Halla wrote:
> As I wander around t'internets I've noted a tendency amongst online
> pagans to have come from another religion. Since I tend to see other
> Western white pagans around the other religions tend to be flavours of
> church or Christianity. Now, dissecting the many and varied reactions
> to the mother religion of a person is a study on its own, as is
> wondering whether this conversion to Paganism is entirely a Western
> white phenomenon but that's not what I'm mulling over just now.
Its an observation I've also made, and a conclusion I've also wondered.
Someone one said that neo-Wiccan Paganism was just Christianity with a
Politically Correct filter. Not true, but I can sort of see the point
they were alluding to. The very things modern day disaffected Christians
are searching for are up front and obvious in neo-Pagan Wicca, asi f it
was *designed* to pick up disaffected modern Chrstians looking for a
satisfying spiritual existance. There's an equal place for women,
there's relative rather than absolute morality, and there's the idea one
can be self empowered in the miracle department rather than begging a
God that seems rather two-faced at best. And then there's the stodgy
traditions of the church and its patriachal nature rather than the
community based, merit based idea of the Coven.
I could argue, like Phillip Johnson in
_Jesus_and_the_Gods_of_the_New_Age_ that all the things disaffected
Christians turn to Paganism to satisfy can be present in Christianity if
one tries, but thats no thte practical answer: churches and 'traditions'
don't change easily within Christendom, and heck, its honestly easier to
turn to Paganism whilst dealing with the baggage left by tradtional
Christianity than trying to work through it all whilst still going to
the same congregation and being 'different'.
This perhaps is why I am churchless - I found alot of answers within
neo-Wiccan Paganism that I could not find (easily) within Christendom (I
later found they *were* there, but hidden. In Paganism, they are out
there and easy to find), but I didn't want to necessarily throw out the
stuff I did find satisfying about Christianity to become 100% Pagan either.
And Christo-Paganism is not an easy path to take either, neither 'side'
accepts the other part, and can get quite agressive about it.
Quakerism is the closest I've gotten so far, but the closest meeting is
an hour's drive away, and on every 3rd Saturday of the month. By the
time I realise its the 3rd Saturday of the month, I'm already doing
something else.
> It may seem obvious to most that people have converted from one
> religion to another, but there has to be more than one person who is
> approaching it as a first religion?
Its going to be hard to find someone whose first exposure to any form of
religion comes as a rational adult.
Every person, whether raised in a religious family or not, is steeped in
the dominant religion or religions of their culture. Our culture(s) for
example are still dominated by Christianity, as is our literature and
our language, our jokes, our music, etc etc. It is inescapable.
> Would it be more difficult to
> learn to be pagan if one comes from a background of no religious
> learning or teaching at all - is it easier and more obvious to do
> ritual if one has already been involved in different rituals as a
> child, for instance?
Again, we all partcipate in rituals, whether religious or not.
But perhaps those coming from another religion in which they we
'regulars' will have an understanding of spiritual matters and at least
some language to express their thoughts. I think it would be very hard
for a total agnostic who had absolutely no interest and hterefore no
opinion on religion - any religion - to suddenly come to a religion as
unstructured as Paganism and be able to express their thoughts verbally.
At least with the highly orgnaised, structured, 'traditional' relgions,
there is plenty of places for instruction and imitation to learn. In
Paganism, one is sort of expected to be able to figure it all out by
yourself. Those of us who at least have some sort of religious language
before coming Paganism at least have some sort of scaffolding to hold it
together, even if we're 'restructuring' the top parts :-)
Yowie
