosecute you for being Pagan. They can persecute
you, but not prosecute you. It is still
legal in this country to believe in what you want to. No matter what anyone
might tell you.
Not all
Christians are the same. I have met many
along my journey who were good , loving, decent and pagan friendly. Wonderful people, who really lived Jesus’
message, and whom I love dearly, and hope they will still be my friends after
this article is published. If you are Pagan
and have the opportunity to make friends with a Christian who does not chastise
you for your beliefs or try to convert you, you have a true friend indeed. Don’t discount that. True friends are hard to find in this life;
much less ones who want to understand you.
For those of
you living inside a Christian family, remember you are going to have to be
their teacher. Know your faith, and why you believe it, inside and out. Be not rough and in your face, but instead
teach them quietly and gently. Let the
light of the Gods’ shine through you, it may be the only time they ever see
it. You may be the only Pagan some of
them know or ever know. It is up to you,
whether you are in the closet or not, to show them that although we are
different we still love and respect them.
My hope is that your families will come to accept and understand who and
what you are, because you have taught them how.
Most of them will never do research into the history of their own
faiths. Most of them will never change
from what they are, but by loving you they have the opportunity to see the
world from a different vantage point. By
loving you they may come to a deeper understanding of their own faith. Give them the same love and respect that you
wish them to give us.
Ilsa
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