Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Harm None: phasers on 'stun'


Wicca Experts Encourage Christians to Engage America's 'Fastest-Growing' Religion


This is just another fluff piece about the snow-job entitled "Generation Hex", a book that purports to teach Christian how to interact with Wiccans/Pagans. It's off topic for my blog, and it's been covered before very well (here, for example), but I'm in the mood to rant a bit.

Now get this:

...The authors urged for more engagement from the Christian community, and more long-term engagement at that...

Yum, that sounds so warm and fluffy.

...Burroughs said the number one complaint they received from Wiccans about Christians was that they would befriend them but later desert them if they did not convert in a short period time...

Oh pooh! You don't say! You mean you're upset that I pegged your friendship as nothing more than proselytizing?

...To change this perspective, we must decide to love Wiccans whether they ever become Christians or not...

My bad. There's certainly nothing wrong in teaching us all to love one another, no matter our beliefs. Bravo! It was really stupid of me to think that the only reason you'd give me the time of day was to get in good with God.

...Only this long-term approach will work with many Wiccans.”

OH JESUS H CHRIST!!!

...Alupoaicei also advised Christians to simply take the time to listen to Wiccans instead of starting out using terms that might alienate the person or keep him or her from sharing his or her story...

Ah, that's it, get us all touchy feely.

“...Many Wiccans/pagans had a specific triggering experience that caused them to turn toward Wicca or paganism..

Yup, establish a rapport.

...You could ask, ‘What led you to embrace Wicca? What do you like about it?’ and use that as a steppingstone to talk about your own faith...

Then the minute they go weak in the knees, chop'em to ribbons with pearls of wisdom from the Bible!

“...Most people love to talk about themselves,” she added. “Why not ask them to share a bit about themselves with you?”

Great, I'm glad they tipped us off as to what to watch out for. Basically it means our Christian friends are not really our friends, they just want to take a real long time to convert us and absorb us Landru-like into the body of Christ. So, when peppered with such questions from some bar-fly Crusader, have some snappy responses handy:

1)"I decided Paganism was for me the first time I tasted human flesh"
2)"Talk about myself? I'd rather be playing with myself!"
3)...

Oh wait, I did something like this over here. I hope you find my suggestions inspiring, but it's always fun to think-up your own.

11 comments:

Livia Indica said...

2)"Talk about myself? I'd rather be playing with myself!"

Gene, that is classic gold. I nearly wet myself!

green_ghost113 said...

LOL - I like the Landru-like remark....
and the suggestions of what to say to a proselytizing X-tain.

Dracenea said...

What's scary is that I used to be one of those people who felt like I was doing "god's" work by reaching out to "lost" people. Now I'm a non-theist. : )

Yewtree said...

Words fail me when I read about this sort of thing. The disgusting insidiousness of it. Yuk!

Yewtree said...

I suddenly found that words hadn't failed me after all. My response: No to bigotry, yes to life

Anonymous said...

Like Dracenea, I was once on the other side of the fence. And I wouldn't worry too much. Most really devout Christians will get wigged out eventually and stop being friends. Their motives are "pure," I guess (I think mine were), but as with any friendship, you have to have things in common and mutual respect. Proselytizing has neither.

genexs said...

Green Ghost:

Yeah, and we've both gotten practice in our snappy come-backs at our favorite watering hole. :)

I just really happy I got to work Star Trek into a post! Heh!

best,
Gene

genexs said...

Livia:

I'm glad I made you laugh.

genexs said...

Yew:

Thanx for taking this matter to your blog. This 'War on Christmas' stuff fantasized by certain elements on the political Right of things is really sickening in this country.

genexs said...

Riverwolf:

Yeah, most Christians--if they are trying to convert you--do give up after a bit when they see how committed you are.

Our pagan social group meets in one of the local bars (No kidding, the name of the bar is Bacchus). The people who work their know us and are very friendly too us. But some of the Xtain barflies use to like to bug us from time to time. But they have given up once they talked to us for a while. We follow a religion/spiritual path that honors and respects women and lets them rise to the highest rank, is welcome and opening to gays, lesbians and the transgendered (and even will perform their handfastings),respects the earth and the environment, and is not paternalistic and male dominated, and thinks sex is a good thing. Gosh, I wonder what could be attractive about a religion like that? Heh!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful group!