literature

Religious Tolerance

Deviation Actions

Rinyavie's avatar
By
Published:
434 Views

Literature Text

When I turned fourteen, I was confirmed by the Catholic Church.  One year later, I lost all faith in my religion.  A year after that, I began skipping church and lying to my parents about it.  One year later, I became a practicing pagan.  It took another year until I told my parents, and it wasn’t really my choice to tell them.  These steps, beginning with apathy, were the beginning of what you could call a “life-changer.”  Today I’m president of the Pagan Student Alliance on the Colorado State University campus, and connecting with people in a religion way.

Once a year, the school holds a “Meet Your Faith” day, when the religious organizations on campus set up booths and students can stop by to ask questions.  You get all types of people- the serious, the skeptical, those who are ready to believe that you want to sacrifice babies to your heathen gods.  After my second year doing this, I realized the people who always warm my heart are the people who come over from the booths next to us, because they don’t understand the religion and they want to.  And you learn a lot by doing the same in return.

Those are the types of people who, although they may not ever believe your religion, or even believe that it’s a valid religion, will be tolerant and understanding of you.  They’ll ask you questions, they’ll try to understand.  I’ve had some of the greatest religious discussions with these type of people- people who ask questions like, “So according to your religion, is there any ultimate truth?”  I like getting questions like this- they’re fun to answer, and they make you stop and think.  Questions like, “Do you worship the devil and dance naked under the moon?” are discouraging; they just make you realize how much misperception there really is in the world.

To those who are religious minorities (and I know there are a lot of you out there), it’s emotionally painful to try to deal with those who are intolerant, who have no respect for you or your beliefs.  A few years ago, the Pagan Student Alliance was invited to a religious debate, along with several other religious organizations.  It was hosted by an on-campus Christian ministry, and they had two rules: 1. You could only respond to any points brought up, you could not begin a new topic.  And 2. You had to use the Bible as your only source and reference.  How can a Muslim even begin to debate?  How could a pagan?  Nobody who believes in the Bible would view it as a good source or reference, because it is contrary to our beliefs.

And the same goes in reverse.  I believe it is impossible for pagans to hold a conversation in which Christian-bashing doesn’t occur.  Paganism, self-proclaimed as being one of the more tolerant religions out there, is full of bias against Christians, for no good reason.  Everybody has had a bad experience with the annoying door-to-door religious salesmen; we’ve all heard the crazy man on the street corner screaming about the end of the world.  It’s nothing new.  Just because you were taught in school by a few crazy nuns doesn’t mean that every Christian is insane.

This kind of intolerance is everywhere.  It’s almost impossible to have a religious discussion without hearing somebody make a slighting comment about another religion.  And most of the time, we don’t realize that we’re making comments that are so offensive.

So here’s my advice: before you say something negative, stop and listen to what somebody is saying.  Research the religion.  And certainly don’t make assumptions based on the one or two (or even twenty) people you met.  This is the first step to tolerance.
Religious Tolerance from a pagan perspective. Written for a Denver Post contest.
© 2005 - 2024 Rinyavie
Comments5
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
warrioroffantasy's avatar
Sometimes i get so mad at most christians. I am a christian and i am nothing like the sterotypes out there. I liked what you said i have a friends who is wiccan and she is awesome