I really like the fact that the article from The Onion spells ‘Cerberus’ as ‘Cerebus’.
Aardvark fans rejoice!
But Buttonjockey308 didn’t say Wicca, but “a pagan religion like Wicca”
Wicca’s history may be bloodless, but pagan religion most surely is not. The “Oh, aren’t we better than the Christians” attitude inherent in that post from someone following an even sillier faith just tripped my irony meter. It’s like a Tarot card reader sneering at an astrologer for his credulity.
It ain’t about you, Hamish.
If current world geopolitics have taught us anything, it’s that people are always more interested in lining up and being good and doing what they’re told when you have two things:
- A strong authority figure to lead you in the path of righteousness.
- A big bad boogeyman who will get you if you don’t shape up.
Now, I have known many Wiccans. I have also known many of the Nameless, that religious group who Shall Not Be Named, but is absolutely certain that Harry Potter is a snare of the devil. The Nameless are fairly common in this part of the country. Went to school with quite a few.
Now, I’m not saying that Wiccans are any smarter or better or anything than the Nameless. In fact, I’ve known some Wiccans who are major flakes. But in general, Wiccans are more willing to stretch their belief systems than the Nameless are. They’re willing to listen… and to think. They are least apt to mindlessly accept doctrine spoonfed to them by an Authority Figure… as opposed to most Nameless, who are not only perfectly prepared to accept and trust Accepted Doctrine, but are often quite willing to fight to defend that doctrine, even when confronted with logical fallacies in it.
In short, Wiccans believe what they believe for totally different reasons than the Nameless believe what THEY believe. The Nameless believe it because Frank Said Jesus Said It, and Jesus Was God, and therefore God Said It, We Believe It, and That Settles It.
In short, once you get that Harry Potter thing jammed in there, getting it loose can be more trouble than it’s worth… truth or no truth.
“Tongue of toad
Newt so greeny
Turn this dude
Into zucchini!”
Little Evan
Ah. For that I :smack: myself. Makes sense now.
Deathtongue Deathtongue!
The beast rises tonight!
I know how you feel, Ca3799. A lot of people at my workplace seem to be under the impression that I’m a quiet, unassuming person. In fact, I keep my mouth shut because just about anything I say will instantly brand me as a Godless Commie and make my work life hell. One day, I will no doubt break and speak my mind.
Sheesh gobear pedantic much?
I never held blameless, paganism, it’s a got a damn bloody history, Wicca, however, does not. Not all pagans are Wiccans, but all Wiccans are pagans. Of course, the Wiccan religion is based on the vapor of an idea that some English kook had in the late 40’s, so what? Makes it no more or less silly than the religion based on the vapor of an idea that some Arab kook had 2000 years ago.
As far as being superior, once again, never actually said it, and scarcely implied it, even still, as Master Wang-Ka suggests…
I’ve found this generally true as well, in fact it’s what attracted me to the path in the first place, so while I don’t believe that one religion is superior to the other, I believe that the ideals that drive their followers, in fact, are. (warning, blanket statement ahead) I believe that tolerance is superior to intolerance. I believe that love is superior to hate. I believe that questioning is superior to mindless acceptance.
Now, the path of what I believe to be TRUE Christianity, that is to say what Jesus preached, is nearly paralell with the ideals of today’s Wicca, and more accurately, Bhuddism. The Big Giant Book© is a book written by men, not, IMO the Word of God, as is so widely advertised. I think that if there is one creator, (though I believe there are two) and there is but one God, one omnipotent being, then he/she/it already knows all the good and evil to exist, and will accept his/her/it’s creations back into heaven/valhalla/the lab after time on earth is through.
Just one Pagans’ opinion though.
When I was on the PTA for my son’s school this article was read aloud as a letter from a concerned parent. I hadn’t discovered The Onion prior to that point, but it was rather obvious satire. Which made the event all the more surreal.
Ah, jarbabyj, I knew someone would catch the reference!
Another Deathtongue song is still remarkably apt today, although it’s a different president they were speaking of
*Leper lover,
Creature of the dark.
Drip your disease,
Leave your mark.
Through the gutter
Slime and stinky…
George Bush is a Twinkie.*
20th century, but who’s counting?
And why didn’t anybody tell me The Golden Bough was a collection of anecdotes, rumors, and quick cuts taken out of cultural context giving it more in common with Ripley’s Believe It Or Not than a standard, dry anthropological field study? I’d’ve read it a lot sooner if I had known. :mad:
Baker, jarbabyj, you’re all a bunch of Boingers! 
Next thing you know, the nitwits will be accusing JK of pedophilia.
Well, don’t keep us in suspense. Let us know when her head explodes in the effort to reconcile the truth with utter bullshit. I really, really wanted to say something about bearing false witness, but Left Hand of Dorkness said it first. I really think that you should ask her if she follows the Ten Commandments, and ask her about spreading hurtful lies, and then hit her with the zinger. But I’ve been told that I have a real nasty streak.
Yeah, but these people are usually the types who buy into the whole, “Vatican as the whore of Babylon, Catholics worship saints and are trying to rule the world” schlock.
I actually know though of people who are Baptists and other variations who usually are down on Harry Potter…who are actually big fans of HP!!! Go figure!
See… wanna hear the funny part? The most singularly intolerant person I know is Wiccan. You can set your watch by the intervals of his diatribes against Christianity.
And meanwhile, the Christian folks I know… they’re more of the “Whatever floats your boat, partner” type. They also have skeptical, questioning minds… whereas the first fellow will believe any story of the supernatural almost automatically, and likewise refuses to place any belief at all in science or the scientific method.
Maybe I live in Bizarro World, huh?
Great idea!
Make up some totally ludicris idea(not the rap guy) about satanists whatever invading a school or some such.
Make it truly bizzare, like including the above mentioned Barry Manilow.
Watch the story spread… 
I have found that the majority of the nutjobs that think the Harry Potter movies promote devil worshipping are the same people that think the Teletubbies push homosexuality on children and Disney movies are nothing but porn in disguise.
If the church (whatever one it is) told these nutjobs shit was pudding, they would eat it up happily and ask for more :eek:
worked with a couple pagans that invited me to a samhain do when I was there…they were baffled when I brought mrAru who is a confirmed Catholic Light [episcopalian, all of the pomp, half the guilt]
Especially since they handed out song sheets, and he knew the tune to Lord of the Dance and a bunch of other ballads that got reworded into hymns … all from the folk songbook that churches used in the 60s and early 70s…
I was told regularly at work for the next 2 years that the marriage wouldn’t last, ‘mixed’ marriages never do. I seem to remember that next feb is going to be our 14th anniversary, and 15.5 years together total [not counting when he and former mrArufiancee lived with exmrAru and I.]
Of course I have a very catholic friend who also worked with me at the same place, and we told people we had an agreement. I wouldn’t feed him to the lions if he didn’t burn me at the stake=)