Still don't get why non pagans consider pagans to be weird or etc

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[shawn]

Shawn,

Thank you for your response.  Somewhat helped.

Others,

What do you mean by all of your replies which I was confused by them.

Ya'll don't have to worry about me. I have nothing to do with my birth religion. My father still is an Aryan. We fight alot. I like to ask him "since he hates jews so bad, Jesus was a Jew. Does he hate him to?" He can't answer.

People consider weird what they refuse to understand. A child looks with curiosity. S/he has to be taught hate and ignorance. But sometimes grows up and sees with better eyes. I think the nice thing about being pagan, is having those curious eyes again.

[yewberry]

Well, I'm not part of that 'we', but used to be...

Come back, EverFool.  Join the "we".  It's bliiiiiiisssss...

Sorry.  Don't know what came over me.  My Dark Lord and Master made me do it.  <wink, nudge>

Brina

[Angerslegacy]

Though out history and still even, today, in some places.  When we are all perfectly normal.

Hun, I would have to say that people may consider us weird because usually, (In my eyes) I see Christianity being dominant and then Roman Catholicism. So if there is any other religion out there that is different, it is because we are not alike.

Also, I think it has to do with the spell casting thing. That really freaks some people out. It should not but it does. The whole 'divination and Tarot cards', I know that has scared some of my friends...and even family.

My two cents...

[Jenett]

Though out history and still even, today, in some places.  When we are all perfectly normal.

I've been thinking about this since you posted it.

First, I'm very much in the 'what's normal?" camp. I think we're all weird, in our own ways. Some people ignore their weirdnesses more thoroughly than others. That said - I really *am* weird by many mainstream standards (while still working very happily in a mainstream-sensitive situation, a school, and getting along fine there.)

• My gods talk to me. And sometimes through me. I have good evidence they listen, too.
• I believe that magic can change both me and the world around me (albeit by changing me, mostly.)
• I do rituals that I feel are effective, enjoyable, and all sorts of other good things - but that other people can look at and go "Wow, that looks odd."
• I think there are other things in the world than mundane success, and I run my life by different standards. (Practical stability involves money, in this world - but I'm also very concerned about intellectual and emotional well-being, ethics, balance between aspects of my life, and other priorities that aren't always mainstream)
• I read books. Lots of books. For fun. This is distressingly *not* part of mainstream America, no matter how much I think it'd be a better country if it were.
• I watch almost no TV: not because I think it's evil, but because I do other things with my time. (Ok, and I don't own one currently.) Some people treat this as a personal insult. Even a few of my high school teachers, in the past.
• I have generally unconventional ideas about what kinds of relationships can be happy and worthwhile and loving. (all of my past relationships have been polyamorous: not sure about any future ones, but I think the ends of those relationship were in the people, not the model.

That's enough of a list to be going on with.

Lots of other 'outwardly normal looking' folks I know do some or all of the above (and not just Pagans, too.) And some of them (the reading one, for example) are very commonplace in the places I actually spend time in or work in. But I'm still aware they're unusual enough for people to comment on, and for me to take some care in how I present them to people I don't know well.

[Finn]

Hun, I would have to say that people may consider us weird because usually, (In my eyes) I see Christianity being dominant and then Roman Catholicism.

Tiny quibble: Roman Catholicism is Christianity.

[phoukamare]

Tiny quibble: Roman Catholicism is Christianity.

I'm trying to figure out WHEN Catholicism became a non Christian faith. I know it's been in the last 20 years or so. Up until then most Protestant faiths recognized that they were descended from Catholicism and that the term 'Protestant' came from the fact that these faiths were protesting the Catholic version of Christianity.

Nowadays, it seems that most of the folks I come in contact with, don't even consider Catholicism Christian, let alone the FIRST organized Christian faith and that everything they believe in comes from 'The Church'.

Phouka

[Coll9]

I'm trying to figure out WHEN Catholicism became a non Christian faith. I know it's been in the last 20 years or so. Up until then most Protestant faiths recognized that they were descended from Catholicism and that the term 'Protestant' came from the fact that these faiths were protesting the Catholic version of Christianity.

Nowadays, it seems that most of the folks I come in contact with, don't even consider Catholicism Christian, let alone the FIRST organized Christian faith and that everything they believe in comes from 'The Church'.

Phouka

The argument I've heard is that because the Cathodox faiths aren't Solar Scriptura and supposedly do 'un-bilbical' things such praying to saints, venerating icons, ritualism, etc., they are considered non-Christian. It's absolutely ridiculous, really.

[phoukamare]

The argument I've heard is that because the Cathodox faiths aren't Solar Scriptura and supposedly do 'un-bilbical' things such praying to saints, venerating icons, ritualism, etc., they are considered non-Christian. It's absolutely ridiculous, really.

Yeah, I've heard that too. And you're right, it is ridiculous.
Phouka

[Jenett]

I'm trying to figure out WHEN Catholicism became a non Christian faith. I know it's been in the last 20 years or so. Up until then most Protestant faiths recognized that they were descended from Catholicism and that the term 'Protestant' came from the fact that these faiths were protesting the Catholic version of Christianity.

It actually has roots back in the 1870s and 1880s, when the US (and other places) started seeing lots of anti-Catholic propoganda. There's actually a whole genre called "convent porn" which is about the horrible things people thought happened in convents in secret, some of which turned tragic. (A whole convent school in Charleston, MA was burned down, for example.)

It's definitely had a huge resurgence, though. Part of the 1870s bit was a Protestant response to high immigration rates from Catholic countries (specifically Ireland and Italy.) Makes you wonder if some of the same thing is happening again - a bias response based on economic change or fear.

Jenett, (who did her 11th grade US history paper on anti-Catholicism in the US.)

[RandallS]

I'm trying to figure out WHEN Catholicism became a non Christian faith. I know it's been in the last 20 years or so.

About the same time the rest of Christianity in the Us starting allowing the Fundamentalist Protestant Extremists define Christianity as what they believe.

[Finn]

About the same time the rest of Christianity in the Us starting allowing the Fundamentalist Protestant Extremists define Christianity as what they believe.

*sigh* I wonder if this happened right about the same time the Republican party stopped being Republican?

[saxnot]

Tiny quibble: Roman Catholicism is Christianity.

The mother of churches, yes. I don't quite get the American protestant denial of Catholicism's status as a Christian faith... they follow Christ's teachings. I was pretty sure that's all one needed to be Christian. Certainly there are other things that have been tacked on over the last two millenia, but tbh they're not given a great deal of creedence in modern catholicism as I've experienced it. The church might not be following the absolute word of the bible, btu that's what people who support Creationism do. The church has said, sensibly, that the creation story in Genesis is not to be taken literally; fairly sensible, given certain contradictions in the texts, but still... it shows an adult approach and an ability to adapt which many protestant churches nowadays seem to lack, blinded by their textual orthodoxy.

[Rae*ShadowWolf]

Though out history and still even, today, in some places.  When we are all perfectly normal.

Let's see...

I'm 27, worship a Goddess, play D&D, believe my Mom talks to me through songs (she's been gone close to 4 years now, and every once in awhile I'll hear my Mom's favorite song whilst walking through a store or such), I believe that certain objects talk to me...

Heh, I'm even weird to myself!

IMHO, I believe the 'weird' stems from a misunderstanding, akin to fear.  We fear what we don't understand, and therefore when we can't truly understand why someone does what they do, we find them weird, or out of place.  All people are weird to others.  Just a fact of life.

[Juniper]

The mother of churches, yes. I don't quite get the American protestant denial of Catholicism's status as a Christian faith... they follow Christ's teachings. I was pretty sure that's all one needed to be Christian.

Well that's how I view it, but then again I'm not Christian- so I'll let them all fight over it between themselves. But personally I'm quite happy to lump Roman Catholocism into the Christianity category.

I really don't understand those Christians who deny Roman Catholocism as being 'Christian': it's been around a LOT longer than the other Christian religions have. For instance, Protestantism became a visable movement in Europe in the early 1500's- when there had already been a Pope for a long time. And then there are those religions like that of the Jehovah's Witnesses, which I believe was founded in the 1870's: once again, Catholocism has been around a LOT longer. However, I've heard those that say the Witnesses aren't to be considered Christian either...*shakes my head in confusion*

[shawn]

Let's see...

I'm 27, worship a Goddess, play D&D, believe my Mom talks to me through songs (she's been gone close to 4 years now, and every once in awhile I'll hear my Mom's favorite song whilst walking through a store or such), I believe that certain objects talk to me...

Heh, I'm even weird to myself!

IMHO, I believe the 'weird' stems from a misunderstanding, akin to fear.  We fear what we don't understand, and therefore when we can't truly understand why someone does what they do, we find them weird, or out of place.  All people are weird to others.  Just a fact of life.

Remember the bumper sticker: You all laugh at me because i'm different. I laugh at you because you are all the same.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha  ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

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