Do you hide your faith?

[OliveOlivia]

@petrapark3r I would love to tell you all about it! A lot of it I don't understand myself though

[pe7erpark3r]

@Matt_Aranha said in Do you hide your faith?:

One would also hope that an authority figures might have a better education regarding the relationship between the two faiths.

I cannot say about the C of E, but in the catholic church there is not much of an education of how to properly deal with people of other religions. At best there is an education about the world religions. And paganism is pretty complicated it seems, and not very widespread in contrast to the world religions. And the education needs to end after a few years you know?

I feel there is a certain responsibility not to pre-judge, isn't that a basic tenet of Christian teaching?

Yes. Of course you are right. In fact it's like the with the pharisees. They accused Jesus for eating with sinners, and he answered them with: the sick need the physician, not the healthy. So yeah, Jesus wouldn't be like that.

It has to do with another part of the faith. The bible is full of occurrences of demons and evil spirits. And it tells them to be careful, awake, and keep away from them. However most people don't read the bible properly. They don't understand what that means! They don't understand what goal the demons in the bible allways have: to make people to hate, judge, condemn and not love God and each other.

So, I guess it is understandable for a "normal" Christian to shy away from these things because he or she doesn't understand, but I agree that a priest should know better.

Of everything, generally, the way a family ought to be.

That is a good thing.

and my uncle fully and enthusiastically participated. Much like myself I think he understood (he passed away two months ago) that intent is what is important, it doesn't matter what you call a ceremony or your God/s and/or Goddesses as we're all part of something bigger. He wasn't one for ego and did a lot of interfaith work along with taking on/pioneering a lot of other equality initiatives

Now to be honest, I don't fully agree with this. Just take a – pretty stupid – example: Imagine you believed you could fly. So you jump of a building. This believe is not equal to the believe that you as a human bean can not fly in fact. Objectively even. Get's you killed. And thus I do believe you can be closer to the truth and further. Also in spiritual matters...

However I fully agree with not judging. Like at all. As if any of us were better than others... such nonsense.

For an umbrella faith which ought to be very easy-going there are some very egotistic entitled types in the community who will insist on there being specific right ways and wrong ways of doing things. "Eclectics" (as those who don't follow just one path are known) can be viewed as frothy, whimsical or undedicated. Whereas I find Wicca and some higher forms of Druidry (let's not even touch on Crowleyism and other ceremonial magicks) extraordinarily dogmatic, much like a formal church and entirely missing the point. You might get some Wiccans suggesting other forms of witchcraft aren't valid because they are blind to seeing how it works without the structure and formality of Wicca; conversely you'll find some hedge witches and people in traditional covens/circles who won't acknowledge Wicca because it is so (relatively) new. People who won't accept you as a Druidic practitioner because you're not a member of OBOD or such. I know one published Heathen academic authoress well who is terribly arrogant, she presents an argument (based on history) that Heathenry is the only authentic tradition still existing and so is dismissive and quite rude of any other Pagan's beliefs if they are not also Heathen. It's sad... unfortunately you get good peeps and assholes in every faith

Yeah, Christians killed each other. They killed each other over being right. What. The. Fuck.

You never know what is true, not 100%. I take a scientific approach to most things myself, married with logic, though have been learning to trust my gut more. The thing is I don't feel I need to be certain of anything. My belief system seems to the only one which I can make fit science and logic too. We explain with science now things which seem phenomenally simple basic concepts yet which if you showed to somebody a thousand years ago would be branded as magic. The things I'm involved with/tapped into I don't view as magic, rather as science which is yet to be explained. I don't need to know the specifics of how something works, if it does.

So experimenting hmm. Yeah, that kind of makes sense. But also feels a bit like playing with fire...

I think I kinda get where you're trying to ask, maybe. My anchor is myself and the faith understanding that all energy is recycled. I don't see the Gods and Goddesses as literal, but as aspects of whatever the divine actually is.

So you're actually a Pantheist? Would that fit?

[bye69]

@petrapark3r I dont hide it. why should I?

[Matt_Aranha]

@petrapark3r said in Do you hide your faith?:

So you're actually a Pantheist? Would that fit?

I would say not, when I've read about Pantheism (which I haven't done a great deal of, admittedly) it hasn't clicked with me and some of the ideas don't quite gel with my beliefs.

[pe7erpark3r]

@Matt_Aranha said in Do you hide your faith?:

@petrapark3r said in Do you hide your faith?:

So you're actually a Pantheist? Would that fit?

I would say not, when I've read about Pantheism (which I haven't done a great deal of, admittedly) it hasn't clicked with me and some of the ideas don't quite gel with my beliefs.

Yeah, as with Paganism it seems, there are many ways of Pantheism too. But basically Pantheism means the idea, that God is actually everything, that everything is God. But maybe you don't see it that way, maybe that was just my mistake...

Just for the record: The christian faith is a form of Pan-en-theism, which means that even though creation and God ar distinct (are not one and the same) that God is in everything and everything is in God.

[[[global:former-user]]]

I always wondered if casual religious people actually have faith or if they play along just because it's more convenient than the alternative

[pe7erpark3r]

@Cunt-Fistula said in Do you hide your faith?:

I always wondered if casual religious people actually have faith or if they play along just because it's more convenient than the alternative

Pretty sure they do. You can stop wondering.

And look what the bible says about that, here is Revelation 3,15: "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."

God would perfectly fit into the TWS community, wouldn't He? Always has a good comeback

[ashhhhh]

@petrapark3r Hi, I don’t see why anyone should ever hide their faith. Whichever religion it is that you’re practising, I’m sure all of them stand for this ideal and fairly impractical level of perfection w respect to morals and ethics and what not. We’re all sinners in different ways and faith is what pushes us to become better and to show people that they could do better, so I’d rather not hide my faith ever, instead, I’ll wear it like a jewel to proudly show it off to the world to see, so they can learn a little from the vast expanse of wisdom I believe every faith has to offer.

[pe7erpark3r]

@ashhhhh said in Do you hide your faith?:

@petrapark3r Hi, I don’t see why anyone should ever hide their faith. Whichever religion it is that you’re practising, I’m sure all of them stand for this ideal and fairly impractical level of perfection w respect to morals and ethics and what not. We’re all sinners in different ways and faith is what pushes us to become better and to show people that they could do better, so I’d rather not hide my faith ever, instead, I’ll wear it like a jewel to proudly show it off to the world to see, so they can learn a little from the vast expanse of wisdom I believe every faith has to offer.

That is a wise choice. I mean I do try to wear my faith with humility instead of pride, because I'm not worthy of the graces I'm receiving, but yeah, you are right. We shouldn't hide the light from others...

[Deimochi]

@Indrid-Cold Preach, that's some dumb good advice and I'm glad to seeing people telling the right shit for once! Godspeed Indrid, godspeed