Well, guilty laugh time. I've been reading the website of the Christian Broadcasting Network, and their views on various topics, much of which villifies Paganism in its myriad forms. What it boils down to seems to be a few key points- Paganism is of the Devil, (a Christian, not Pagan, invention), Paganism, augury, Tarot, scrying, all that good stuff, opens some manner of door (meaning unclear) that lets loose a Pandora's box of nasty spirits that seem to have nothing better to do than give you the heebie-jeebies and throw your stuff around, and the only way out is to go to church, and/or (again, meaning unclear) accept Jesus.
Well, we're all entitled to our own opinions, and I feel bound to respect those of other people. Agree with them, not so much. But respect them, absolutely. However, I can't help but laugh at the occasional misinformation that pops up. I stumbled across a section on Halloween, my absolute favorite time of year. The website informs me that it was based on a Pagan holiday, which is true. Much like the rest of the Christian calendar- Easter/Ostara, Christmas/Yule, and so on. But in all fairness, the Pagans were here first, albeit not the Paganism we know today. At any rate, this being the case, it would be un-Christian to support or celebrate a Pagan holiday. Well damn, I think I'd rather be a Pagan then! Seems like they have all the fun holidays!
But apart from that, of course scrying (they manage a pretty accurate description), augury and fortune telling are all big no-nos, as these apparently bored-out-of-their-etheric-mind spirits will come and mess with you. Why would they do that? Sure, it would make some degree of sense for them to 'feed' off of you, if that was their design. But I'd figure the Devil, after 2000 years, would have a little better strategy than spooking a few teenage girls here and there. Maybe the Devil watches too many '80's horror movies, I don't know. Well, that's ok, so do I.
At any rate, most Christian websites I've encountered reccomend burning these books, cards, scrying materials or whatever else smacks of Paganism. No doubt some of these people are sincere in their beliefs, though I can't help but regard them as misguided. Personally, I'd rather face the burning stake myself than put fire to a book, regardless of its contents. It seems that here is the classic 'experimentation without education' paradigm. Sure, it's possible to open your mind, but know what the blue hell you're doing! Would you jump behind the wheel of a semi without knowing how to drive it? Disaster is more than likely to result. So if you go delving into the world around you, it helps to at least look at the map first.
As to the Church (I use the capital here because of the Church in its broadest, most all-encompassing sense) being the only path to salvation, safety and/or redemption, well, perhaps it's time for the Church to begin to look to science. It seems that the deeper we delve, the line between spirituality (perhaps not religion) and science becomes more and more blurred. What was once taken on faith can be partially proven- what can be disproven by science points to perhaps the fact that a religion needs to be open to new knowledge. Without this, the shift from spirituality to mind control happens frighteningly fast.
Well, at least they had some good recipes on there too.
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