Tolerance... or a rant... :P

So, last night, I'm putzing around on Youtube watching a bunch of videos by a woman named CharmingPixieFlora. She's a Wiccan? Witch? Ok.. I can't remember how she classifies herself, but she has this amazing, bright, loving energy about her. All her videos are about Paganism and has great tips, how to's and general information. Some non-Pagans can relate to some of her videos. There's one about having an open dialog with the Goddess and just talking to any divine power you believe in.

 Anyway.... Under the related videos, I see some shit from Brother "What's His Name"... He's so important that I forgot his name. :P He starts off his video telling her that she's wrong, and needs to stop what she's doing. And then he goes on about how she needs to repent and "if only you would open your mind and accept Jesus Christ into your life" and "follow the one true God" ... blah...blah... blah... WHAT??? Who needs to open their mind? With so many people in this world, how can you say that there's only one way to divinity? I was raised Roman Catholic and am now seeking a nature based spirituality. When I realized that there were all these other religions, I just came to the logical conclusion that, regardless what the name of someone's gods/goddesses are, we're all ultimately worshiping the same supreme power. (Keep in mind, I came to this conclusion while attending Catholic school) We just have a different means to the same end. May I remind you... an end that no one can prove what it actually is.

I got about 2 minutes in and had enough. Apparently, he went on to reading some scriptures... and I'm sure more blah...blah...blah.... Obviously, she's not going to care about this but...

It got me thinking about tolerance and respect. You might not agree with my opinions, or my beliefs. That's fine. That doesn't mean that I'm not a good person. As a society, we need to respect people's beliefs and start deciding if a person is good or bad based on their character and how they treat other people. Shit! I've known a Satanist in my past, and she was a very nice person. From what I knew of her, she was far from the "evil" that most people might think when they hear that.  Just because you go to church, go to temple, or create a sacred circle in your living room, it doesn't mean that your automatically good. We just need to respect our differences and move on with our lives. Brother McNegative Energy and alot of other people need to stop judging people because of how they choose to live their lives. It's not your place to tell someone that their spirituality is wrong and they're going to hell for it. How the fuck do you know? No one really knows for certain. That's why it's called "Faith" and not "Fact."

I'm a firm believer that you can't really convert someone. You can give them info, and tell them what you believe, but that doesn't convert people. They can choose to join you if that's what they believe as well. Ultimately people will find the right spiritual path for them because they're looking for it and want that connection with the divine. They'll find it on their own without your help. No one way is the right way. And if you're a sciencey, overly logical, person that believes that there's no way there's a God, have at it.

I'm not even going to get started on the fact that maybe we should care less about what other people are doing and start concentrating on ourselves. OR... the fact that this Brother "Save the Pagans" doesn't understand how we can live without a sacred text. Or... the arrogance of this man to think that what he says will change another person's spiritual beliefs. That's a whole lot of different rants. :P

*Please note that this guy was very respectful, but it was very obvious that he knew nothing about what Pagans believe. I think that being a man of God that he would have just been happy that she believed in something greater than herself. I despise proselytizing for the reasons about finding spirituality stated above. I wonder if I can put a "No Proselytizing"
sign on my front door? :P

*This is the first website I found when I was researching Paganism. It's an awesome site with information about almost any religion you can think of. http://www.religioustolerance.org/



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