Posted on 12/20/2011 3:46:54 AM PST by Cronos
On Vancouver Island, pagans are lighting cauldron fires and dancing through giant evergreen hoops to symbolize being reborn
In Vancouver, pagans are bowing to stag antlers, revering pentangles and burning cinnamon incense to mark Yule, which celebrates the "rebirth of the sun" at winter solstice...There are roughly 400,000 pagans in the U.S. and Canada, according to the American Religious Identification Survey. Their numbers have more than doubled in the past decade.
..Despite many pagans' inclination to privacy, one spiritual organization in B.C. that won't be carrying out its Yule ceremonies in secrecy is the Vancouver Unitarian Church.
The large congregation has, for years, offered a 10-week course called "Paganism 101," designed by Vancouverite Louise Bunn, 55, a Unitarian who has her artist's studio on Granville Island.
The diverse Unitarian Church has an ongoing "pagan" committee, along with "Buddhist" and "prayer" committees. Its sanctuary is decorated this month with pagan wreaths.
Pagans claim to follow many different traditions: including the Druids (Celtic spirituality); Dianics (goddess-centred faiths, usually forbidding males); Norse mythology (revering Thor, Odin); Hellenistic paganism (gods of ancient Greece); Kemetic paganism (Egyptian) and Roman gods.
The largest pagan school is known as the Wiccans.
(Excerpt) Read more at vancouversun.com ...
To the pagans I say:
Praying to uranus is futile.
Venus envy... :-P
And why do they do this? Because they actually see the Earth or Sun as a deity? I seriously doubt that.
All I see in this is spoiled children mocking Christ.
(My kids used to love veggie tales)
The classical pagans of antiquity would scorn to be associated with their self-styled successors.
They had coherent philosophies and moral codes along with a desire to seek the truth, unlike these simpering play-acting slobs whose minds are full of recently invented mythical mush and moral relativism.
Evil is as evil does... momma always used to say.
LLS
*Sigh.* Pagans with any knowledge of their own religion don’t worship rocks and balls of gas any more often than Christians worship the pages of the Bible. Not that I would expect Unitarians or their admirers to know anything about theology, pagan or otherwise.
Quite so. Until the late 60's Unitarians were monotheists. Most considered themselves Christian.
Today the UUA (Unitarian Universalist Association) has been overtaken by Marxists and other New Age activists. They are, in a word, liberal, with all that word has come to mean in the last 50 years. In any traditional, classic sense, they are not at all liberal.
Nor do today's liberals express any of the sentiments upon which liberalism was founded. They, and especially Unitarians, are explicitly not open minded, respectful of all views, committed to the dignity of man and willing to stand up for individual liberty regardless of the beliefs of the individual.
The adage, "I disagree with you but will stand with you to the death to protect your right to self expression" is completely lost on today's liberal.
The UUA hs utterly abandoned its historical roots.
Canadians are doing that in Canada? Well then, I guess it’s none of my damned business now is it.
Too many of today’s wannabe “pagans” use paganism as little more than a fashion accessory and a party theme, or, in the most irritating cases, as bait for “religious persecution.” Serious paganism and occultism involve a LOT of philosophy and truth-seeking. As soon as the phonies bother to do some reading (”Wiccan Love Spells” doesn’t count) and discover pagan religions aren’t year-round Renaissance festivals, but actual religions with actual devotion to a divine power, they lose interest pretty quickly.
I completely agree with your post. I know some of these neo-pagans, or faux-pagans. To them, it just sounds real cool.
I used to live in an area with Pagans, they had some really cool looking motorcycles that they drove around with wearing German Mod. 34 helmets. I didn’t know they had their own religious beliefs. ;o)
Now, that double ententre or pun is funny, icky, but humorous.
Why exactly are Unitarians marked in FR as "Other Christian"? with their embrace of everything BUT Christ, they are better described as "New Age" or "other religion"
Some time back I worked on a computer belonging to a UU church. Stuff they had on it made me wonder if they might have been a source for longstanding local rumors of "devil worshipers".
From the horse's mouth:
In addition to holding different beliefs on spiritual topics, individual Unitarian Universalists may also identify with and draw inspiration from Atheism and Agnosticism, Buddhism, Christianity, Humanism, Judaism, Paganism, and other religious or philosophical traditions.Our Unitarian Universalist faith has evolved through a long history, with theological origins in European Christian traditions. Today Unitarian Universalism is a non-creedal faith which allows individual Unitarian Universalists the freedom to search for truth on many paths. While our congregations uphold shared principles, individual Unitarian Universalists may discern their own beliefs about spiritual, ethical, and theological issues.
"All are welcome", but I have a feeling if one were to have a good old fashioned revivalist camp meeting, or insisted on baptism in the name of Father, Son and Spirit, you would find them less affirming.
some Canadians, not all, not even a significant number, just some loonies!
At least their female clergy isn’t afraid to use the word “priestess.”
Freegards
Quick, somebody- post a photo of the Pagans criminal motorcycle gang...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.