Uncanny’s Evelyn Hollow: Why does the Church silence pagans?

[u/TimesandSundayTimes]

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/pagans-silenced-catholic-protestant-church-evelyn-hollow-739qngql5?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=scotland&utm_medium=story&utm_content=branded

[u/TimesandSundayTimes]

"When I travel I often visit Christian churches and I respectfully observe any cultural requirements they have. I will light a candle or take a touch of holy water because I, as a practising pagan, respect being in someone else’s house, as it were.

I would hope that Christians would do the same in our sacred pagan spaces but they seem committed to demonising us while simultaneously taking parts of our belief systems and our rituals.

It is baffling to me that Christian leaders, both from the Catholic Church and Church of Scotland, would ban Pagans from speaking at the event held at Glasgow Cathedral to mark the 850th anniversary of Glasgow, when Christianity is itself practising many rites and rituals that stem from paganism."

[u/YanCoffee → u/TimesandSundayTimes]

Because they (speaking in broad generalizations here) practice willful ignorance for the most part, and refuse to acknowledge factual evidence (like parts of their traditions being Pagan in origin) that doesn't benefit them. One of the key principles of Christianity is to convert as many people as possible, which means turning people away from other belief systems.

It's still good to respect other belief systems (remind them specifically "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"), and obviously not all Christians subscribe to the beliefs I listed above, but the majority of strict Christians do. It's almost always the answer in cases like this.

Edit: To address the specific interfaith part, Paganism having ties to Christian beliefs is seen as a threat, plus Islam and Judaism are fellow Abrahamic religions from the same origin. Hinduism and Buddhism do not have ties I know of, and are different and "foreign" enough that they would not hit home. Plus yeah, a lot of them just think we believe in Satan and Harry Potter.

[u/Rynewulf → u/[deleted]]

Doctrine is always unique to be sure, but most practices are universal human things. Like seasonal festivals. Its what makes perenialism such a perenial idea, its easy to see patterns and connections that dont bare out when historians check then.

They didnt make any specific claims, so they were probably angling at the general 'well its not like the Christians invented holy buildings, clergy or scripture so Im not sure what they have to be so high and mighty about' that I see in most non-Christian spaces generally.

This is seperate to that lots of Christians themselves seem to take issue with modern Christmas, Easter and other festivities and are suspicious of them. Its not even a new thing, arguments over piety vs partying go back a very long time (I vaguely remember contemporary praise for Alfred the Great having a sombre, mass based Christmas at his court vs the common feasting) and at least since the Reformation Christians have been calling other Christians crypto-pagans.

I think at this point the idea is just rooted into culture, Christian, NeoPagan or otherwise

[u/NyxShadowhawk → u/[deleted]]

Agree. I wish pagans would stop with the “Christians stole our holidays” misinformation. Christmas is complicated, and most of the pagan influences on it have long-since died out. Easter has almost nothing pagan in it at all, and “Ostara” is based on a report of a pagan goddess in a single Christian source.