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How Pagans Are Seen:
Sometimes, We are "The Enemy"
Recent uproar over the placement of Ten Commandment monuments on government property may seem more like a political issue, but the flood of letters in local newspapers about the federal court ruling that the monuments/displays must be removed is a clear indication of how many view their non-Christian neighbors - Pagans included.
The logic of such letters may be flawed, in that opposition to the Ten Commandments monument is seen as opposition to the Ten Commandments themselves. The authors of various letters have suggested that non-believers are "the enemy", while another declared those who favored the monument being moved should find another planet on which to live.
Even the most diplomatically worded replies are met with loud cries that non-Christians are trying to destroy the nation by burying the Judeo-Christian God in a morass of political maneuvering. These people see the need for public prayer in school, displays of "In God We Trust" on the walls of government buildings and schools, etc. It was even written that the majority should not have to give in to the "rights of a handful".
How can Pagans make headway against such viewpoints? Is it not like beating one's head against a brick wall?
Still, there are more moderate views which could prevail. An Irish Catholic priest, who studied at an American college and currently lives in Rome (when he's not travelling the globe), pointed out, "I would think that Aristotle and Plato had more influence, as well as inspiring many other philosophical thinkers, and Christians and others in the west since their time. Granted that biblical and Christian values, particularly of justice, and anthropology have influenced legislation and various constitutions within the west."
This man, having been seminary director for many years, added, "Roman Catholic seminarians have in recent centuries been required to take quite a lot of philosophy with the value at least of helping them to make distinctions between claims based on faith, and on reason."
"I can understand the radical claims made by some Christians. They are logical enough if one buys into a fundamentalist evangelical stance. Then anything claimed to be true and good has to be based in the scriptures. My response to all of this - a good education that helps people to think critically and logically, to make distinctions, to ask for evidence, to weigh the pros and cons, that can respectfully welcome the positions of others in a spirit of dialogue."
Maybe there is hope.
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