So - what's wrong in Pagan circles?
Well . . there are various
problems one could mention.
But criticizing the Pagan movement,
let's be clear from the start,
isn't the same as condemning it -
on the contrary, we hope it will grow
ever stronger and better.
All religions have a positive role to play
when they live up to their highest
potential.
This problem isn't
unique to Pagans.
It can be observed in almost any
alternative spiritual group
made up largely of ex-Christians -
people whose family background was
Christian,
but who have left that faith in disillusionment and disgust.
The problem is that so many of the participants
express (unofficially, of course) such scorn and contempt
for Christians and Christianity.
Their experiences and impressions
have led them to believe that
Christianity is nothing but a part of the oppressive system.
They seem to be letting a lingering bitterness
over their own unhappy life experiences
narrow and unduly shape their views.
From
the Luchnian point of view, this is short-sighted.
Christianity is many things to many people.
Isn't the biggest error to let it be defined for you
by the most powerful officials
of church institutions
and the many outrageous acts they have committed
throughout the history of the churches?
If their version of religion
is what disgusts you,
ask yourself,
why should you believe their
story?
Could
the propaganda of the powerful,
swallowed and internalized by people for centuries,
have led to a corrupted, debased notion
of what it means to be Christian
as false and destructive
as their ideas of how to order society,
how to relate to nature, and so on?
There
have always been radical groups of Christians
who have struggled for a different
way of living their faith
and in the past, often paid with their lives.
Should they be considered less authentic examples
of what being Christian means, or more?
Today
too in some countries,
Christians are being persecuted and murdered
because they are promoting social change,
change that threatens traditions of severe oppression
of those born into lower castes, the poor,
minority ethnic groups, and women -
traditions upheld for centuries by non-Christians.
The vicious and cynical
elements in the
Chinese government
also persecute underground
Christians
on a massive scale, just as they do
the Tibetan Buddhists and the Falun Gong.
So
let's not make overly hasty assumptions
about which religions can be liberating
and which are oppressive.
If one looks around the globe and back through history,
virtually every religion has been liberating at times,
especially in its earliest stages,
as well as playing an oppressive role at other times -
and this includes many kinds of paganism!
Luchnos
supports ALL people
who non-violently resist oppression
because their spirit will not let them
co-operate with a system of death.
*
Now, you are invited to follow . . . the
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