More Hypocrisy
Before I get started, yes, this is another religiously-oriented blog post, so just go away if you don’t want to get mad at me.
Here we have another example of people slamming Wicca without a fucking clue about what it is. Not only that, but some more of that Grade-A Christian Hypocrisy shines through once again… the author of this strip (the same person who authored the livejournal entry I linked to below, actually) has gladly neglected to mention the fact that the Christian god (yes, I intentionally spelled it in lower-case, I’ll explain why later) has had his own share of mood swings in the past. Like the whole swing from animal sacrifice to breaking bread and pouring wine to represent (of all things) a human sacrifice (word to the wise, Wiccans don’t do human sacrificing, nor have they ever… the Aztecs were big on that, but not the Druids… again, more later). Or maybe the whole change from “an eye for an eye” to “turn the other cheek”… The god of the Biblical Old Testament is completely contrary to the god of the New Testament in many aspects, yet like so many other people, the author of this strip has conveniently tucked that away in the “file for later processing” folder and whisked it under the carpet of “the Bible is unquestionable and/or inerrant” (I’ve seen both arguments used).
As I’ve said before, I don’t have a problem with people not agreeing with the beliefs of other religions, but for crying out loud, if you’re going to bash them publically, at least take the time to research the religion so you don’t come off sounding like a moron when you say something.
Now, I said above that I intentionally spelled “god” with a lowercase “g”. Why? Because the Christian god seems to be the only one who ever gets this priviledge in moist conversations (the notable exception being when a Wiccan steps in and says something about the Goddess). So, in an effort to not only remove any semblance of deific favoritism but to also level the playing field by removing “god” from Proper Noun status, I’ll be spelling it with a lowercase “g” from now on.
I also mentioned a few things about Wiccans, Druids, Aztecs, and sacrifice. Read around on ReligiousTolerance.org for 15 minutes in the Wicca section and you’ll quickly find that there isn’t one mention of human sacrifice in the religion, save for when it’s being debunked. Druids were people who respected nature and the balance and harmony that it embodied. They believed not only in doing unto others, but that what they did would come back to them three-fold. If you want to get into human sacrifice, I suggest looking at the Aztecs… they were heavy on human sacrifice. The Mayans and Incans did it too on occasion, from what I can recall, but they weren’t as “reliant” on it, if I may use the term, as the Aztecs were.
So if the Druids are really peaceful tree-huggers, where’s the tales of human sacrifice, wicker men, and black magic rituals come from? One word: Caesar. All of the slurs on Druidic (geez, is that the right word? My apologies if it isn’t… my brain isn’t working right) and Wiccan forms of religious belief and practice stem from Caesar’s war against the Gauls back in the days of the Roman Empire. Really, what’s the best way to rally support behind a war? We should all know, it’s been done just this year… take an enemy (doesn’t matter if they’re a threat or not) and dig up any dirt you can find on them. If the dirt doesn’t exist, make it up. Put people’s patriotism in question if they doubt you, and you’ve got a perfect pretense for war. Caesar did a bang-up job too… burning people alive, calling on unholy demons on certain nights of the year (Halloween, anyone? load of myths going around there), eating babies (well, I might’ve pulled that one out of my rear, but it did get slapped onto Christians during their early years)… the whole smash. And of course nobody already pre-disposed to attack these religions for being not-Christianity would ever stop and think about the possibility that the military and political leader of a country at war with these people might possibly have pulled all of this out of his ass… maybe they’re Republican :P.
Which brings up another point… Christians have a double-standard for conversing with others about religion. Anything a Christian says is a statement of fact or religious Truth, and therefore not open to debate or reproach, even if it completely slams another religion (like, say… Wicca). However, when a non-Christian posts something of the same nature pointed at Christianity, the poster is accused of slamming the Christian, flaming them, attacking their beliefs, and not knowing what the Hell they’re talking about. See the problem? I’ve participated in a sum total of 3 intelligent religious conversations where Christians were involved (which was always….), and almost always, it was the Christians who threw the first stone. Often-times without even showing any regard for the current discussion. Like coming into a conversation on what you’re doing on Halloween (not even a religious conversation, just trick-or-treating stuff…) and saying “I don’t celebrate Halloween, it’s Satanic.” Well, thank you. I seriously doubt any sincere Pagan would show the same disrespect for a thread which was focused on Christianity (or for a parallel example, walking into a thread on Matrix Revolutions and saying “Jesus was a weak pathetic moron” in response to someone pointing out the parallels between Jesus and Neo).
Okay, I’ve rambled enough for tonight. Shutting up and shutting down. More secular and mundane stuff to be posted “tomorrow”.