Pagans.net Blogs

In response to your anger and self doubt

My impassioned response to this idiot: http://www.americancivilization.net/articles/2006/Marriage_ABCs.htm

In defense of your views that the fragile institution of marriage needs constitutional protection from monogamous homosexuals who share your views on the value of familial commitments, you bring up the point that adultery, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality are punishable offenses in the KJ Bible. While it is true that those acts were punished, it is also true that many many other acts punished in the Bible go unpunished today. Onanism isn’t against the law and is rampant. Where is your outrage? Premarital sex between a man and a woman was punished frequently and harshly, more frequently than homosexuality is even mentioned, in fact. Is there a Defense of Chastity act in the works? Divorce, the commonly accepted true threat to the sanctity of marriage, was illegal in the Bible, yet curiously absent from any proposed constitutional amendments.

On the other side of your duplicitous coin, in the Bible we have acts that go unpunished — or were minimally addressed with relative wrist slappings such as rape and the maiming or murder of a servant — that today are deserving targets of moral outrage: revenge killings, murder in the name of God, violent sexual agression, pedophilia, slavery, prostitution, polygamy, and treachery against ones own government. Shall we repeal laws for things the Bible didn’t see fit to punish us for? Why conservatives have jumped on the homosexual threat to the “sanctity of marriage” as the target of their righteous indignation when there are so many other, more offensive biblical evils eludes me.

In your article, you ask for solid arguments from liberals challenging your views, yet you offer no evidence that your views are correct. It’s hard to challenge an unsupported view. That’s why most Christians argue their faith rather than their beliefs. By definition, faith defies reason and is therefore above challenge. Furthermore, many Christians will make biblical arguments for their views, but when challenged on the accuracy, veracity, or consistency of the Bible, they have little to offer except their faith that it is the word of God.

Your apparent argument is that homosexual unions will harm the sanctity of marriage. Where is your proof? Do you have statistics that show a decline in loyalty between married men and women who live in a state where homosexual marriage is legally recognized? I truly doubt it.

Now, there is nothing wrong with faith, but any serious discourse on a controversial subject should be had without the hindrance of one or both sides challenging the others’ faith. But absent such arguments, your point of view falls on its knees.

Therefore, I would like to propose that perhaps the problem you have with homosexuality is deeper and more complex than simply your faith in the teachings of the Bible and your belief that legislation should be built upon it. Could it be that you yourself are finding it hard to resist your homosexual tendencies and assume that all of us share your need for government controls in order to overcome the temptations you are having such a problem with?

Your unfounded fears that homosexual unions are a threat to the institution of marriage could likely be a misinterpretation of a more sensible fear: that the security you find in identifying with the mainstream and being a part of the majority will be shaken if you are free to explore a part of yourself that you don’t fully understand, especially something as stunted and vulnerable as your repressed sexuality.

So I’ll now attempt to ease your mind regarding just a couple of the many worries our society has thrust upon your fragile belief structure. First, let me assure you that men and women will always be in the majority of married couples. No matter how free homosexual couples are to express their love, devotion, and affection for one another, men will always be interested in women and vice versa.

Second, same sex marriage will always be frowned upon by certain churches and other open membership religious organizations and the term Holy Matrimony will always have its stalwarts who will allow it to be applied only to the unions of which they approve. People love their dogma and self-righteous disgust with others’ freedoms and will always find a way to hold their self-opinion high at the expense of others.

Finally, Mr. Bowden, with that understanding, face your fear. Explore your sexuality with impunity. Of course, be safe. Wear a condom if you find yourself in a passionately charged embrace with a man called “Bear”. But I recommend you take it slowly. Don’t hit the leather bars on your first night. Stick to social gatherings with people you know. Attend a gay book club. Smile at pretty boys. Wink, even.

Witches, Fine… But Does Sarah Palin Believe in Religious Tolerance?

Evan Derkacz: “So the important take-away here is not that Sarah Palin worships with loony exorcists, but that this ambitious woman has accepted the spiritual direction and leadership of a religious group that is conducting what you could call a ’soft inquisition’–if you’re not with us, you’d better get with us or we’ll run you out of town. It’s paranoid. It’s cruel. It’s based on an apocalyptic mythology that seems to lead its adherents to wish the worst for their neighbors.

And in some strange backward reverso-rhetorical deconstructionist logic, when we read ‘witch-hunter’ over and over in connection with Sarah Palin we begin to think of her as the hunted witch. And, while we don’t generally approve of the persecution of odd women, we begin to become attached to this association: Palin-Witch. But we must resist. It is a distraction.”

(Via HuffPo.)

Afterlife? Pagans believe in the here and now

Afterlife? Pagans believe in the here and now: “Wicca, the most widely known form of Paganism, encompasses many traditions. But there are also Hellenes, Romans, Kemetics, Norse and Germanic Heathens (often referred to as ‘satr’), Druids, and others; all of us follow, in one form or another, the customs and traditions of our ancestors.

There are not many of us by the standards of the ‘great’ religions, but I like to think that we have some small voice in ideas about what happens to us after death.

Christians focus on the afterlife, while Pagans have had their eyes set on the here and now. For a Christian, this life is only preparation for another. It is unsurprising, then, that they should focus on questions relating to the afterlife, but Christians often forget that this kind of discourse is meaningless to non-Christians.”

(Via Journal Gazette.)

Pagan Pride Day addresses religious tolerance

Pagan Pride Day addresses religious tolerance - Columbia Missourian: “Elm Street in front of Peace Park will be filled with tarot card readers, educational groups and vendors selling homemade gifts on Sunday as part of the sixth annual Pagan Pride Day. The event will be held from noon to 7 p.m. in Peace Park.

‘The purpose of Pagan Pride Day is to sponsor and promote tolerance in the world for all religions, to educate the public about paganism and to raise food and donations for charity,’ said Victoria Chance, Columbia coordinator for the national Pagan Pride Project.

Joyce and River Higginbotham, authors of ‘Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions and Pagan Spirituality,’ will speak during the day.”

(Via Columbia Missourian.)

Celebration unites East Tennessee pagans : Religion : Knoxville News Sentinel

Celebration unites East Tennessee pagans : Religion : Knoxville News Sentinel: “A Pagan Pride Festival raised $750 to benefit the victims of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist shooting and sent an SUV full of food, blessed in a harvest ritual, to Second Harvest Food Bank on Saturday at Westside Unitarian Universalist Church in Farragut.

The event was sponsored by the East Tennessee Wyrdoes, a group organized on Internet meeting sites and associated with the international Pagan Pride organization, which works to give Pagans a chance to celebrate rituals together, help the community and correct public misconceptions.

‘It’s sort of an evolving subculture, fraught with misunderstanding,’ said Archer Luxley, who led a workshop and had copies of his book, ‘A Field Guide to the Gods,’ for sale. He explained that there is no formal head or organization to Paganism. It’s an umbrella that encompasses countless religions or paths from Wicca to American Indians’ beliefs to Shamanism. Almost all of them hold a love of nature in common. Satanism is completely unrelated, Luxley noted.”

(Via KnoxNews.com.)