is me, banging my head on watertiger's desk.
Kali on a cracker, Pagans, just stop it. Stop cooperating with this kind of bullshit, even if it does "publicize" your "New Age" shop.
Stop it.
Picture found here.
Update: To clarify, my objection is to yet another "witches aren't really Satanists and don't really worship the devil" article. It's long past time that Pagans quit participating in these. I don't see Catholics having to assert that they wouldn't really attack the U.S. if told to do so by the pope or Jews explaining that, no, they don't kill xian babies. At this point, "witches aren't really Satanists" articles serve to perpetuate, rather than dispell, the ugly stereotypes and leave the Pagan subject of the article sounding defensive. Just stop it.
Unfortunately, I think that is what a lot of Pagans would like to see...going mainstream!
ReplyDeleteI don't know. As a non-pagan looking in, I think that ultimately it would be best if America became more religiously diverse. That's the America I'd like to see, one without any majority religion. Politically, it would keep everyone in check, unlike what we've seen in politics since the 1980s.
ReplyDeleteLittle bits of pagan traditions going mainstream wouldn't be bad, I don't think. After all, say that hypothetically pagans weren't persecuted and conquered into near-extinction by Christianity. What would paganism look like? It would likely be more mainstream. Likewise, in pre-Christian Europe, paganism was the mainstream, dominant religion.
If pagans are going to lament their loss of dominance one or two millennia ago-- and I think that is a loss worth lamenting-- then would it not be logical that hoping for a resurgence is some sort of corollary? Maybe not, but why wouldn't a religion want to grow? Perhaps, the deeper secrets of a priesthood (or some reasonable facsimile) would be more underground (and cool?), but why not have some aspect be mainstream?
Then again, while I like the pagans, and I'm really glad they exist, I'm not one myself. I'm just a secularist who likes to see a lot of different viewpoints.