This is the 3rd rebuttal to Pastor Sam's series of blog posts regarding witchcraft, paganism, and now, the occult. Part of the title of this particular post is "Conversations With My Daughters", and the reason for that will become clear later on in this post. First, let me post the link to Pastor Sam's most recent blog entry.
A Christian View of Witchcraft and Paganism, AKA The Occult
The very first thing I want to say is that this post is, again, fear mongering. Pastor Sam is doing his best to try to make people afraid of anybody else who is different from themselves or believes differently from them. Whether that is his intention or not, that is exactly what he is doing. And this is the most dangerous thing anybody can do. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is fear that causes the worst violence, the most killing, genocides, bullying, discrimination, and the list goes on and on.
In the mornings, I drive my very wise daughter to school. I have two wonderful daughters, but lately I have enjoyed the morning drive with the younger of the two and the conversations we have. I will often ask her opinion on different topics, whether they be politics, religion, or current events. What I have found is that there is much to be learned from our young people before their views get distorted by the world. They tend to see things very clearly. If you don't have these conversations with your own children, I would encourage you to. Ask them what they think and then listen without judging. Because as soon as you judge, they aren't going to want to tell you anymore.
I have been having conversations about the dialogue Pastor Sam and I have been having through our blog posts with both my daughters. This morning I explained how Pastor Sam shared a story about an occultist who was a very evil murderer and cannibal. I said that I intended, as I formulated my own blog post, to tell a story of a Christian who was a very evil murderer who did horrible things. My daughter said, "That shouldn't be hard". We went on to discuss how Pastor Sam was telling the story of ONE PERSON, not a GROUP OF PEOPLE. One very bad person who more than likely suffered from some form of mental illness or psychosis. The fact that this one particular person happened to be an occultist is a minor detail.
Let's leave the conversations with my daughters for a bit and explore the word "occultist", which Sam uses in this particular post. Do you know the definition of "occult"? The definition is "knowledge of that which is hidden". The definition is NOT working with demons, worshipping satan or the devil, or dabbling in magick and ouija boards. Those are NOT the definition of "occult". I feel the need to make this clear. In this sense of the word, I can say that I am an "occultist" because I study and research the more hidden aspects of various religions and spiritualities. Let me make it clear that I am not worshipping any demons, sacrificing ANYTHING living, or doing ANY harm unto others. I find religion fascinating and love researching the history behind modern religions. In particular, I enjoy Jewish, Christian and Muslim mysticism. I enjoy reading and studying different religious texts. I like trying to figure out why certain aspects of religions became "hidden" in the first place.
Whenever religion is concerned, it always seems like someone who is a member of that religion will call out someone else who is a member of that same religion for doing that religion the "wrong" way. It's easy to go after people who believe differently than you. It's easier to look at other people than it is to look at yourself. It's easy to say other people are sinning and going to hell. It's easy to say that only what you believe and practice is right. These things are easy. It's harder to find the beauty and joy in our differences. But it's a better way to live. Pastor Jones doesn't just speak out against witchcraft, Paganism and the occult, but I have seen, time and time again, how he speaks out against other Christians. How he speaks out against social justice. How he speaks out against anyone who is different from his congregation.
Back to my daughters. At the time my older daughter was born, I was teaching in a Catholic school and also attending Mass at the church. I was a member of the church. I wanted to have my daughter baptized, but instead of having her baptized in the Church, I had a Christian minister who had studied Christian mysticism perform her baptism. It was a beautiful ceremony. By the time my second daughter was born, I was a bit more involved in the Catholic church and had her baptized there by the Priest. Also a beautiful ceremony. Both girls went through religious ed and both girls celebrated their First Communions. I even got to celebrate my first reconciliation with my older daughter when she did hers. It's kind of cool that we have that bond and went through it together. Eventually both girls wanted to go to Protestant "religious ed" type youth groups. Not being one to tell them what their spiritual paths were, I absolutely allowed and encouraged it. Their school friends were Protestant, so they got to spend some time with them. In the case of my younger daughter, several of her friends went to the same group at a church which, while being non-denominational, was most closely aligned with the Baptist Church.
The real eye opening conversations came from my younger daughter. Today's youth are intelligent and smart and have been taught critical thinking skills. They no longer just take anybody's word for anything. They need proof. They need reasons. And I admire that. In their youth group meetings, they would ask the tough questions. The "why" questions. Not just my daughter, but other girls who attended this group. What they found time and time again was that the youth group leaders, who were amazing people, really didn't have the answers. It would come down to "I don't know, it just says so in the scripture". And these young people were not having any of it. They can see injustice. They can see bullying. They can see right from wrong. They can see discrimination. They can empathize. "Because it says so", was not a good enough answer for them. So, eventually my daughter and others left that group.
I asked my daughter if I could quote her this morning and she said that I could, but I want to be very careful about how I word it. She was making a generalization and is aware of that and so am I and we want to make it clear that we don't really feel there is one group of "bad" or "mean" people in the world. But, what she said was, "It's the white Christians who are the mean people". Which, I repeat, is not to say that she or we believe all white Christians are mean. NOT AT ALL. But, still, think about that and what her experiences are telling her. I should tell you we are white, by the way.
Aleister Crowley is a well know name in certain spiritual circles. He was well known for his work with a group of spirits known as "The Goetia". However, it might surprise you to know that he never really believed they were spirits. He actually believed they were part of our own brains, our own subconsciousness that was usually "hidden" (remember discussing what was hidden before?) and needed more than just our day to day thinking to tap into. So, his system is not a system for working with spirits, but rather of accessing that part of our brain we don't usually use. This doesn't really have anything to do with what my main point is, but considering the conversation, I thought readers might find it interesting.
I said earlier in this post that I could easily find a Christian who had committed horrible acts. Dennis Rader, the notorious BTK killer, is one such man. He was a family man. A Christian, who, in fact, held high offices and was highly respected within his church. Did he dabble in the occult? No. In fact, he is still a Christian. He considers himself to be a victim rather than the 10 people he brutally tortured and murdered. It is much easier for him to blame his acts on a demon than it is to accept responsibility for what he did. And yet he was never involved with anything that could be considered paranormal or occult. Think about that. And of course, I don't believe Christianity is going to lead you to commit horrible acts. That's not how any of this works. And I could have recounted hundreds of other stories of horrible things done by Christians. And to be fair and honest, I could have recounted hundreds of other stories of horrible things done by someone of any group any religion. The truth is there are a lot of bad people who do a lot of bad things. Saying it's all one particular group based on the actions of one is wrong.
I feel I must repeat that I do not speak for anyone other than myself. I do not represent any group. However, since Pastor Sam titles his blog post "A Christian View.....", I believe he feels he is speaking for all Christians. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I feel that blaming misfortunes on certain subgroups of a community or on religious groups other than your own IS WRONG (not to mention primitive and irresponsible). I feel that contacting city council members to say that a religion other than your own does not belong in our community IS WRONG. I feel that trying to put a stop to one particular religious group having an event which harms nobody else IS WRONG. This is why I am continuing this dialogue. This is why I am continuing to write rebuttals. I feel strongly about this. Don't be afraid of that which you do not understand. "Seek first to understand, then to be understood", Stephen Covey.
I will leave you with a link to an interesting read. Someone tagged me in it this morning and I feel it is relevant. Take from it what you will, have a peaceful day, and do no harm. Mr. Ouija and Mrs. Gail
Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Rebuttal - Part Deux
Greetings again!! Hopefully by now you have read my first rebuttal to the first blog post by Pastor Sam Jones on "Why We Should Be Against Witchcraft". Some people would advise that I just let this issue "be", but I enjoy writing, debating and good dialogue and honestly, while I vehemently disagree with many of his beliefs and how he tends to incite fear regarding certain sub groups of our community, he is someone who has always been respectful towards me personally and whom I feel I can have intelligent discussions with. So, here is Pastor Sam's second post.
Why We Should Be Against Witchcraft Part 2
In this blog post, Pastor Jones recounts a few stories. Interesting stories. He also posts a passage from the Bible about the "Witch of Endor", who calls up the spirit of Samuel for Saul, who disguises himself and then deceives the witch into doing this for him. So, to sum it up in my own words, Saul says "Hey don't do witchcraft, you'll be put to death", then he wants some answers from Samuel so he goes to the Witch of Endor in disguise and says "Call up the spirit of Samuel....I've got some questions for him", but she says "No way, you know what Saul says", but Saul, in disguise, says "Fuggedaboudit, I promise you in the name of the Lord that you'll be okay", so she does it, then realizes he's Saul and has deceived her and has immediate regrets. Hmm. I think that story speaks for itself. Draw your own conclusions. Who's the bad guy here?
Moving on, Pastor Sam tells a few stories about his Great Grandmother, who was a witch, and his Grandmother, who was a witch. Honestly, neither woman sounds like the type of person I would probably hang out with. Neither woman sounds like ANY of the witches or Pagans I know. Clearly, neither one was Wiccan or followed the Wiccan Rede, which states thou shalt do no harm. In my opinion, they had several issues. First of all, conducting seances. I have yet to attend an actual seance. But if someone DID do a seance, all mystical paths would teach that protections should be in place first, often calling on archangels and YHWH, before engaging in such an activity. Obviously his great grandma didn't do this. Second of all, cursing. This is wishing harm on other people and you don't have to be a witch to do that. I am all about karma and justice and I will admit that sometimes I will have the intent that justice be served, but not by my will or law, but by the will and law of the Universe. I also know that Christians will pray that justice be served, so there's no difference there. Throwing around curses willy nilly like his grandma did is not being a "good' witch, though. It's careless and says more about his grandma's state of mind and soul than it does about witchcraft. It sounds like she was careless about several things.
If, indeed, as Pastor Sam says, the power his grand matrons used was admittedly from the "devil", then they are absolutely nothing like me and absolutely nothing like most witches and Pagans. Certainly not any whom I have ever met here in the Cedar Valley. I posed this question to Pastor Sam on his timeline: "What if your grandma was just a "bad" witch?". Because it sounds to me like she was. The great grandmother, too. And not just bad witches, but not very good people in general. I am glad that the grandmother got saved in the story and was able to turn her life around. I am genuinely glad! That was her path. Not everyone's path is the same. For her, she clearly needed to be saved to become a good person. Another point I will make on this topic is that I have known several "bad" Christians. Christians who have done bad things and done things to hurt others. I also know that this does not mean all Christians are bad.
I am blessed to know so many good and wonderful people in my life. I am literally surrounded by them. Here's the truth. Some are Christian (this includes Mormons, Catholics, Protestants, some who are ordained pastors, etc. etc.), some are Pagan, some are witches, some are Muslim, some are Jewish, some are Hindi, some are Buddhist, some are atheists, some are Gnostic, some are chaotes, and the list goes on and on. And I will also tell you this. As long as they are not harming others or infringing on the rights of others with their beliefs, I support, accept and respect all of these paths. I simply do not understand and cannot comprehend the thought that we can't all live together in peace. I do not understand how Pastor Sam and his congregation feel that certain people of certain faiths don't belong in our community. As long as we live in peace and harmony, and do no harm, we all belong here. We ALL belong here.
In my opinion, a blog post such as this one is nothing more than fear mongering, which is far more dangerous than witchcraft could ever be. "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself". What inspired the Inquisition? What inspired the Salem Witch Trials? What inspired the Crusades? What has caused more war and suffering than anything else on Earth? Fear. Fear of those different from you. Fear of those who believe differently. Fear of that which you do not understand. Pastor Sam says he understands witchcraft because he comes from a "long line of witches", but honestly, he's only mentioned two thus far.
If you take away anything from Sam's blog, I do want you to pay very close attention to his last statement. If you are protected, by God, Jesus, Archangels, your own soul, or whatever other protections you may have, there is no witch or sorceror or spell caster or voodoo practitioner or anything similar of any kind that can harm you. THIS IS TRUE. You are honestly in control of your own life. So many people forget this. Take responsibility for what happens to you. Take responsibility for the things that you bring upon yourself. Change the things you can. Accept that sometimes things out of our control happen, but know that it is your reaction to the event that really counts. Stay strong in the face of adversity and celebrate your life. The worst evil in the world is the evil that lies in the hearts of mankind. And that is everywhere. No spirit can harm you, but other humans certainly can. In my small circle, the people with the happiest, most well adjusted, peaceful and prosperous lives whom I know are atheists. Hmm. Why is this? Could it be that they are not living a life full of fear and paranoia? They don't acknowledge the "other side" so to them, it simply doesn't exist. Of course they are not touched by the supernatural. It does not exist for them.
How are you choosing to look at the Cedar Valley? You can choose to look at all the bad things and misfortunes and then blame it on the people who are different from you, who according to your holy book are engaging in activities that displease God, or you can choose to look at all the wonderful things that are happening. The people who help each other. The small acts of kindness. The generosity of strangers, the sun shining in the middle of a rainy week. There is so much goodness in our community and so much diversity. To me, this is beautiful and I rejoice in the good things that happen. We here in the Cedar Valley make wonderful works of art, we lift each other up, we celebrate our differences as well as the way we are alike, we help those not as fortunate as ourselves, we teach our children, we dance, make music, play sports, live together, grieve together, laugh together and LOVE. Those are the parts of the Cedar Valley I choose to focus on and see. What do you choose?
Why We Should Be Against Witchcraft Part 2
In this blog post, Pastor Jones recounts a few stories. Interesting stories. He also posts a passage from the Bible about the "Witch of Endor", who calls up the spirit of Samuel for Saul, who disguises himself and then deceives the witch into doing this for him. So, to sum it up in my own words, Saul says "Hey don't do witchcraft, you'll be put to death", then he wants some answers from Samuel so he goes to the Witch of Endor in disguise and says "Call up the spirit of Samuel....I've got some questions for him", but she says "No way, you know what Saul says", but Saul, in disguise, says "Fuggedaboudit, I promise you in the name of the Lord that you'll be okay", so she does it, then realizes he's Saul and has deceived her and has immediate regrets. Hmm. I think that story speaks for itself. Draw your own conclusions. Who's the bad guy here?
Moving on, Pastor Sam tells a few stories about his Great Grandmother, who was a witch, and his Grandmother, who was a witch. Honestly, neither woman sounds like the type of person I would probably hang out with. Neither woman sounds like ANY of the witches or Pagans I know. Clearly, neither one was Wiccan or followed the Wiccan Rede, which states thou shalt do no harm. In my opinion, they had several issues. First of all, conducting seances. I have yet to attend an actual seance. But if someone DID do a seance, all mystical paths would teach that protections should be in place first, often calling on archangels and YHWH, before engaging in such an activity. Obviously his great grandma didn't do this. Second of all, cursing. This is wishing harm on other people and you don't have to be a witch to do that. I am all about karma and justice and I will admit that sometimes I will have the intent that justice be served, but not by my will or law, but by the will and law of the Universe. I also know that Christians will pray that justice be served, so there's no difference there. Throwing around curses willy nilly like his grandma did is not being a "good' witch, though. It's careless and says more about his grandma's state of mind and soul than it does about witchcraft. It sounds like she was careless about several things.
If, indeed, as Pastor Sam says, the power his grand matrons used was admittedly from the "devil", then they are absolutely nothing like me and absolutely nothing like most witches and Pagans. Certainly not any whom I have ever met here in the Cedar Valley. I posed this question to Pastor Sam on his timeline: "What if your grandma was just a "bad" witch?". Because it sounds to me like she was. The great grandmother, too. And not just bad witches, but not very good people in general. I am glad that the grandmother got saved in the story and was able to turn her life around. I am genuinely glad! That was her path. Not everyone's path is the same. For her, she clearly needed to be saved to become a good person. Another point I will make on this topic is that I have known several "bad" Christians. Christians who have done bad things and done things to hurt others. I also know that this does not mean all Christians are bad.
I am blessed to know so many good and wonderful people in my life. I am literally surrounded by them. Here's the truth. Some are Christian (this includes Mormons, Catholics, Protestants, some who are ordained pastors, etc. etc.), some are Pagan, some are witches, some are Muslim, some are Jewish, some are Hindi, some are Buddhist, some are atheists, some are Gnostic, some are chaotes, and the list goes on and on. And I will also tell you this. As long as they are not harming others or infringing on the rights of others with their beliefs, I support, accept and respect all of these paths. I simply do not understand and cannot comprehend the thought that we can't all live together in peace. I do not understand how Pastor Sam and his congregation feel that certain people of certain faiths don't belong in our community. As long as we live in peace and harmony, and do no harm, we all belong here. We ALL belong here.
In my opinion, a blog post such as this one is nothing more than fear mongering, which is far more dangerous than witchcraft could ever be. "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself". What inspired the Inquisition? What inspired the Salem Witch Trials? What inspired the Crusades? What has caused more war and suffering than anything else on Earth? Fear. Fear of those different from you. Fear of those who believe differently. Fear of that which you do not understand. Pastor Sam says he understands witchcraft because he comes from a "long line of witches", but honestly, he's only mentioned two thus far.
If you take away anything from Sam's blog, I do want you to pay very close attention to his last statement. If you are protected, by God, Jesus, Archangels, your own soul, or whatever other protections you may have, there is no witch or sorceror or spell caster or voodoo practitioner or anything similar of any kind that can harm you. THIS IS TRUE. You are honestly in control of your own life. So many people forget this. Take responsibility for what happens to you. Take responsibility for the things that you bring upon yourself. Change the things you can. Accept that sometimes things out of our control happen, but know that it is your reaction to the event that really counts. Stay strong in the face of adversity and celebrate your life. The worst evil in the world is the evil that lies in the hearts of mankind. And that is everywhere. No spirit can harm you, but other humans certainly can. In my small circle, the people with the happiest, most well adjusted, peaceful and prosperous lives whom I know are atheists. Hmm. Why is this? Could it be that they are not living a life full of fear and paranoia? They don't acknowledge the "other side" so to them, it simply doesn't exist. Of course they are not touched by the supernatural. It does not exist for them.
How are you choosing to look at the Cedar Valley? You can choose to look at all the bad things and misfortunes and then blame it on the people who are different from you, who according to your holy book are engaging in activities that displease God, or you can choose to look at all the wonderful things that are happening. The people who help each other. The small acts of kindness. The generosity of strangers, the sun shining in the middle of a rainy week. There is so much goodness in our community and so much diversity. To me, this is beautiful and I rejoice in the good things that happen. We here in the Cedar Valley make wonderful works of art, we lift each other up, we celebrate our differences as well as the way we are alike, we help those not as fortunate as ourselves, we teach our children, we dance, make music, play sports, live together, grieve together, laugh together and LOVE. Those are the parts of the Cedar Valley I choose to focus on and see. What do you choose?
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
Rebuttal
What's this?? A blog post??? What could have possibly occurred to cause me to resurrect this long resting blog? Another blog post. By someone else. Which I am finding difficult to stay silent about. So, yes, this is a rebuttal of sorts. But first, here is the blog post I am rebutting.
Shining Light Ministries Witchcraft Does Not Please God
First off, I'm not going to go into what the Bible says or does not say. I'm not going to mention how the word that has been translated to mean "sorceror" has been found by scholars to actually have meant "poisoner". I won't mention that the earliest spells that these said "sorcerors" used often involved ingredients such as eels blood, which in fact, is a poison. I won't mention that the practice of "magick" as found in the Bible is confused with the practice of "poisoning", which is much less witchcraft than it is drug dealing. There is no supernatural "magick" involved with slipping a few drops of eels blood into an alcoholic's glass of wine in order to cure alcoholism. This, in fact, is an actual spell in one of the very ancient books of Cyprian.
All of that is beside the point. The points in this blog post that are the most disturbing to me are that this pastor believes our community should be exclusively Christian. He has a complete disregard for the constitutional right to "freedom of religion". Not to mention that "witchcraft" as a practice isn't even a religion. Wicca is a religion and there are Pagan religions, but "witchcraft" is a practice which has the ability to enhance one's religion, no matter what that religion might be. You don't even have to subscribe to a religion to practice witchcraft. One of the comments on the pastor's timeline under this blog post was a "gif" that said "Burn the Witch, Burn Her". This, in my opinion, is nothing more than an actual invitation to violence. It is not funny. "Though Shalt Not Kill", remember that? Pastor Sam Jones even goes on to suggest that he and his congregation need to contact city council members to make sure they know that those of any Pagan religion or those who might call themselves "witch" are not welcome in the Cedar Valley. He also said that those businesses who support such activity need to be boycotted. All of this from a "Christian" pastor. All of of this from a so called "patriot". Nothing could be more "UN-American than denying others their freedom of religion.
I have many Christian friends. They are good people. They are wonderful people who I love and adore. You know who you are. As long as your religion does not interfere with the rights of others, I honor and respect your religion and your right to practice it, whatever it may be. However, if your religion discriminates against other religions or interferes with the rights of others, up to and including their right to the pursuit of happiness, then I will openly have an issue with your religion. There is no war on Christianity. In fact, if your religion is being persecuted unfairly, I will be there to defend you. I am all about freedom of religion, and not only that, but freedom FROM religion. Religion is not mandatory. Being a Christian is not mandatory. Contacting city council to suggest that "pagans" don't belong in our community is WRONG. It is persecution. It is evil and it is not the work of God.
Pastor Jones, you are right about one thing. The Pagan community (which is a very large umbrella title as there as many different types of pagans as there are types of Christians) is growing. Quite rapidly. So, what businesses will you boycott? How will you know which support witchcraft and pagans and which don't? We are everywhere. We are family members, we are doctors, we are lawyers, we are teachers, we are chefs, musicians, artists, pastors, city council members, politicians, librarians, and the list goes on and on. Webster's definition of "pagan" is anyone subscribing to any religion other than the mainstream religions. So, if one is not Christian, Muslim or Jewish, but still has a religion, then one is pagan.
And speaking of pagan, are you absolutely sure that you are not one? Do you celebrate birthdays? Do you light birthday candles and make a wish? Do you put up a Christmas tree? Do you color Easter eggs? Ever wished on a star? You might want to check yourself to make sure you're not pagan before you start saying that pagans don't belong in our community. That we don't want our community to be known as a "safe haven for pagans". Are you really that hateful? And hypocritical?
As for your posting the tweet by Cedar Valley Pagan Pride, they are quite thrilled with the attention and free advertising, so on their behalf, thank you. Hopefully your outcry has drawn attention to it and even more people, pagan or not, will be in attendance.
Do you know what happens when groups try to force Christianity on others? Nothing good. Remember the Inquisition? The Crusades? The SALEM WITCH TRIALS??? There is no way God celebrated any of that, especially that it was being done in His name. So, my advice to you would be to stop trying to drag us back into the dark ages when women had to join the convent to be safe from men, and start living in peace alongside those who are different from you. We are here and we aren't going anywhere.
Shining Light Ministries Witchcraft Does Not Please God
First off, I'm not going to go into what the Bible says or does not say. I'm not going to mention how the word that has been translated to mean "sorceror" has been found by scholars to actually have meant "poisoner". I won't mention that the earliest spells that these said "sorcerors" used often involved ingredients such as eels blood, which in fact, is a poison. I won't mention that the practice of "magick" as found in the Bible is confused with the practice of "poisoning", which is much less witchcraft than it is drug dealing. There is no supernatural "magick" involved with slipping a few drops of eels blood into an alcoholic's glass of wine in order to cure alcoholism. This, in fact, is an actual spell in one of the very ancient books of Cyprian.
All of that is beside the point. The points in this blog post that are the most disturbing to me are that this pastor believes our community should be exclusively Christian. He has a complete disregard for the constitutional right to "freedom of religion". Not to mention that "witchcraft" as a practice isn't even a religion. Wicca is a religion and there are Pagan religions, but "witchcraft" is a practice which has the ability to enhance one's religion, no matter what that religion might be. You don't even have to subscribe to a religion to practice witchcraft. One of the comments on the pastor's timeline under this blog post was a "gif" that said "Burn the Witch, Burn Her". This, in my opinion, is nothing more than an actual invitation to violence. It is not funny. "Though Shalt Not Kill", remember that? Pastor Sam Jones even goes on to suggest that he and his congregation need to contact city council members to make sure they know that those of any Pagan religion or those who might call themselves "witch" are not welcome in the Cedar Valley. He also said that those businesses who support such activity need to be boycotted. All of this from a "Christian" pastor. All of of this from a so called "patriot". Nothing could be more "UN-American than denying others their freedom of religion.
I have many Christian friends. They are good people. They are wonderful people who I love and adore. You know who you are. As long as your religion does not interfere with the rights of others, I honor and respect your religion and your right to practice it, whatever it may be. However, if your religion discriminates against other religions or interferes with the rights of others, up to and including their right to the pursuit of happiness, then I will openly have an issue with your religion. There is no war on Christianity. In fact, if your religion is being persecuted unfairly, I will be there to defend you. I am all about freedom of religion, and not only that, but freedom FROM religion. Religion is not mandatory. Being a Christian is not mandatory. Contacting city council to suggest that "pagans" don't belong in our community is WRONG. It is persecution. It is evil and it is not the work of God.
Pastor Jones, you are right about one thing. The Pagan community (which is a very large umbrella title as there as many different types of pagans as there are types of Christians) is growing. Quite rapidly. So, what businesses will you boycott? How will you know which support witchcraft and pagans and which don't? We are everywhere. We are family members, we are doctors, we are lawyers, we are teachers, we are chefs, musicians, artists, pastors, city council members, politicians, librarians, and the list goes on and on. Webster's definition of "pagan" is anyone subscribing to any religion other than the mainstream religions. So, if one is not Christian, Muslim or Jewish, but still has a religion, then one is pagan.
And speaking of pagan, are you absolutely sure that you are not one? Do you celebrate birthdays? Do you light birthday candles and make a wish? Do you put up a Christmas tree? Do you color Easter eggs? Ever wished on a star? You might want to check yourself to make sure you're not pagan before you start saying that pagans don't belong in our community. That we don't want our community to be known as a "safe haven for pagans". Are you really that hateful? And hypocritical?
As for your posting the tweet by Cedar Valley Pagan Pride, they are quite thrilled with the attention and free advertising, so on their behalf, thank you. Hopefully your outcry has drawn attention to it and even more people, pagan or not, will be in attendance.
Do you know what happens when groups try to force Christianity on others? Nothing good. Remember the Inquisition? The Crusades? The SALEM WITCH TRIALS??? There is no way God celebrated any of that, especially that it was being done in His name. So, my advice to you would be to stop trying to drag us back into the dark ages when women had to join the convent to be safe from men, and start living in peace alongside those who are different from you. We are here and we aren't going anywhere.
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