Religious Freedom...Was Re: Faith Education

[msbeadsley]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "annemehr" <annemehr at y...> 
wrote:
> Sandy wrote:
> > When I get this "Satan worshipper" comment, I react, aghast, 
> > thus: "Oh, no, we pagans don't *believe in* Satan--he's a 
*Christian* 
> > deity!"
> 
> Annemehr:
> Aw, don't stop there -- what happens next?  Do they gape at you for 
a
> few seconds and then walk away muttering to themselves?  Do they 
argue
> with you?  What?

Depends. Confusion first, followed (usually, sometimes only after 
further conversation) by comprehension, then anything from an earnest 
protest to a loud, spittle-laced rant that Satan is *not* a deity at 
all to very ugly, snarling obscenity to questions: "Are you serious? 
You/Pagans don't believe in the devil? Where do you/they think evil 
comes from, then?" Or "So, then, who/what *do* you worship?"

No one has ever laughed, though, or continued to express (to me, 
anyway) the belief that pagans worship Satan. (And I repress my 
impulse to mention, "Of course, there *is* the Horned Man..." (weg>)

Sandy, with apologies to anyone who is bothered by this thread