The Meaning of the Christian Pagan (well, of THIS Christian Pagan)

January 13, 2012 at 11:41 AM (Spiritual Traveling)
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I know I’ve posted on this topic before, but I’ve had more time to figure out just what this title means to me. And it means a lot.

Mostly, my revelations have come because of the interfaith conference and having to explain myself. No one thinks that those two titles can be combined seeing as Christians have waged war on paganism for pretty much all of time. But this makes me bring up a very important point:

I am not every other Christian!! I am my own person. I hate being forced to read the Bible in a certain way, and I don’t always agree (strike that…I almost NEVER agree) with what people on the pulpit say. I’m not a fan of people blindly following without educating themselves in ANY department, but it’s most frustrating in religion. I know far too many people that go to church and just rely on what the preacher says. I bet you could convince most of them that “Jesus then said ‘fuck you stupid bitch!!’ and went on his merry way.” Ok, that’s an exaggeration. But they are extremely blind.

I see the afterlife aspect as just one part of our existence, not the whole reason we’re living. Nothing says we can’t be happy to be alive! We just aren’t supposed to weigh ourselves down with love and adoration of the physical things because they are not eternal. Cool. I can deal with that. But I’m not going to live my whole life waiting to die!

This is where my paganism comes into play. We are also part of the earth and the world around us. We need to respect and love our natural planet. Thank the world for not ending, you know? Be happy in our world, and love the nature that we came from…All of that pagan stuff. 🙂

I don’t see the earth as a deity. I see it as an ever changing, living thing (don’t argue that rocks aren’t alive or have never been alive; they are made up of cells, the building blocks of all living things). I see the great spirit, God, as the deity. (Many religion quizzes like to tell me that I’m Jewish because I don’t see the trinity as three separate entities.) I also see them as working together (God and the Earth, and, at a greater distance, the great universe out beyond Earth) to make our world, universe, and the beyond, all one reality.

I really hope that makes things a bit clearer for anyone who has questions. And please, feel free to rapid-fire me with more questions should you feel the need.

-Cami

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Animals

October 13, 2011 at 8:06 PM (Uncategorized)
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There is a great debate out there: Animals.

Just…animals.

Crim told me that a boy in her Myth, Legend, and Folklore class raised his hand one day and said ‘nothing anyone says will convince me that animals have souls.’ That gives me chills, because I’ve come up against that belief so often, and I don’t understand it. Why are humans so conceited? “Humans are the only ones that can have souls, Humans are cool enough for aliens to want to seek us out, out of the billions of planets out there, and destroy us specifically.” (Sorry about the second one, but that’s another conceited thing I hear a lot. We aren’t that special guys! We’re one in a billion! Is it sad that Star Trek is the most realistic way of describing how things would go down if we really did meet aliens? But I digress.)

Animals are extremely important in our spiritual lives, no matter what our point of view. In what I know of paganism, this is an obvious statement. Animals are of nature and should be respected, just as much as any other part. To the Christian side of me though, there is a lot of oppression to this statement.

Verses are quoted left and right to ‘prove’ this statement, but, in my eyes, these verses hold less sway than when people try to use the bible to say that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry (and that is a very weak argument in and of itself). When the verses are read to me, all I can hear is the conceitedness of the man who had the bible re-written (King James) and the other men of his time that helped him. However, I don’t hear anything that points to animals being soulless.

Also, if time has proved anything, it’s that animals are the angels of the world. They bring cheer and happiness back to the sick and desolate, they save lives, they make a house into a home, and they are our connector to nature. Even most people that live in the middle of the concrete jungles can’t deny the dogs and cats around them. The people that do tend to be ignorant and turned into themselves. I dislike them.

How can our worldly angels not have souls? How can we condemn our angels to…nothing?

No, I truly believe that they do have souls, and they are here because we need them. HOWEVER, I am not so selfish to think that they are only here because we need them. We are here because they need us.

We are all here together, sharing this world.

-Cami

(Picture – Bandit, exploring, taken by me. RIP my little sweet-heart. I love you.)

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Prompt – Christian Paganism

October 3, 2011 at 7:27 PM (Uncategorized)
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Prompt: Christian Paganism? Is it possible? Personally, I know of at least one person that claims to be a Christian Pagan. While I don’t really understand it, I find the thought of combining two religions into one rather intriguing. Especially when one of those religions practically hates the other…. Do you have any experience with Christian Pagan(ism)s? Or perhaps you yourself fall into this category? Please, enlighten us with your thoughts on this seemingly oxymoron combination.

Pagan Blog Prompts – Pagan Christian

Most Christians will vehemently disagree, but I don’t think most religions are all that different. There are things that everyone will nitpick at (Oh, they don’t think Jesus was Christ, Oh they don’t value the virgin Mary, OH they…). We get it. You want to be different.

But I don’t think any religion is really all that different (except Scientology and Satanism…those are…well, my opinions of them aren’t high at all). My personal belief is that all of the religions we have today stem from one, common, ancient religion. There are far too many similarities for me to see them as all being their own distinct entities.

That is my personal belief, though I still call myself Christian, and, through my love of Pagan rituals and such, Pagan. Yes, Crim, I said it here. I see both sides of myself here, and I can’t deny either. The Christian half longs for a different name, though, but I also feel I shouldn’t be ashamed of the name it already has.

It is the stereotype that has been attached to Christianity that makes me ashamed to use that word. A Christian must believe this, must hate that…But it’s not true. A good Christian is open and loving to everyone, no matter what their religion. It’s in the bible! The Bible itself doesn’t tell us to hate, that’s a stigma attached by man. And that strange need so many people feel to shove their beliefs down throats…But Christianity isn’t the only religion guilty of doing that, it’s just the most common criminal. That’s because there are many branches that say they have to do that. I can point to the screamers on the street corner of my college for that example.

These stereotypes are what make this sort of thing so hard to believe. Christians must see Paganism as a Satanic religion because they do weird ritual shit, and Christians must be ass holes about themselves…it’s just…completely incorrect. Not every member of any given religion is the same.

This combination comes from people that have open minds and open hearts, instead of iron-locked ones.

From all that dwell below the skies,
Let songs of hope and faith arise.
Let beauty, truth and good be sung,
From every land, by every tongue.

~Cami

(Quote from Crim, making fun of me – “Oh I’m Christian, but I’m Pagan, but I’m Christian and I like Paganism, but they hate each other, but they have to be able to get along but they hate each other but I’m Christian and I’m Pagan and I like Paganism..”)

 

I delve more into this in my other blog, Getting By. (“I want to be open minded…“)

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Project Pagan Enough

September 30, 2011 at 12:05 PM (Uncategorized)
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I’m sure I’m not the only one who keeps coming across websites that say you have to do certain things to be pagan or that there’s no such thing as your type of paganism. That’s why I love Project Pagan Enough, and wanted to share it first and foremost.

Here’s a little snippit of information about the project:

“It is a movement, a cause, a Harmonious Riot that includes bloggers, podcasters, authors, shop owners, radio personalities, pagans, non-pagans, me, you, and (hopefully) the whole pagan community. It is my hope that the Project Pagan Enough logo continues to be a beacon of peace, progress, and change for our community. By using the Project Pagan Enough logo, you’re making a set of promises:

  1. You are Pagan Enough, because you try fervently to explore what it means to be pagan and apply it to your life, despite your physical appearance, personal tastes, level of experience, or other factor that others might use to say you are not pagan.
  2. You recognize others are Pagan Enough despite how they may look, act, or believe, as long as that person feels they are fervently seeking the divine on a pagan path.
  3. You attempt to debate those that have opposing viewpoints, learning from one another despite how passionate the debate becomes, instead of simply writing others off for not being up to your standard of ‘pagan’.
  4. You welcome, befriend, and encourage others in the pagan community despite their physical appearance, level of experience, age, or other physical or superficial characteristic.
  5. You promise to treat members of other religions and spiritual paths with equality, fairness, and grace, setting a good example for the Pagan community both in and out of the community, not judging the individuals based on fringe members of their same faith.

Like the points of the pentacle, these 5 tenets of Project Pagan Enough work together and will, I hope, launch our community into a new era of tolerance, love, and peace. Our community cannot become cohesive if we are constantly judging one another or pulling apart.”

This is something I would like everyone to try to keep in mind while exploring these pages. Tolerance is the key (the back of my laptop even says so).

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