Religious Tolerance according to Wikipedia is "…the condition of accepting or permitting others' religious beliefs and practices which disagree with one's own." This is a weird subject for me to be talking about I know. But, it is one of the latest lessons I have been trying to learn. I know everyone is asking themselves how it is possible that I do not have religious tolerance. Well I do have religious tolerance just not as much as I thought I did.
First off let's start by explaining exactly what I mean by religious tolerance. Every since the day I came out of the "broom closet" and made it known to those around me that I was not a Christian but a Pagan I have had some issues with religion. Of course, my family does not understand my choices but they do their best to ignore it and hope this phase passes. But since this phase is going on 26 years I don't think it is going to pass.
Of course most of society assumes that America is a Christian country and that Americans are Christians. According to Religioustolerance.org (yes there is a website) the population of Christians in America is as of 2001 76.5% which is a decline from 1990 when the amount was 86.2%. That is a far cry for all Americans being Christians. In fact it notes that the fastest growing religion in America is Paganism and Wicca. Now I am not trying to get all the Christians to start a witch hunt on me, I am just pointing out that not every American is the same.
As far as us Non-Christians having religious tolerance, we don't necessarily have a choice. Christianity is forced down our throats at every turn, the Pledge of Allegiance was changed in 1954 by adding the line "One Nation under God" which is okay, if you clarify what god we are under. But, since it was done during the McCarthy area we all know it is under the Christian god and not any other religious god. As a kid I never said the pledge and not because of this line but because I was against giving my allegiance to anyone or any country until they proved to me they were worthy. As of today, their worth has still to be proven. As a child in school we said a prayer every morning before class started, I didn't care because it did not matter to me it was just another thing we did in the morning.
As I grew up and started identifying with my own religious beliefs, I started to see how one sided people could be. Chances were when they found out I was Pagan I would get the speech about going to hell, and worshipping Satan. I just found them funny, because in order to worship someone or something you have to believe in them first and in order to be relegated to hell you have to believe that is where you are going. Since Pagans do not believe in either of those it was just a silly comment to me. Now these same people come to me when they need a "spell" for something, such as, healing, a job, money, vengeance, etc. When they need something and are not getting by their normal means I am their new best friend. I simply tell them that my religious beliefs are not available for their amusement and if their god did not see fit to give them what they were asking for I doubt my would do so. This causes them to get pissed off at me and just assume everything I believe in is fake because I can't snap my wand and give them a million bucks. Oh well, one less person on the Yule card list.
Okay, now that I have ranted and knocked the soap box over with my tirade what am I getting to? The last several months have been filled with me reading every book on mediums and life after death experiences. Why? Because I am weird, but a lot of these books that I end up reading are coming from someone within the Christian community. They are devote Christians or Catholics and they know that their "gift" is not in line with what their religion teaches. But, they still do it and they make their "gift" fit into their belief system. I am almost certain that if you told the pope that you could communicate with dead people he would tell you it was evil as would most ministers and pastors out there. It is something that religions can not explain and the ministers and leaders do not have access to this ability so therefore it is wrong.
The latest book I just finished reading was called "Beyond These Four Walls" by Mary Rose Occhino she is a devote Catholic and she even tells you what she does goes against the Catholic Church but she does it anyways. I am now starting "Talking to Heaven" by James Van Praagh who is a very well renowned in the ghost hunting arena and his book starts of talking about meeting god and by the description he gives I can only assume it is Christianity based and he talks about being raised Catholic but he left the church due to their limited beliefs.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I get a book like this is "Oh great, another one about Christianity" and many times I will stop reading them. But the last few weeks my guides have pushed these books on me. For some unknown reason I keep picking them up and not putting them down. I start to read and see that is coming from a religious point of view and still I read on. I was baffled, what was going on here?
According to Z it was time for me to learn the lesson of Religious Tolerance and by that they mean that I am to learn how to not only accept Christians for their beliefs but to also listen to them and learn from them what I need to learn. They told me that the information is the same as if a Buddhist gave it to me. I take what I want and let the rest go. But, I have issues doing that with Christians. Apparently Christians are the only ones I have issues with, probably because they are so outspoken about how wrong I am in their eyes and they are the only ones that try to convert me to their way of thinking. So I am starting another book about a Christian who is a medium, who goes against the basic beliefs of the Christian church to do his own thing. I am hoping this lesson will be fast and painless, because with elections coming up I know I will get more visits at my house from those who want me to vote for someone based on their beliefs about God and I know my response will be to hold Tau up and tell them that we are voting for Satan our leader. Just to see the look of horror on their faces.
Ahh…Good times.
First off let's start by explaining exactly what I mean by religious tolerance. Every since the day I came out of the "broom closet" and made it known to those around me that I was not a Christian but a Pagan I have had some issues with religion. Of course, my family does not understand my choices but they do their best to ignore it and hope this phase passes. But since this phase is going on 26 years I don't think it is going to pass.
Of course most of society assumes that America is a Christian country and that Americans are Christians. According to Religioustolerance.org (yes there is a website) the population of Christians in America is as of 2001 76.5% which is a decline from 1990 when the amount was 86.2%. That is a far cry for all Americans being Christians. In fact it notes that the fastest growing religion in America is Paganism and Wicca. Now I am not trying to get all the Christians to start a witch hunt on me, I am just pointing out that not every American is the same.
As far as us Non-Christians having religious tolerance, we don't necessarily have a choice. Christianity is forced down our throats at every turn, the Pledge of Allegiance was changed in 1954 by adding the line "One Nation under God" which is okay, if you clarify what god we are under. But, since it was done during the McCarthy area we all know it is under the Christian god and not any other religious god. As a kid I never said the pledge and not because of this line but because I was against giving my allegiance to anyone or any country until they proved to me they were worthy. As of today, their worth has still to be proven. As a child in school we said a prayer every morning before class started, I didn't care because it did not matter to me it was just another thing we did in the morning.
As I grew up and started identifying with my own religious beliefs, I started to see how one sided people could be. Chances were when they found out I was Pagan I would get the speech about going to hell, and worshipping Satan. I just found them funny, because in order to worship someone or something you have to believe in them first and in order to be relegated to hell you have to believe that is where you are going. Since Pagans do not believe in either of those it was just a silly comment to me. Now these same people come to me when they need a "spell" for something, such as, healing, a job, money, vengeance, etc. When they need something and are not getting by their normal means I am their new best friend. I simply tell them that my religious beliefs are not available for their amusement and if their god did not see fit to give them what they were asking for I doubt my would do so. This causes them to get pissed off at me and just assume everything I believe in is fake because I can't snap my wand and give them a million bucks. Oh well, one less person on the Yule card list.
Okay, now that I have ranted and knocked the soap box over with my tirade what am I getting to? The last several months have been filled with me reading every book on mediums and life after death experiences. Why? Because I am weird, but a lot of these books that I end up reading are coming from someone within the Christian community. They are devote Christians or Catholics and they know that their "gift" is not in line with what their religion teaches. But, they still do it and they make their "gift" fit into their belief system. I am almost certain that if you told the pope that you could communicate with dead people he would tell you it was evil as would most ministers and pastors out there. It is something that religions can not explain and the ministers and leaders do not have access to this ability so therefore it is wrong.
The latest book I just finished reading was called "Beyond These Four Walls" by Mary Rose Occhino she is a devote Catholic and she even tells you what she does goes against the Catholic Church but she does it anyways. I am now starting "Talking to Heaven" by James Van Praagh who is a very well renowned in the ghost hunting arena and his book starts of talking about meeting god and by the description he gives I can only assume it is Christianity based and he talks about being raised Catholic but he left the church due to their limited beliefs.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I get a book like this is "Oh great, another one about Christianity" and many times I will stop reading them. But the last few weeks my guides have pushed these books on me. For some unknown reason I keep picking them up and not putting them down. I start to read and see that is coming from a religious point of view and still I read on. I was baffled, what was going on here?
According to Z it was time for me to learn the lesson of Religious Tolerance and by that they mean that I am to learn how to not only accept Christians for their beliefs but to also listen to them and learn from them what I need to learn. They told me that the information is the same as if a Buddhist gave it to me. I take what I want and let the rest go. But, I have issues doing that with Christians. Apparently Christians are the only ones I have issues with, probably because they are so outspoken about how wrong I am in their eyes and they are the only ones that try to convert me to their way of thinking. So I am starting another book about a Christian who is a medium, who goes against the basic beliefs of the Christian church to do his own thing. I am hoping this lesson will be fast and painless, because with elections coming up I know I will get more visits at my house from those who want me to vote for someone based on their beliefs about God and I know my response will be to hold Tau up and tell them that we are voting for Satan our leader. Just to see the look of horror on their faces.
Ahh…Good times.