Pagan
In the pagan community everyone uses their own definition of the word ‘pagan’ which in most cases is fine, the disturbing part of this is along with the definition most people bring along their own mold. A lot of people have told me and others on pagan communities that we were not pagan because we didn’t fit into their mold of what makes a pagan ‘pagan.’
This attitude is one of the attitudes that many pagans tend to proclaim to dislike in Christianity. The idea that if you don’t fit in the definition of a Christian you aren’t a good person. Christians have persecuted millions under this belief, yet many carry it over into a pagan religion and expect everyone to conform. The idea can be amusing at times, especially when you realize that pagan is a word that has no definite meaning. Unlike Christianity, Muslim, or even Judaism there is no concise requirements to be pagan other than being a follower of a non-mainstream religion.
The disturbing part of the fact is that in general most pagans profess to have an open mind. Then to turn around and display such a closed minded attitude when what they should be able to do is understand another’s definition and accept it, acceptance is not a concession that you believe it just the willingness to live with the fact that someone else’s definition is different.
While I am on the subject of things that are disturbing about pagans, the other sore point to me is that they hang on to Christian morals and ideals. As life is complicated there is more than one way to coexist with your fellow man, so why is it that the pagan community seems to hang onto Christian values if the follow another path?
Just a few thoughts to consider.
Rogue
I tend to agree with you on this. Lately, there's also been a rash of "I'm not pagan anymore" declarations from people who, for whatever reason, have decided that (suddenly) associating themselves with the label 'pagan' isn't "right" for them anymore. Some of the reasoning, which I can understand if I really try, is that they don't want to associate themselves with the intolerant, closed-minded, and all too Christian thinking of many self-determined "pagans". Honestly, I can't help but think that their eyes must have been closed then, because the idiocy of other people doesn't really change. You just become more or less aware of it as time passes. The other reasons for disassociating with the term 'pagan' generally has to do with not fitting into whatever they've decided a "pagan" is. The dictionary definition of "pagan" may suck, but at least it's one everyone has access to. Maybe we should just stick with it.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Christian morals thing, I think a lot of people are under the impression that there is a "correct/good" morality and a "bad/incorrect" morality. Naturally, much of the last 2000 years has been dominated by Christian thinking (which has served to define the "good" and "bad" of moral thinking). So no matter how much they might want to, they just can't seem to get away from those same morals. I guess what they don't seem to realize is that in order to get away from those limited definitions, you have to evaluate and consider everything that goes into those morals and how/why they came about. You have to step outside the box of narrow/Christian thinking and see things from another point-of-view.
Just my opinion, of course.
Thank you for the comment. On the moral thing you are probably right, but for me the Christian morality and accepted hypocracy that comes with it is what originally soured it for me.
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