The Pagan Next Door

[Durthorin]

How sad that nobody comes over to visit you guys. I find that Christians aren't particularly involved in witnessing to witches/wiccans. However, I do hope you guys won't shut yourself off from the Gospel of Christ. If He did rise from the dead, then that is something worth considering. I believe He did.

Considering that I go to church with my wife each Sunday, I visit you. Have for close to 20+ years. When I was a Christian I taught the Gospel and witnessed. Knowing all of that, I remain Pagan. That is something worth considering. Is it not:?

Brighid Bless, Dur

[Lepidopteryx]

How sad that nobody comes over to visit you guys. I find that Christians aren't particularly involved in witnessing to witches/wiccans. However, I do hope you guys won't shut yourself off from the Gospel of Christ. If He did rise from the dead, then that is something worth considering. I believe He did.

I've had evangelists come to my door - they get freaked out when I answer it skyclad.

I have many Christian friends - they don't attempt to convert me, and I don't attempt to convert them. Several of them even attended and participated in the house blessing ritual I held when we bought our new house. A few responded to the invitation saying that they didn't feel comfortable participating in or even observing a Pagan ritual, and I hold no hard feelings toward them for it. In fact, I appreciate their honesty, as their discomfort would have injected negative energy into the ritual. I told them that the house-warming party would start as soon as we had put away the blessing tools, and they came for that portion of the evening.
Visitors who come to my house for the first time often hae questions about my altar (which I make no attempt to hide from view), I explain to them the significance and meaning of the items on it and their arrangement, and they respect it as sacred space.

[Krusader]

I've had evangelists come to my door - they get freaked out when I answer it skyclad.

I have many Christian friends - they don't attempt to convert me, and I don't attempt to convert them. Several of them even attended and participated in the house blessing ritual I held when we bought our new house. A few responded to the invitation saying that they didn't feel comfortable participating in or even observing a Pagan ritual, and I hold no hard feelings toward them for it. In fact, I appreciate their honesty, as their discomfort would have injected negative energy into the ritual. I told them that the house-warming party would start as soon as we had put away the blessing tools, and they came for that portion of the evening.
Visitors who come to my house for the first time often hae questions about my altar (which I make no attempt to hide from view), I explain to them the significance and meaning of the items on it and their arrangement, and they respect it as sacred space.

If you are answering your door naked, you are a sick person. Also, you are probably violating the law.

[Seri]

If you are answering your door naked, you are a sick person. Also, you are probably violating the law.

Just because you find your own humanity and that of others to be morally objectionable does not mean that anyone else necessarily does the same. There is potential for legal issues, but I hardly think that the law would indicate that someone is a "sick person." The law is not a moral agency, but an enforcement of existing moral agencies.

[Lepidopteryx]

If you are answering your door naked, you are a sick person. Also, you are probably violating the law.

As long as I am INSIDE my house naked, I am not breaking any laws. I like being sans clothes, and often hang around my house in a state of undress. I have a legal right to do so.
I always look to see who is at the door before I answer it, and I only answer it skyclad when I see strangers with Bibles, the Book of Mormon, or copies of The Watchtower in their hands standing my doormat. Otherwise, I throw on a robe.
Quite frankly, I consider it incredibly rude and presumptuous for a total stranger to come to my house in order to tell me how I should relate to the Divine.

[Cu Mhorrigan]

And you worship demonic personages posing as "gods" and "goddesses." Don't you understand that there is only ONE True God, and these other beings are not Him.

Again, You assume that My Mythology has anything to do with yours, All you are doing is proving the myth that Christians are self righteous bigots who crap all over other religions to satisfy their elitist urges.
The universe is too dang big for me to believe that there is only one god/goddess and life is too diverse for me to believe that your bitter, angry, sexually-frustrated sky god and his Masochistic "Dead Jew on a Stick" Son are the only ones I should worship.

[tmancour]

If you are answering your door naked, you are a sick person. Also, you are probably violating the law.

And if you pretend to indulge in ritualistic cannibalism once a week, you are a sick person. Takes all kinds.

Arion the Blue

[Tasogare]

And you worship demonic personages posing as "gods" and "goddesses."

Hah...wow, what? Bitter much?

My opinion has always been that witches/wiccans/occultists should not be allowed on a Christian site. This is because this belief system is especially dangerous and repugnant. The Bible counsels against this particular form of sinful cultism and charges us to have nothing to do with it

You're not very secure in your faith if you can't handle even the remotest sense of disagreement in your world, are you?

You see, my dear Krusader, People like you are the reason I got sick and tired of christianity and the down right negative energy people like you resonate that makes me truly disgusted with fundamentalist christianity. Please don't insult Our intelligence by pretending to care about us Wiccans and Pagans. To you it is a game of conquer the infidel, and Many of us see right through it.

I couldn't put it better myself. I've only been here for all of half an hour or so, and already someone like you is crawling out of the woodwork. I'd been raised Christian for twenty years, and it still disagreed with me. I found what I was looking for in Eris, the same warmth, protection, safety, everything family claimed I would find in their own God I found in Her.

Since then I've become even more religious than most in my family, only in my own way. I am even training to become a priestess, something that I could not do in my family's Christian faith. Being unable to dedicate myself so fully to the God that gave me such warmth, I couldn't imagine it. I love to give back to the gods what they've granted me, and that's just one thing that Christianity kept me from.

I've been more generous, more outgoing, more confident in general since finding my faith. If you can remotely, honestly say that is a bad thing, then I will be amazed. Your shroud of blind faith is even thicker than first expected.

[Freya]

Wow.. Krusader has done a great job of reminding me why I've refused to speak to my aunt, uncle or sisters since I turned 16... And I'd been thinking recently that I should look them up.. But you've done a great job of reminding me of the two zealots yelling at a girl who'd mother just died, telling her to stop worshiping demons and to stop giving into her sinful desires for members of the same sex.

Many thanks for the reminder, Krusader!

[{Tim}]

As long as I am INSIDE my house naked, I am not breaking any laws. I like being sans clothes, and often hang around my house in a state of undress. I have a legal right to do so.
I always look to see who is at the door before I answer it, and I only answer it skyclad when I see strangers with Bibles, the Book of Mormon, or copies of The Watchtower in their hands standing my doormat. Otherwise, I throw on a robe.
Quite frankly, I consider it incredibly rude and presumptuous for a total stranger to come to my house in order to tell me how I should relate to the Divine.

well, it certainly would be somewhat distracting if I were to knock at your place and you answered the door completely starkers. But then OTOH, I doubt I would be holding a bible out in plain view, even if I was for some reason witnessing door-to-door (and in your country, at that).

But then, people I know have told me that they answer questions about their religious beliefs with "oh, I'm a satanist", just to shock the people doorknocking... ... so I don't tend to get surprised by much any more. The worst I might do is raise an eyebrow at you.

(Oh, and I don't think it's terribly rude to go around to people's places asking if they want you to explain your beliefs to them... what IS rude is if you don't go away when they say they aren't interested...)

[Seri]

well, it certainly would be somewhat distracting if I were to knock at your place and you answered the door completely starkers. But then OTOH, I doubt I would be holding a bible out in plain view, even if I was for some reason witnessing door-to-door (and in your country, at that).

But then, people I know have told me that they answer questions about their religious beliefs with "oh, I'm a satanist", just to shock the people doorknocking... ... so I don't tend to get surprised by much any more. The worst I might do is raise an eyebrow at you.

(Oh, and I don't think it's terribly rude to go around to people's places asking if they want you to explain your beliefs to them... what IS rude is if you don't go away when they say they aren't interested...)

A large number of Neo-Pagans tend to believe that it is amoral to proselytize. Our general attitude is "we'll explain it if you ask us, but Neo-Paganism is a personal calling, not a revealed mystery." Essentially, only the Goddess and the God will call someone to faith in this view, and only if it is right and proper for that person to be called.

I realize that things are likely different in Australia, but in America, the overwhelming Christian majority is unwilling to even consider that there are other faiths. I've met someone who now responds to the street proselytizers by telling them, with a smile on her face, that she is a Pagan Priestess. The Christian Priests in particular are taken back by that. They never know what to say.

I understand that Christians believe that they have the right answers to everything faith related. Pagans tend to say "We're chasing Wisdom, catching it piece by piece, and know that it is a personal process." It's a severe theological disjunct.

[technomage]

A large number of Neo-Pagans tend to believe that it is amoral to proselytize.

I would say "It is considered unethical within many neo-Pagan paths," but as morality is defined by the cultyre (and American culture is overwhelmingly Christian), it's not actually against morality. Beyond that minor quibble, however, you make some splendid poinst, such as this one:

"We're chasing Wisdom, catching it piece by piece, and know that it is a personal process."

I hadn't heard it expressed that way before, but I do like it.

[{Tim}]

A large number of Neo-Pagans tend to believe that it is amoral to proselytize. Our general attitude is "we'll explain it if you ask us, but Neo-Paganism is a personal calling, not a revealed mystery." Essentially, only the Goddess and the God will call someone to faith in this view, and only if it is right and proper for that person to be called.

I realize that things are likely different in Australia, but in America, the overwhelming Christian majority is unwilling to even consider that there are other faiths. I've met someone who now responds to the street proselytizers by telling them, with a smile on her face, that she is a Pagan Priestess. The Christian Priests in particular are taken back by that. They never know what to say.

Heh, your view sounds kinda like the Calvinist take on Christianity... God calls whom He wills. Chances are you won't get that many Calvinists at your door.
Anyway, over here it's mostly the overwhelmingly apathetic majority, as far as religion is concerned; most people don't mind if you "have religion" so long as you don't bother them with it when they're happy. Though I'll be honest and say that's something of a stereotype, and won't be true for everyone. Most people will just politely tell you to go away, though.

I understand that Christians believe that they have the right answers to everything faith related. Pagans tend to say "We're chasing Wisdom, catching it piece by piece, and know that it is a personal process." It's a severe theological disjunct.

Actually, I like that statement. It's something that could fit very well within a Christian framework. However, being in pursuit of wisdom doesn't mean you can't know certain things to be true already... it's just that there is much more to be learned beyond the simple "God loves you and died for your sins".

(BTW, I wouldn't necessarily say Christians have the answers to 'everything'... although I guess in a sense *God* is the answer... but I mean that there are some things we haven't been revealed the answer to, because we don't need to know it or whatever.)

[Tasogare]

Essentially, only the Goddess and the God will call someone to faith in this view, and only if it is right and proper for that person to be called.

This seems very true. While I don't believe simply in one god or one goddess, Eris' calling was definitely much like that. I'd been seeing her name popping up here and there for years before I finally gave in and opened myself to the idea of polytheism. Every time I saw it it always stood out to me very heavily, and had me compelled to know more about her. If that wasn't a calling I don't know what is. (Why a goddess of chaos would be calling people, though, is beyond me!)

[technomage]

Why a goddess of chaos would be calling people, though, is beyond me!)

Eris as a "Goddess of chaos" is a very recent concept: she is actually the Goddess of Strife, and was called "the abhorred daughter of Nix" by Hesiod.