h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is this not you?

http://gofree.indigo.ie/~jonmca/DCP02726.JPG

I feel so sad reading this but not surprised. people like this are what is called "authoritarian personalities". They are poor anally retentive little people who see anything different as a threat. They are to be pitied. I know that doesn't help your situation but no matter what you are(whether it be Jewish /Pagan/different race) because you were different from them they would persecute you. If you have time look up authoritarian personality on the web...I think you will read it and recognise your neighbours.
Blessings on your home and family
Tabsx

Hi Fred .

I am afraid not. I understand that there is a chap called 'math' on h2g2, but we are not related. He is also at least 20 years younger than I.

Blessings,
matholwch /|\.

Hi Tabitca .

I am familiar with the term having done my degree in Social Psychology. However it doesn't really explain the unfeeling hatred and unreasoning venom from people who otherwise are ordinary citizens.

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

I'm think that stems from fear...they are terrified their little secure world will collapse if they let anyone be different,afterall it may rub off on them...plus they hate themselves and they project it on to you...It's very sad that the Christian religion is used like this to justify bigotry. Not being of any particular faith due to the fact I have a jewish father and catholic mother...so didn't adhere to any...I find it hard to understand how it can be used so negatively when faith is supposed to bring joy! I study people for a living and am no longer surprised by the depths they plummet to..but I also see a lot of good,kind, tolerant people so I don't give up hope. Maybe your role in life is to shake bigotted people up

I hope this doesn't offend, but isn't the fundamental Christian expected to hate themselves?
I mean isn't it driven into them that they are 'sinful' beings who can only find redemption in some other persons suffering.
The "we are all born bad and full of sin" approach some people have really offends me.
I have never been able to gel the apparently Christian contradiction of ; on one hand, being made in God's image and on the other we are all sinful creatures doomed to fail in whatever endeavor we undertake unless it is sanctioned by the Church and the Bible.(or church elders)
Even the perceived good things we do are without merit apparently If we do not call ourselves by one 'accepted' religious name or another.
I think it truely get's up my nose.

The problem with maintaining silence is that these people then do not allow another to speak their truths.
Although I have to admit that when the local fundamentalist try to 'trap ' me into conversation in the presumed hope that I will 'betray' my true feelings (which because they are not the same as theirs, must therefore be devilish !) I have learnt to nod and walk away before they get up on their intolerant soap boxes.

Hi Tabitca .

"Maybe your role in life is to shake bigotted people up"

Maybe it is. At least in the UK most of those I'd shake up don't have guns . I wouldn'T like to upset a Southern Baptist in Texas. Over there they burn pagan shops down.

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

Not always.
My wife used to sing in a choir at the University Baptist Church in Austin.
They got kicked out of the Baptist Convention (I forget which one) because they had gays in their church and ministry and most notably in their choir!

Actually, I have friends that I was just visiting in Austin who are Lutherans who are students of Celtic and Lakota culture.

One of my old girlfriends is now a Wiccan priestess in a Feminist Circle of Naturists...

The University of Texas at Austin is dealing with racist activities on their campus at the moment, including the egging of Martin Luther King's statue on Martin Luther King day, but the University is a hotbed of Goth and Pagan activity, regardless of the Rednecks.

My wife and I were married, by a minister (who just happened to be my father), at the site of an abomination in the eyes of many in Austin during the 1870s.
We were married at the Elizabet Ney museum, which had been the studio of a European-trained sculptress who had been castigated for wearing trousers and sleeping in the nude on top of her tower. Yet, her statues of Texian heros are found in several capitol buildings and town squares.

The Southern Baptists are capable of mob behavior, but most of them are concerned with their 401k s and making sure their children go to college. They also watch a lot of Disney.

So, it's possible for bigotry to go both ways.

On the other topic:

Christ himself told the, um, followers, that they would suffer. In fact, he promised them suffering. He also told them that if their message was ignored to "shake the dust of that place from your feet".

Not to mention that fun stuff about "turning the other cheek".

Some people never read the fine print.

http://www.paganalliance.org/

Damn

Beg pardon?

So the horns thing is still open to debate then?

Ah, I thought it was something important.


Matholwch, I made my pastor, who is a putative Southern Baptist, though I mainly think of him as a stand-up comedian with a perpetual gig (and a good trombonist), very nervous once.

I have a book that I've been trying to figure out for a while.
I bought it in a B. Dalton in the mall a year or so ago, in the Religion section.

It's called "Ancient Christian Magic: Coptic Texts of Ritual Power" and it's a collection of translated curses, amulets, charms, spells and recipes edited by Marvin W. Meyer and Richard Smith.

The pastor and I had been having a little friendly discussion about superstition and early Christianity.
I laid the book on his desk one day when he wasn't there.
I went by his office a couple of days later and it was lying face down. I asked him about it and he asked me to please take it away, as he was afraid someone would see it there. He didn't really want to take a look at it, as they might see the cover when he did, as he had an 'open door' policy.

He said with the church's attitude toward "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer" and "Harry Potter", he was afraid that they might think that he was messing around in the, um, 'forbidden knowledge'. Besides, the Bible alone was all that was needed and such traditions as those detailed in the book were part of the apostasy that Baptists rose up to counter in the early 1800s...

Okay. Sorry, bub. Didn't mean to make your life interesting.

On the other hand, when the Vatican announced a week or so ago that it was now okay to read Harry Potter, I unequivocally told my daughter of the event and said that now that it was officially approved then she couldn't read it anymore.

She got the joke.

Hey TR .

"So, it's possible for bigotry to go both ways."

You are, of course, quite right. I spend a lot of my online time trying to get some interfaith dialogue going. A fair proportion of that is calming down the 'burning times' pagans who still believe in a world Christian conspiracy to murder them in their beds.

Personally I don't believe in a world Christian conspiracy. You can hardly call the ongoing civil war that is modern Christianity a conspiracy. Nor the total communications incompetence that most churches display in the face of practically every important social and theological issue.

Even as a practicing druid I still occasionally attend the local Evangelical Church. My daughter goes to Sunday School there (her choice), so I go to support her. Many of the congregants are my friends and neighbours, and I am often asked to lend a hand at church events, which I do willingly. I doubt, however, that this friendship would continue were I to practice openly.

Blessings,
Matholwch /|\.

As you wish.
I make no secret in the church we go to of my wish not to lie to God.
I make no promises, no professions of faith, and I refuse to let the lesson writer or reader guide me down a path that is actually extra-biblical.
My daughter carries her "Support Your Local Warlock" and "Herbal Healing" books with her to church and openly reads them during lulls in the performances.
I rarely shave and have the third longest hair in the church among the men.

I actively avoid the apocalyptic cant, particularly in the form of the Nyah-nyah "Left Behind" series of books, movies and comic books.

We have a sticker of a gartered and thonged Mr. Burns holding a whip on the back rear corner window of our Korean SUV and we park in the Church parking lot without a comment from anyone.
And this is thirty miles from Waco.

In some cases it is easier for people to attack the devil they don't know. I used to hate Southern Baptists as a group. Probably still do. But I've grown to know this particular bunch and even the most virulent among them is willing to tolerate someone who knows where the nearest screwdriver is...
Parents will often find it easier to be tolerant to other parents because, no matter what or who you truly worship, with children on hand, you are all praying for guidance during the most testing of times...

And, in the most useful aspect of that otherwise excreble movie "Practical Magic", everyone who owns a broom is part of a tradition that made them an indispensable part of hearth and home and worship.

So, if given just a peek at what you know and are willing to discuss, it is sometimes amazing how curious people are about things that their grandparents used to talk about in hushed whispers.

Plus, it doesn't hurt to know that your pastor used to do stage security for Kiss and Judas Priest concerts a few years back...

"teaches by example" IS important

I hope you are feeling better. *J* has disturbed a few persons along his path,I hope you have healed from your experience.

There are many here that support & accept your ways, thoughts and beliefs. Most will be respectful. Most will appreciate your kind spirit.I see you have met some here!