1) I dislike "improved versions" of existing religions
If you take something that exists and present your own version of it, changed enough to make it different, BUT INSISTING ON ANY RIGHT TO THE POPULARITY OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION, you are a thief, a liar, a swindler and a cheater. Your "religion" is a rip-off and plagiarism and your only motifs are of selfish gain - could be economical, could be control, could be self-aggrandizing - which makes any good qualities of your concoction tainted by association, and makes me wonder where you stole them.
So, if you find a teacher worth following and decide to make God of him, don't call the religion an improved version of his religion. Create a totally independent, new one, even when it means you'll get less followers because you can't sell the new religion to your God's old friends and relatives.
If you find a heap of golden tablets in a field, start a new religion, independent of all the existing ones, even when it means you can't sell your lifestyle to so many people.
If you get the great idea of uniting a group of fighting tribes under one God, don't tie your God to any existing religion, especially to any religion you despise, just to get your hands on their property, start afresh.
If you start a religion, don't adopt figures from other religions and claim they were really presenting yours. Don't go referring to Jesus, Mohammed, Abraham, Krishna, Buddha or any other person/God/character/entity that already exists in a religion, even when that makes it harder for you to sell your religion.
It's like writing sequels to popular novels. Take Scarlett, for example. The idea was good. Alexandra Ripley should have been a good choice. She tried to understand Scarlett. But why change her hair color? Why change her nature and character? Why make her not Scarlett? Sending her to Ireland was a brilliant idea, I think. AND THEN MAKE HER GIVE TARA AWAY?! SHE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND SCARLETT AT ALL!
And that's what happens when a non-Jew tries to create a religion based on the Jewish God. You just don't understand Him, so you try to make Him do things He would never do, say things He would never say, want things He would never want, and that makes every Jew look at you as if you were an idiot, because that's what you are.
2) Human sacrifice
The Jewish God would NEVER ask for human sacrifice the way Christianity describes it. Didn't you get it with Abraham and Isac?
I have nothing against human sacrifice, I am a Pagan after all, but human sacrifice is one of the most misunderstood things in human history. I find it so weird that most of the people likely to misunderstand are Christians, who base their whole religion on human sacrifice.
Let me try to explain my view on this matter.
Ok, so I am not talking about the South American style of human sacrifice, I am not American, so I don't even pretend to understand anything about that. I am European and North European at that. I am connected to this piece of Earth.
In my mind the sacrifice is about offering God something in exchange.
The more I value what I want, the more valuable thing I sacrifice.
When I am ready to sacrifice a human being, the thing I am asking must be something truly valuable. Like the survival of the whole people.
So, a slave or a criminal or a captured enemy would not do, because those people are not worth much. I wouldn't slaughter an animal, and offer God the bits I don't find any other use for. That' s... despicable. God should get the best.
So, I would be honored if I was chosen to be the sacrifice, and I would leave everything and do anything I'm asked to prepare myself for the honor, I would be grateful for the opportunity to save my people, and I would feel my life was fulfilled and beautiful and honorable and it would be the most amazing thing I could ever ask for. I don't think you can understand that. I don't care about the pain or death. That only last for a moment. But the reward!
And not to me! I don't care about me! I don't know if there is life after death, if I would ever meet the God, or if I just would be dead and no more. I care about the people. My people would survive!
And not just my family, I mean, they would need to lose me, and I don't even want to think about how horrible it would be to lose one of my sisters. I still miss my dad so much. I'm pretty sure they'd rather all die of hunger than choose one to pay for the rest's survival. I am not dying for them. I am dying for everyone.
I am dying for those who bullied me and those who helped me, those who laughed at me and those who laughed with me, those who hated me and those who loved me, those whom I hated and those whom I loved. Everyone. Because the survival of the people is more important than the survival of a person.
I don't think you will ever get this.
Because you made Jesus' sacrifice mote.
What?
Ok, He received a personal reward.
He knew he wasn't going to die at all, not really. That was just the grand finale of the 30 years of pretending to be a human. Just an act. Nothing real ever happened, it was a puppet show.
Firstly 30 years. What's that in God's Eternity? Nothing. Secondly, the suffering. A day? Last Supper on Thursday, execution on Friday? And the abuse? A lot of people get that pretty often. Execution on cross? Standard thing among the Romans at that time. What did the other humans executed in that painful way got for their pains? Nothing. Doesn't sound quite fair to me. But that's not the point here... the point here is the puppet show.
Get this, I have been explained by Christians that God was actually using a real, existing human being as a sort of costume, and that God Jesus left the human Jesus on the cross so that the human would be able to die.
ACCORDING TO CHRISTIANS THEIR GOD(S) WERE USING HUMANS AS PUPPETS.
So, let's get really nasty with this puppet, let's beat it and wound it and nail it on the cross and make it bleed and suffer and make it look all gory and gross and let's make these women cry and wail, and let's make these Roman soldiers really nasty and callous... really good show. The best splatter show ever, BECAUSE IT'S REAL!
I don't know about you, but I find splatter films and Grand Guignol kind of torture horror entertainment disgusting and revolting. I can't imagine anything good in people who like to inflict pain on other living beings, and with "living beings" I mean ANY living beings, all the life forms, from humans and other animals to plants and even silicone based life forms, and any kind of pain, from physical to mental and any other form imaginable. AND YOU MAKE THESE PEOPLE GODS!
And you make it even "better.
LET'S PUT THIS ON THE WHOLE JEWISH PEOPLE!
We don't care about that "we planned it to be like this the whole time" and "it was really the Romans who executed Jesus", we make the Jews take the blame and make them discriminated, persecuted, harassed, killed, exterminated by the Christians for thousands of years.
Huh? Er... What? Why? What's the point with that?
We'll get to it... It gets even better.
THE HELL
So... the Jews were the first people to oppose the Christians and accuse them of stealing, which the Christians didn't like, of course, so they made the Jews "bad guys" in their story.
And the hell was invented as the answer to what happens to people who won't join the new cult. I mean, it's all right to be true to your own Gods, the Gods of your ancestors, the Gods of your people, the Gods who have been good to us and who have taken care of us, and stand for all the torture by these nasty Christians, but the fun begins WHEN YOU DIE AND CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT IT,
BECAUSE THIS NEW GOD DOESN'T CARE ONE BIT ABOUT WHAT'S IN YOUR HEART,
HE DOESN'T CARE ONE BIT ABOUT THE TRUTHNESS OF YOUR LOVE AND LOYALTY TO YOUR GOD,
DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE GOODNESS IN YOU, OR ETHICAL AND MORAL VALUES, OR THE GOOD DEEDS YOU HAVE DONE DURING YOUR LIFE,
THIS NEW GOD DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HOW MUCH LOVE, JOY, PEACE, FORBEARANCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL YOU PRESENT IN YOUR LIFE,
ALL THIS GOD CARES ABOUT IS WHAT YOU CONFESS.
And the fact that you do not confess the "right" God, makes you a liar and a fake, and all those "good things", how ever good they might seem, are in reality fake lies and you will be punished the worst possible way for the rest of the eternity.
For being so stupid.
For believing what your parents told you rather than that stranger who killed your parents.
You deserve to burn.
Huh?
Ok, I choose to burn for ever with all the people I love and you and the rest of your good people can have your god and heaven for yourself. I don't want to have anything to do with you or your psychopath God.
3) "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations"
Ok, so telling everyone about this wonderful thing that has happened to you, that's great. Sharing with everyone this great story you heard, great! Spreading the good news to everyone whether they want to hear or not, fine by me.
BUT... forcing yourself onto their land and homes to "tell them the good news", not OK.
Forcing people to listen to you, not OK.
Forcing them to choose between life and converting to your religion, not cool.
Burning people who believe differently, or who have a different interpretation of the story, not OK.
Destroying other people's property as idolatry, devil worship or other such reason, mainly being "not being part of the same religion as mine" - that is, burning non-Christian religious books, sacred artefacts and temples, not OK.
Christening children against their parents wishes or knowledge, not OK
Abducting children from their non-Christian parents so that they can be raised Christian, not OK
Lying to people, threatening them with hell and telling them their gods are demons and idols, not OK.
Refusing people non-religious services or privileges due to their religion, not OK
Pushing people some sort of extra burden or punishment due to their religion, not OK.
Demanding, expecting, even asking people to follow the rules of your God, not OK. Frankly, even judging people as "bad people" because they might or might not follow the rules of your God as you understand them is not OK.
I think proselytism is disgusting.
Proselytism is not "freedom of expression". Do you understand why?
Telling everyone about this wonderful thing that has happened to you is expressing yourself. I can honestly and fully congratulate you of your good fortune and happiness and wish you the best with the rest of your life. But it's like with any wonderful thing that has happened to you.
Your parents bought you this beautiful car for your 18th birthday! I am so happy for you!
You fell in love and he/she loves you too, and you are going to get married! Oh, how wonderful! I hope you will be as happy as I am in my marriage, and may it last long and may you prosper!
Your cat got kittens and they are all well! Wonderful!
You found Jesus! Great! Good for you!
Get it?
Sharing with everyone this great story you heard, great! I love stories! There can never be too many stories! God loves a good story! Yes, I do want to hear it!
On the same level as I want to see a movie, read a book, hear a fairy tale, watch an episode of a tv series. If you think that level of interest is not enough, it's your problem. Don't try to make it mine.
And, yes, I have read the Bible. Which is more than can be said of 99% of Christians. I know the story.
Yeah, you think it's the greatest story in the world. I disagree with you. It's not very well written, the authors couldn't agree on a version, so there's too many versions, and it's rather boring, and not very original either. I've heard better. Better versions of this one as well.
I know you think it's more than a story, but I knew a woman once, who didn't want to speak to me, because I pointed out that the prophecy in Harry Potter said "either". Because to her Harry Potter had become a prophecy of her life, and if Harry was to die, so was she. I think she would have killed herself if Harry had died. And that level of crazy is a bit too much for me, thank you. So when you tell me this book of yours is God's Word and literally true and more than a story and you'll see a certain look in my eyes. It's ok you're crazy, but don't involve me in that, please, and we'll be all right. I can ignore your craziness and won't be judging you because of it, heck, I believe stones are living creatures and have seen Fae, so I suppose we are all a little crazy in our own ways, but I'm not expecting you to believe in what I believe, and that is what I expect of you. Let's keep the beliefs out of our everyday interaction and everything will be fine, OK.
Spreading the good news to everyone, of course! I remember when I found out about Wicca. It was late 90s, and the only information I had about that world was that I had a book written by a Danish witch; I had heard an interview of a witch in Swedish radio; I had heard of a book written by Erica Jong and I had heard about this movie "The Craft". Now I learned that Wicca was actually a real, acknowledged religion with all it entails, and there were people around who believed about the same as I did. It was amazing! I was overjoyed! I wanted to tell everyone about this, I wanted everyone to know! I was about 30, so I knew not everyone was interested, so I just sang my newfound information online on my homepage, so that those who wanted to hear could listen and those who weren't interested, could move on. They didn't need to be bothered by unwanted information and I didn't need to be bothered by them.
Or... so I thought... then I found out that there are people out there - Christians, they say they are - who go around bothering Wiccans and other neo-Pagans. Just the fact that we exist and speak about this religion they don't like makes it OK in their eyes to come screaming obscenities in our space. There are many young people who have been scared to shut up, threatened, told horrible things, I mean... what kind of a person tells a teenager talking about bunnies and flowers and unicorns, she's evil and she should be raped and get killed in horrible way and get her cat tortured to death, all this decorated with swearing, obscenities, bible quotes and fire and brimstone. It is such a peculiar feeling to read these messages, totally on par with death threats to feminists and political trolling but dressed as preaching...
REMEMBER, THIS IS THE ONLY KIND OF CHRISTIAN MOST OF THESE PEOPLE WILL EVER ENCOUNTER.
Except the silent judgmental kind who obviously condones these obscene preachers.
How would they know there are normal, sane, decent Christians around? It's like saying "some cult members are nice people. You can't really judge all by some evil ones."
Yeah... I know. But isn't that what you do?
Not all men are rapists, huh?
I have some black friends, I'm not racist!
Not all Pagans are evil, but most Pagans are evil, or at least they'd want to be, if they dared, just like the men who don't rape are an exception.
I haven't done anything bad as far as you know, but... you don't know, do you. And what you don't know, might have happened. So I might be sacrificing animals in my kitchen. Of course I would deny doing that, because that happens to be illegal.
I might be kidnapping Christian babies to eat on Pesach. You don't know, but you think I could.
Isn't that pretty... er... not nice to... uh, no. It is not "pretty not nice". It is disgusting to think someone you don't even know is doing horrible things when you don't know what they are doing. It's so disgusting it is illegal to accuse an innocent person of a serious crime.
Which is my number 4.
4) A lot of Christians seem to think their own rules don't apply to them
They have no problems in going around and telling all these stories about non-Christians, (especially those they share their lives with; Jews, Muslims and Pagans), vilifying people, accusing people of horrible things, either things that are horribly only by their book or things that are seriously horrible, like torturing animals and killing people.
DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW WRONG AND BAD THAT IS?!
I was being groped by an old man when I was 13, and he was Christian. For some reason he thought it was OK for him to start groping a child just because she had breasts.
I have been threatened, called names, received all kinds of verbal abuse on the internet, and 80% of it has come from self-proclaimed Christians. For some reason they think it's OK for them to be nasty, just because so many other people are. Though Jesus didn't say "respond in kind to people when they are verbally abusive, and if someone offends you, call him fucking bitch, and if you disagree on the internet, tell them to go hell". If I remember correctly he said something quite different.
My Jewish husband has been thrown things at by Christians, a Christian tried to drive over him when he was walking our dog, a Christian man threatened to send his cousins to rape and kill us because he thought my husband had spat after him. The verbal harassment is so common that he doesn't even react to it any more. For some reason all these people think they are being good Christians, for they love Jesus so much and go to church often and wear a cross.
Of all the people I have ever met, it's only Christians who have done something to try to persuade me change my spiritual beliefs. There are posters plastered all over, people share out leaflets, start talking on the train and on buss stop. People have even called at my door just to talk about Jesus. Strangers have told me I'll go to hell because I'm a witch. I tell them I let God decide that, and for some reason they are not very happy about that :-D As if they suspect God doesn't agree with them...I really think it would be better if they focused more on their own life right now than my possible future. I really think they shouldn't be thinking about my possible future at all, because it really is none of their concern. :-D
I mean, there really is only one thing in the whole Bible every Christian need to read, understand and follow.
Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, and then if they read Galatians 5:14-23 for any clarification if such is needed, to understand what is the fruit they need to keep an eye on, so that they can recognize the fruit labeled as "Christian".
If you take something that exists and present your own version of it, changed enough to make it different, BUT INSISTING ON ANY RIGHT TO THE POPULARITY OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION, you are a thief, a liar, a swindler and a cheater. Your "religion" is a rip-off and plagiarism and your only motifs are of selfish gain - could be economical, could be control, could be self-aggrandizing - which makes any good qualities of your concoction tainted by association, and makes me wonder where you stole them.
So, if you find a teacher worth following and decide to make God of him, don't call the religion an improved version of his religion. Create a totally independent, new one, even when it means you'll get less followers because you can't sell the new religion to your God's old friends and relatives.
If you find a heap of golden tablets in a field, start a new religion, independent of all the existing ones, even when it means you can't sell your lifestyle to so many people.
If you get the great idea of uniting a group of fighting tribes under one God, don't tie your God to any existing religion, especially to any religion you despise, just to get your hands on their property, start afresh.
If you start a religion, don't adopt figures from other religions and claim they were really presenting yours. Don't go referring to Jesus, Mohammed, Abraham, Krishna, Buddha or any other person/God/character/entity that already exists in a religion, even when that makes it harder for you to sell your religion.
It's like writing sequels to popular novels. Take Scarlett, for example. The idea was good. Alexandra Ripley should have been a good choice. She tried to understand Scarlett. But why change her hair color? Why change her nature and character? Why make her not Scarlett? Sending her to Ireland was a brilliant idea, I think. AND THEN MAKE HER GIVE TARA AWAY?! SHE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND SCARLETT AT ALL!
And that's what happens when a non-Jew tries to create a religion based on the Jewish God. You just don't understand Him, so you try to make Him do things He would never do, say things He would never say, want things He would never want, and that makes every Jew look at you as if you were an idiot, because that's what you are.
2) Human sacrifice
The Jewish God would NEVER ask for human sacrifice the way Christianity describes it. Didn't you get it with Abraham and Isac?
I have nothing against human sacrifice, I am a Pagan after all, but human sacrifice is one of the most misunderstood things in human history. I find it so weird that most of the people likely to misunderstand are Christians, who base their whole religion on human sacrifice.
Let me try to explain my view on this matter.
Ok, so I am not talking about the South American style of human sacrifice, I am not American, so I don't even pretend to understand anything about that. I am European and North European at that. I am connected to this piece of Earth.
In my mind the sacrifice is about offering God something in exchange.
The more I value what I want, the more valuable thing I sacrifice.
When I am ready to sacrifice a human being, the thing I am asking must be something truly valuable. Like the survival of the whole people.
So, a slave or a criminal or a captured enemy would not do, because those people are not worth much. I wouldn't slaughter an animal, and offer God the bits I don't find any other use for. That' s... despicable. God should get the best.
So, I would be honored if I was chosen to be the sacrifice, and I would leave everything and do anything I'm asked to prepare myself for the honor, I would be grateful for the opportunity to save my people, and I would feel my life was fulfilled and beautiful and honorable and it would be the most amazing thing I could ever ask for. I don't think you can understand that. I don't care about the pain or death. That only last for a moment. But the reward!
And not to me! I don't care about me! I don't know if there is life after death, if I would ever meet the God, or if I just would be dead and no more. I care about the people. My people would survive!
And not just my family, I mean, they would need to lose me, and I don't even want to think about how horrible it would be to lose one of my sisters. I still miss my dad so much. I'm pretty sure they'd rather all die of hunger than choose one to pay for the rest's survival. I am not dying for them. I am dying for everyone.
I am dying for those who bullied me and those who helped me, those who laughed at me and those who laughed with me, those who hated me and those who loved me, those whom I hated and those whom I loved. Everyone. Because the survival of the people is more important than the survival of a person.
I don't think you will ever get this.
Because you made Jesus' sacrifice mote.
What?
Ok, He received a personal reward.
he ascended into heavenI mean, offer me the change of being beaten to death just to be resurrected a couple of day later and lifted to heaven and then get the chance to decide what happens TO ALL MANKIND FOR EVER AND EVER after they die. Oh, yeah. I'll take that.
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
He knew he wasn't going to die at all, not really. That was just the grand finale of the 30 years of pretending to be a human. Just an act. Nothing real ever happened, it was a puppet show.
Firstly 30 years. What's that in God's Eternity? Nothing. Secondly, the suffering. A day? Last Supper on Thursday, execution on Friday? And the abuse? A lot of people get that pretty often. Execution on cross? Standard thing among the Romans at that time. What did the other humans executed in that painful way got for their pains? Nothing. Doesn't sound quite fair to me. But that's not the point here... the point here is the puppet show.
Get this, I have been explained by Christians that God was actually using a real, existing human being as a sort of costume, and that God Jesus left the human Jesus on the cross so that the human would be able to die.
ACCORDING TO CHRISTIANS THEIR GOD(S) WERE USING HUMANS AS PUPPETS.
So, let's get really nasty with this puppet, let's beat it and wound it and nail it on the cross and make it bleed and suffer and make it look all gory and gross and let's make these women cry and wail, and let's make these Roman soldiers really nasty and callous... really good show. The best splatter show ever, BECAUSE IT'S REAL!
And you make it even "better.
LET'S PUT THIS ON THE WHOLE JEWISH PEOPLE!
We don't care about that "we planned it to be like this the whole time" and "it was really the Romans who executed Jesus", we make the Jews take the blame and make them discriminated, persecuted, harassed, killed, exterminated by the Christians for thousands of years.
Huh? Er... What? Why? What's the point with that?
We'll get to it... It gets even better.
THE HELL
So... the Jews were the first people to oppose the Christians and accuse them of stealing, which the Christians didn't like, of course, so they made the Jews "bad guys" in their story.
And the hell was invented as the answer to what happens to people who won't join the new cult. I mean, it's all right to be true to your own Gods, the Gods of your ancestors, the Gods of your people, the Gods who have been good to us and who have taken care of us, and stand for all the torture by these nasty Christians, but the fun begins WHEN YOU DIE AND CAN DO NOTHING ABOUT IT,
BECAUSE THIS NEW GOD DOESN'T CARE ONE BIT ABOUT WHAT'S IN YOUR HEART,
HE DOESN'T CARE ONE BIT ABOUT THE TRUTHNESS OF YOUR LOVE AND LOYALTY TO YOUR GOD,
DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE GOODNESS IN YOU, OR ETHICAL AND MORAL VALUES, OR THE GOOD DEEDS YOU HAVE DONE DURING YOUR LIFE,
THIS NEW GOD DOESN'T CARE ABOUT HOW MUCH LOVE, JOY, PEACE, FORBEARANCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL YOU PRESENT IN YOUR LIFE,
ALL THIS GOD CARES ABOUT IS WHAT YOU CONFESS.
And the fact that you do not confess the "right" God, makes you a liar and a fake, and all those "good things", how ever good they might seem, are in reality fake lies and you will be punished the worst possible way for the rest of the eternity.
For being so stupid.
For believing what your parents told you rather than that stranger who killed your parents.
You deserve to burn.
Huh?
Ok, I choose to burn for ever with all the people I love and you and the rest of your good people can have your god and heaven for yourself. I don't want to have anything to do with you or your psychopath God.
3) "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations"
Ok, so telling everyone about this wonderful thing that has happened to you, that's great. Sharing with everyone this great story you heard, great! Spreading the good news to everyone whether they want to hear or not, fine by me.
BUT... forcing yourself onto their land and homes to "tell them the good news", not OK.
Forcing people to listen to you, not OK.
Forcing them to choose between life and converting to your religion, not cool.
Burning people who believe differently, or who have a different interpretation of the story, not OK.
Destroying other people's property as idolatry, devil worship or other such reason, mainly being "not being part of the same religion as mine" - that is, burning non-Christian religious books, sacred artefacts and temples, not OK.
Christening children against their parents wishes or knowledge, not OK
Abducting children from their non-Christian parents so that they can be raised Christian, not OK
Lying to people, threatening them with hell and telling them their gods are demons and idols, not OK.
Refusing people non-religious services or privileges due to their religion, not OK
Pushing people some sort of extra burden or punishment due to their religion, not OK.
Demanding, expecting, even asking people to follow the rules of your God, not OK. Frankly, even judging people as "bad people" because they might or might not follow the rules of your God as you understand them is not OK.
I think proselytism is disgusting.
Proselytism is not "freedom of expression". Do you understand why?
Telling everyone about this wonderful thing that has happened to you is expressing yourself. I can honestly and fully congratulate you of your good fortune and happiness and wish you the best with the rest of your life. But it's like with any wonderful thing that has happened to you.
Your parents bought you this beautiful car for your 18th birthday! I am so happy for you!
You fell in love and he/she loves you too, and you are going to get married! Oh, how wonderful! I hope you will be as happy as I am in my marriage, and may it last long and may you prosper!
Your cat got kittens and they are all well! Wonderful!
You found Jesus! Great! Good for you!
Get it?
Sharing with everyone this great story you heard, great! I love stories! There can never be too many stories! God loves a good story! Yes, I do want to hear it!
On the same level as I want to see a movie, read a book, hear a fairy tale, watch an episode of a tv series. If you think that level of interest is not enough, it's your problem. Don't try to make it mine.
And, yes, I have read the Bible. Which is more than can be said of 99% of Christians. I know the story.
Yeah, you think it's the greatest story in the world. I disagree with you. It's not very well written, the authors couldn't agree on a version, so there's too many versions, and it's rather boring, and not very original either. I've heard better. Better versions of this one as well.
I know you think it's more than a story, but I knew a woman once, who didn't want to speak to me, because I pointed out that the prophecy in Harry Potter said "either". Because to her Harry Potter had become a prophecy of her life, and if Harry was to die, so was she. I think she would have killed herself if Harry had died. And that level of crazy is a bit too much for me, thank you. So when you tell me this book of yours is God's Word and literally true and more than a story and you'll see a certain look in my eyes. It's ok you're crazy, but don't involve me in that, please, and we'll be all right. I can ignore your craziness and won't be judging you because of it, heck, I believe stones are living creatures and have seen Fae, so I suppose we are all a little crazy in our own ways, but I'm not expecting you to believe in what I believe, and that is what I expect of you. Let's keep the beliefs out of our everyday interaction and everything will be fine, OK.
Spreading the good news to everyone, of course! I remember when I found out about Wicca. It was late 90s, and the only information I had about that world was that I had a book written by a Danish witch; I had heard an interview of a witch in Swedish radio; I had heard of a book written by Erica Jong and I had heard about this movie "The Craft". Now I learned that Wicca was actually a real, acknowledged religion with all it entails, and there were people around who believed about the same as I did. It was amazing! I was overjoyed! I wanted to tell everyone about this, I wanted everyone to know! I was about 30, so I knew not everyone was interested, so I just sang my newfound information online on my homepage, so that those who wanted to hear could listen and those who weren't interested, could move on. They didn't need to be bothered by unwanted information and I didn't need to be bothered by them.
Or... so I thought... then I found out that there are people out there - Christians, they say they are - who go around bothering Wiccans and other neo-Pagans. Just the fact that we exist and speak about this religion they don't like makes it OK in their eyes to come screaming obscenities in our space. There are many young people who have been scared to shut up, threatened, told horrible things, I mean... what kind of a person tells a teenager talking about bunnies and flowers and unicorns, she's evil and she should be raped and get killed in horrible way and get her cat tortured to death, all this decorated with swearing, obscenities, bible quotes and fire and brimstone. It is such a peculiar feeling to read these messages, totally on par with death threats to feminists and political trolling but dressed as preaching...
REMEMBER, THIS IS THE ONLY KIND OF CHRISTIAN MOST OF THESE PEOPLE WILL EVER ENCOUNTER.
Except the silent judgmental kind who obviously condones these obscene preachers.
How would they know there are normal, sane, decent Christians around? It's like saying "some cult members are nice people. You can't really judge all by some evil ones."
Yeah... I know. But isn't that what you do?
Not all men are rapists, huh?
I have some black friends, I'm not racist!
Not all Pagans are evil, but most Pagans are evil, or at least they'd want to be, if they dared, just like the men who don't rape are an exception.
I haven't done anything bad as far as you know, but... you don't know, do you. And what you don't know, might have happened. So I might be sacrificing animals in my kitchen. Of course I would deny doing that, because that happens to be illegal.
I might be kidnapping Christian babies to eat on Pesach. You don't know, but you think I could.
Isn't that pretty... er... not nice to... uh, no. It is not "pretty not nice". It is disgusting to think someone you don't even know is doing horrible things when you don't know what they are doing. It's so disgusting it is illegal to accuse an innocent person of a serious crime.
Which is my number 4.
4) A lot of Christians seem to think their own rules don't apply to them
They have no problems in going around and telling all these stories about non-Christians, (especially those they share their lives with; Jews, Muslims and Pagans), vilifying people, accusing people of horrible things, either things that are horribly only by their book or things that are seriously horrible, like torturing animals and killing people.
DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND HOW WRONG AND BAD THAT IS?!
I was being groped by an old man when I was 13, and he was Christian. For some reason he thought it was OK for him to start groping a child just because she had breasts.
I have been threatened, called names, received all kinds of verbal abuse on the internet, and 80% of it has come from self-proclaimed Christians. For some reason they think it's OK for them to be nasty, just because so many other people are. Though Jesus didn't say "respond in kind to people when they are verbally abusive, and if someone offends you, call him fucking bitch, and if you disagree on the internet, tell them to go hell". If I remember correctly he said something quite different.
My Jewish husband has been thrown things at by Christians, a Christian tried to drive over him when he was walking our dog, a Christian man threatened to send his cousins to rape and kill us because he thought my husband had spat after him. The verbal harassment is so common that he doesn't even react to it any more. For some reason all these people think they are being good Christians, for they love Jesus so much and go to church often and wear a cross.
Of all the people I have ever met, it's only Christians who have done something to try to persuade me change my spiritual beliefs. There are posters plastered all over, people share out leaflets, start talking on the train and on buss stop. People have even called at my door just to talk about Jesus. Strangers have told me I'll go to hell because I'm a witch. I tell them I let God decide that, and for some reason they are not very happy about that :-D As if they suspect God doesn't agree with them...I really think it would be better if they focused more on their own life right now than my possible future. I really think they shouldn't be thinking about my possible future at all, because it really is none of their concern. :-D
I mean, there really is only one thing in the whole Bible every Christian need to read, understand and follow.
Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, and then if they read Galatians 5:14-23 for any clarification if such is needed, to understand what is the fruit they need to keep an eye on, so that they can recognize the fruit labeled as "Christian".
