Kaylan of Corinna, ME Mr. Brown has it right. Christianity was always persecuted by the pagan cultures around it, even since the very beginning. One only needs to read the Bible to see that and see what the Apostles had to deal with.

And he is right that the League only mentions the pagan issue because it is something of concern to practicing Christians. They do not wish their children or neighbors in general influenced by the pagan teachings that are rapidly apparent in this secular society. In fact, the pagan sects are so diverse that some are strewn with occultism and others just based on "New Age" philosophy that has no basis in God.

Those of Faith will pray for those locked in paganism and occult-related practices. May God have mercy on our poor state!report abuse

Christopher Blackwell of Deming, NM Randy Brown makes a false assumption when he assumes that anyone not Christian is somehow any-Christian. That is simply not true and bizarre. When I was a Buddhist, we would never have assumed that those not Buddhist were anti-Buddhist.

As for what Pagans did 2000 years ago, what does that have to do with modern day Pagans? I am no more responsible for Pagans 2,000 year ago, than I can be responsible for some of my Americans Ancestors who happened to own slaves. They did what they did and I do what I do based on what I believe to be right of wrong today. Here in new Mexico I was one of the first 50 members of the first local chapter of the NAACP in my town.

As a Wiccan, I take full responsibility for everything that I say or do. I believe my goal should be to try to harm none, which also includes myself. I believe everything that i do will come back to me, be it good or bad.

Am I anti-Christian? Not at all. In fact hen a high priest I know decided to go back to Catholicism, I congratulated him saying that it this was his true path, that he would be a stronger Catholic than those that were just Catholic out of habit and family tradition because he would have made an informed choice to go back.

Unlike Mr. Brown, I do not divide the world into us and them. Good and bad people can be found in all groups including Christians and Pagans. There are special people I will care about greatly and I will not stop looking for them in any group, this includes Christians. If that path is right for them then so be it. In my business most of my customers are Christians and that is not a problem for me. My being Wiccan is not a problem for them. But thankfully most Christians are not like Mr. Brown.report abuse

John of Camden, ME One would think that by the 21st Century people would have advanced far enough to not be so ignorant about spirituality. Guess not.report abuse

Ruddeger Frutz of Beverly Hills, CA I am disappointed in Mr. Brown for perpetrating an offense similar to what he accused Mrs. Dionne of.

Mr. Brown accused Paganism of being “diametrically opposed to Christianity”, while citing a several thousand year old example of pagan persecution of Christianity. Was that meant to bolster his comment about modern day pagans, of which there are many denominations? For shame. If I were a petty man, and I like to think I’m not, I could mention the Crusades, or the Witch Burnings of Salem, and lob equally silly accusations at modern Christians. But as I said, I place myself above such nonsense. The terrible actions of our past peoples should have no bearing on whom and what we are today.

If I were to suggest that Christians “pervert” the ideals of “love, truth, morality and justice,” would you consider me loving or hateful toward you? Food for thought.

As a pagan who has dedicated his life, personally and professionally, to aiding and helping people, you comments were more offensive than you can imagine. They truly hurt. But you know what, Mr. Brown? I forgive you, because clearly you have never taken the time to become acquainted with a pagan long enough to share in a rational, objective dialogue.

As it happens, my best friend is a Christian Priest, and we’ve known each other since high school. We’ve shared many rational, objective dialogues and it is in people like him I base my perceptions on Christianity.

Be blessed.report abuse

Rev Jeff Kincaid of Lynchburg, VA I find it disingenuous that the writer is railing on Pagans and says that pagans persecuted early Christians. Hmm, what about the last 2000 years of Christian persecution and assimilation of many Pagan indigenous cultures? Randy is playing the reverse hate-card. Come one Randy, come up with something new and different.

Pagan religions are not (as Randy stated) diametrically opposed to Christianity. The majority of Pagans (of many flavors) simply want to be left alone to worship Deity in their own
way. A goal espoused by many Christians.

Randy makes the same mistake that many others have made by assuming his way is right and other ways are wrong. "If you're not with me, you're against me" The are many cultures and billions of people in this world. There is more than enough space for every religion to enjoy its own style of worship without infringing on other paths, or without being infringed upon.

Perhaps if Randy had taken the time to learn about Pagan religions (and not from the Church's point of view), he could have posted a rational, objective letter in this forum instead of a diatribe against a religious path of which he seems to have no real knowledge.report abuse

Graham Fielding 'Christianity is about love, truth, morality and justice.'

So are we, Mr. Brown. In fact, most pagan faiths follow a concept similar to the Sixth Commandment. Where you say 'Thou Shalt Not Kill', we say 'An it harm none, do what thou wilt'.

You say that you wish to 'expose us' for 'what we are'?

Fine. Let's 'expose'.

'Who are we', Mr. Brown? We are doctors, teachers, and lawyers. We are scientists, musicians, singers and dancers.

We are, in short, the very people that the Religious Right don't want us to be.

They don't want us to be everyday, normal people: there's nothing evil about a gardener, or a bus-driver. There's nothing sinister about a musician, or a painter, or a dancer.

Evil and sinister, you see, is what the Religious Right want. They don't want us to be 'normal', because 'normal' is impossible to hate. They want us to stand out, so they can shout about our 'evil ways' -- and the bigger the news story, the better the opportunity.

We have our children taken away from us, because someone tells the judge that we 'sacrifice babies' (we don't).

We lose our jobs, because someone tells the boss that we 'curse people' (we don't).

We come home to find our pets beheaded and left with a hateful note for us to find, our windows broken, 'die witch' and 'burn in hell' spraypainted on our door, and sometimes, we're even assaulted, physically *and* sexually. When we call the police, they ignore us and lie to their superiors about us.

We suffer under the lies and falsehoods that your supposedly 'enlightened' colleagues spread about us, and about what we believe, and we suffer _silently_, because we know that none of our protests will do one *single* bit of good.

You have the gall to imply that we are 'persecuting' you?

Mr. Brown, you have no *idea* what true persecution is....

...and I pray to every god and goddess that I know of that you will never have to find out.report abuse

Orcadancer of Ft. Meade, MD Thank you Randy Brown for making me laugh today. There was not much factual in your article so I am guessing you wrote it as humor? Unfortunately, I feel you were writing a serious article. Therefore there are a few things I would like to address. Especially what you said about Christianity being "about love, truth, morality and justice". This has not been the case from any of the self proclaimed Christians I have met. They have all been the most hateful, lying, immoral and unjust people I have known. Maybe they haven't been reading the same Bible I have, where Jesus says to love and forgive. As for Pagans being hateful, if we are going to judge todays Pagans for another's crimes (2000 years ago), maybe we should mention the Inquisition, or the Crusades? Those of course were very loving, don't you agree? How about the forced conversions of the Americas, should we ask the Native Americans how they feel? If you want to judge by past actions, you have to consider the past actions of ALL parties. Otherwise you need to just consider the current climate, which is not at all what you describe.
Bright Blessings,
Orcadancer
CC to Randy Brown report abuse

Trish of Flanders, NJ "The reason pagans are featured on the Web site is to expose paganism for what it is. Paganism is diametrically opposed to Christianity. It was a paganistic society that persecuted the first Christians."
While it is true that during the last days of Pagan Rome under the uber hedonistic emperors Christians were persecuted. After Constantine endorsed "The Church", however, the persecution was on the other foot. The Christian Church for centuries persecuted any idea which was not specifically designed to keep the masses in lock-step with the Church whose Popes happily took over from the emperors. The idea of the persecution of people for their differences is one inherently human, not the product of a religion or philosophy. Even the no-religion of atheism when in a position of dominance as is the case in today's China, makes it a point of persecuting religious/philosophies that do not fit with it's own narrow views. Today’s Neo-pagans are far less diametrically opposed to Christianity than Christianity appears to be towards them.

"Christianity is about love, truth, morality and justice.”
While this is an often postulated bit of dogma, I daresay that the thousands of heretics, scientists and indigenous peoples put to the sword, stone and fire, and more recently altar boys and girls predated upon by pedophile priests, would not necessarily see this as undeniably true. Acts not words determine what a philosophy is about. Christianity has no less barbarity to answer for than any other man made ideology.

"...those pagans have perverted these ideals, while we promote them for the good of society and because we disagree with their point of view.”
Presuming the ideals under discussion being democracy and freedom, it was the pagan
Greeks who first took the concept of Democratic liberty from concept to fruition. The fact that no democracy has ever been able to survive more than a few hundred years is due to human avarice and not a reflection on any religion.report abuse

BlackKnight of Bronx, NY Does this guy read anything other than Chick tracts? This one sentence alone shows how lacking in credibility this guy is:

"Christianity is about love, truth, morality and justice."
The fundies' idea of "love" is that they'll use "blackmail threats" in order to gain more converts. For example, "Jebus loves you but you'll go to hell if you don't love him back."
Their idea of "truth" is obviously in the buy-bull, which is a work of plagiarism with bulls**t mixed in (honestly, who believes a book that says the Earth is flat?).
Morality? Like how Lot threw his daughter out to a band of marauders if they'd leave him alone?
And justice. Three words on how christians view "justice" when it comes to Pagans: West Memphis Three.

There was a very valid reason why the Romans went after the christians way back when: they wanted to establish a theocracy that was in diametric opposition of the "ideals" that Rome had yet hardly followed. Show me someone who claims to be persecuted by modern Pagans and I'll show you that that guy has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Also, just because you're friends with someone doesn't mean they're as nice to everyone as they are to you. I'm sure Eichmann was good friends with Hitler and claimed he was "a real stand-up guy." I'm sure Al Sharpton's friends say the same thing about him, yet anyone with a brain knows Sharpton's a blatant hatemonger. Mike Heath is the same way.report abuse