Comments on: Theological Fun With Pope Benedict

By: mrsriggins

mrsriggins — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:42:00 +0000

Thanks for posting! Copper, I couldn’t agree more. I was raised strictly Catholic but I always felt like a black sheep- feeling things that were defined as “evil” by my local priest. When I first told my family I was converting to Paganism they were horrified as if I had made a pact with the devil. This was until they saw how happy it made me. Being pagan has made me find love and peace within myself. I don’t ‘hate’ the church or anyone in it for their past doings to me. I encourage people to find their own faith- be it christian, pagan, buddhist, etc. As long as that religion leads you to be a better more peaceful and loving person than it is a good one. Pagans I have to say are the most accepting non-prejudiced group (as a whole) I have ever come across. So it saddens me that people would speak out against my chosen religion so. Christians picket pagan stores and gatherings- even books with pagan themes such as harry potter. It’s hurtful for a religion that has been told to love and not hate, to turn the other cheek. You won’t find a group of pagan picketing outside of Sunday mass or burning bibles (well maybe some have but none I know of.) I think they should all reflect on such thought before making such prejudiced comments. Especially people like the pope who have more sway with the general public.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:01:00 +0000

” the Roman State religion had become fossilized into simple ceremony which was scrupulously carried out, but by then it was merely “political religion”.”

Change that to present tense Benedict. It IS fossilized and has become a political religion.

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:30:00 +0000

Well said, Copper! Of all the paths I’ve walked in my life, it’s the pagan ones that have given me the deepest understanding of myself and my relationship to the world/divine, and the greatest cause for hope and joy.

By: Copper Asetemhat Stewart

Copper Asetemhat Stewart — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:27:00 +0000

Thanks much for this post and the stand it takes.

I am willing to believe that for many individuals, birth religions can be alienating. Those Christians who voluntary chose to leave Paganism were obviously disaffected, and it's easy to understand why women and slaves would embrace the early forms of the religion. There was indeed a moment for some classes in which Christianity had liberating potential. In general terms, however, it became the state and Roman Catholicism still preserves that strongly in the concept of the Magisterium and Vatican nationhood.

So maybe Benedict and Paul agree exactly, but maybe Paul was also talking to an audience of individuals he had met or whose religious journey he had heard narrated.

My experience of converting to Paganism (after a varied search) was one of finding a way to uncover, express and nurture the deep hope that was already buried within me. For me, Paganism sustains a hope that seems native to the human being. In the ancient world and today, (Like Hinduism, the Spirit Lodge, and Afro-Carribean religion) it offers alternative epistemologies and ways of subjectively knowing the afterlife. While this "knowledge" is subjective, it does seem that ancient testimonies about Eleusis demonstrate that beliving Pagans found many ways to be hopeful. Egyptian concepts of the afterlife are intensely hopeful, sensual, beautiful, joyful--and in the later period if not before, universally accessible.