Everything Under the Moon

i know i'm probably going to get yelled at for this but i've been thinking about this for a while and i'm wondering, i've been reading the posts in this section and it seems to me that alot of people here seem to bash christianity. now don't get me wrong, i'm not a christian at all and i do not support alot of the things that people do in the name of that religion. but it seem to me to be a little funny how people will complain about how christians judge us, but the next thing that is said is judgemental towards them. well like i said, it's just a thought i had

I agree completely, that's why I think we should try to filter what is our opinion from fact, though that is nearly impossible. My negative experiences are usually linked to certain people so I try reserving my negativity for these individuals. However many people here have experienced hands on the cruelty people will do for their religion which makes people weary of the religion even if their experiences came from individuals rather than the religion. Myself included.

Bless

I'm so glad you said that. I'm still a Christian, but not like the typical Christian of today. That's how I grew up, but I don't follow that anymore. They're good people and many of them are NOT judgmental, but I found a different path. I wish people wouldn't bash Christians so much.

well you know, there are good christians and then there are bad christians. just like there are good witches and there are bad witches. it really just depend on the person. some of my best friends are christians and they love and accept me for who and what i am, i am a witch and i love and accept my christian friends for who and what they are. i do wish that christians didn't view witchcraft the way they do but at the same time i realize that it's not really their fault. they are just doing like we are and following a path that they feel is right. the majority of christians just act out of mis-information and a lack of understanding of who and what we really are. i realize that nearly all of us have had bad experiences with christians but is it really fair to blame the whole religion for what a few bigot have done. now my question is why should we be like that. why should we bash them and say we hate them for their ignorance instead of embracing them and trying to enlighten them (sorry if that was a little sappy). there's a saying that i feel fits here. "you can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar"

i guess my point is that i wish people would think about what they are saying before they say it because words hurt.

ebenb84 wrote: now my question is why should we be like that. why should we bash them and say we hate them for their ignorance instead of embracing them and trying to enlighten them (sorry if that was a little sappy). there's a saying that i feel fits here. "you can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar"

Yes! I was gonna say that! Enlighten them, educate them, don't hate them. All the hate isn't going to help anyone.

You both bring up excellent points, and in a perfect world that surely is the way it ought to be. However, in an imperfect world, people sometimes loose their cool a bit. Now I am not excusing christian bashing, but I think a lot of it has to do with hurt feelings and people needing to vent in order to get it out of their system. Sometimes venting and having an understanding ear to listen is therapeutic. While I do not doubt that there are witches that may hate Christians, I try to give the benefit of doubt and figure that one is venting due to deep rooted scars in order to become a better person in the long run. I recall myself being in that mode before. There was a time, thanks to ungodly Christians, that I vented up and down a storm. Thankfully people just listened and understood rather than try to invalidate my feelings or argue with me about it. As a result, I eventually got it out of my system (the venting helped a great deal), calmed down and came out of it better than before. However, the one concern I have is that it may make some christian witches feel a little uncomfortable, so hopefully people might learn to reserve the venting for the ranting section on the forum if they need to get it out of their system.

venting is one thing, but it's when it goes beyond the venting that it becomes the problem. i know that most, if not all of us have had bad experiences with the church at one time or another, i sure have. i know that in a perfect world it would be all rainbows and butterflies but this isn't a perfect world. i know that there is a lot of hate in this world and in no way am i trying to invalidate anything that anybody else feels,says or thinks. i had just noticed that some of the posts on this section had gotten a little rough towards christians and i just wanted people to think. now i'm not excusing the things that a few people do in the name of the church but not all are like that. even though it may seem that way sometimes.

ebenb84 wrote: i had just noticed that some of the posts on this section had gotten a little rough towards christians and i just wanted people to think.

Indeed so. This is my biggest concern, due to the discomfort that a Christian witch might experience as a result of an over abundance of venting.

Good points all of you; I also dislike the hypocrisy of the way many people bash them because they bash us.

But, you know what I hate even more than the devout Christians that disagree with our religion? Those close-minded call-themselves-Christians. You know the ones I mean. They are "Christian" because their families are Christian. They may go to church once in a while because that's how they were raised, more if their parents make them. But they really don't care much about Christianity; they don't believe most of what the bible says, don't follow all the rules, and yet they look at all non-Christians as if they must be either Neanderthals or freaks without even bothering to think about our beliefs and whether and not they make sense. Tell one of them you're pagan and they'll immediately think "weirdo" without even knowing what being pagan means (even if they read their horoscopes!).

One example that got me a bit POed was in English class, when we had to do a quick 2 minute journal entry starting with the phrase "I believe that..." One kid, when called on, read his entry about reincarnation and how he believes that what we do in this life will affect what happens to us in our next life. I thought it was interesting. The kid next to him didn't though, apparently, since he snickered throughout the reading. The guy who was reading asked, "what?" and the guy who laughed replied incredulously, "Wait, you were serious?!?!" in a pretty nasty tone... it just got me thinking.... I mean, he wasn't religious himself, probably an atheist/agnostic in the guise of Christian (as most people seem to be nowadays). Yet he responded to the idea of reincarnation as if it had been "disproved" already (as well as implying that "no one believes in that kind of mumbo-jumbo that nowadays")... how narrow-minded...

All of this is because of ignorance, obviously. I myself used to be completely unaware that polytheistic religions still existed in modern Western countries before I came across sites like these. (Though I never really assumed them to be inferior.) I mean, history classes are so biased... polytheistic religions are only discussed as "Oh, that's what those ancient people believed in thousands of years ago! Ha, they thought their corn would stop growing if they didn't kill a bunch of people, how barbaric and stupid!" while monotheistic religions are taught as "Time went on and people got smarter. We invented lots of stuff like plumbing. We also 'discovered' that there is really only one god, so we got a lot more civilized. And that's how we got to modern day." So I don't hate these kinds of people; they need to be taught, not scorned.

I think they only way to prevent this is to just be proud of being pagan! Educate them: let the world see that there really are lots of us!

Just thought I'd throw in my own two-cents... on a somewhat related topic...

well it is hard for people to see passed what they themselves believe to be the truth. what we all sometimes fail to realize is that we are all pretty basically seeking the same things in life. we just all go about finding those things in different ways. yes our ways are different to others just like their ways are different from us.