Saturday, April 6, 2013

Cowards, Religion and Business Cards?



Today, while I was working at a local conference for my day job, someone, a strong believer in Jesus Christ, left a little calling card on my windshield because I have the above pictured Coexist bumper sticker on my car. They believe that I need to repent and take Jesus into my heart. Sadly, this person did not have the strength of character to speak to me in person about my beliefs. How do they know that I am not a Christian? I know many Christians who believe that people of different faiths can coexist peacefully. I find it interesting that someone who feels strongly about their beliefs is too much of a coward to approach someone who obviously has a different faith and have an honest discussion. There was, of course, a website for me to go to so that I could read all about how they are right and I am wrong.

No, I will not be sharing that site here. I refuse to give them any “real” exposure. I chose to not visit the site listed because the tactics they used are cowardly and when someone feels they need to force their view on another by leaving a business card full of their “opinions” on another’s car, well, let’s just say that I can’t imagine they would respect my right to my own beliefs.  

When I read the back of the card I had many thoughts. My first of course was what a chicks*&t coward, then of course it was that they are entitled to their beliefs and too bad that they don’t feel I am entitled to mine, then I thought, what a moron, no wonder there is so much hatred in the world, people like this push it.

Of course, once I went through all those fun thoughts I realized that it really doesn’t matter what this person believes. I don’t care how they relate to their God, I don’t believe in their book nor do I believe in their savior, I do, however, believe in their right to believe in those things and if they find strength and comfort in their religion – yay! What saddens me about this pathetic attempt at proselytizing is that, I imagine, if someone told them that they were wrong in their religious beliefs they would have to turn to a book, or their church leader to form an intelligent response as to why they believe what they believe. Some people just follow blindly without truly understanding their religion.

To my Christian followers, I truly respect you and your faith. As my previous Pagan Blog Project post on God states, I believe that Deity comes to everyone in the way that they can best relate and all of the faces humans put to God are just parts of the whole. That is MY belief and I feel quite strongly about it.

So… to the individual who put the propaganda on my car, I whole heartedly believe in my religion and my religious practices. I know what I believe in and why. I know the history of my faith and I am happy to have an intelligent discussion with you about it.

Sincerely,
AutumnWind 

Friday, April 5, 2013

Pagan Blog Project: G is for God(s)


When someone first finds out that I am Pagan the questions I get can range from silly to offensive to serious. Most of the people who know me are very supportive and will send me silly witch related things as signs of support and acceptance. I loved it when a friend sent me a little picture of a broom with the subtitle “Yes, I can drive a stick”.  She gets me.
One of my very good friends has an on again off again relationship with her church. It is a Christian based group and while she will not discuss my beliefs with me she did ask me the following: Do you believe in God?
In my practice I work with many Gods and Goddess and while I knew that is not something she would understand I was able to tell her with certainty that I do believe in a Devine Spirit. I don’t however believe in a cruel and vengeful God, nor do I believe that my image of the Devine is the only one.
This is something that many people I know who are not pagan have a difficult time with. Growing up in the Catholic faith we were taught that there is only one true God and that was the Catholic version. This is one of the many reasons that I never felt comfortable there.
As a young child I just could not believe that God was so cruel that all of the people who came before Catholicism was founded were in purgatory. This made no sense to me. Then, as I got older and discovered and explored many other, different religious beliefs it made even less sense.
My spiritual path is very personal. I have a strong connection to nature and a definite need to create. I work mainly (but not only) with Goddesses and when I think of the Devine I usually think in feminine terms though I believe that the Devine is both masculine and feminine in nature, that all of the different faces that we put on God are part of the whole and that each person relates to the Devine in the way that is most meaningful to them.
I am very comfortable with who I am and what I believe and yes, I believe in God, though I prefer to refer to her as Goddess!
BB

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

I'm Back!

Panama City Beach, Florida

As my life occasionally leaps into overdrive I have to stop all the fun things I do and take care of business! That has been these past couple of weeks. Fortunately I was able to get things taken care of rather quickly and will be back posting regularly this week. 

I have lots of great things to share, some new sculptures, an interesting new "happy" app, a playhouse to chicken coop project, and lots more!

Right now I am heading out to my backyard to pick some dandelions. I see some dandelion wine in my future! I'll catch up with everyone soon!

Autumnwind