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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JF Quinnelly who wrote (13894)	11/29/1997 10:57:00 PM
From: Grainne	Respond to of 108807

I'm not weaving a tale of anger and hate at all, Freddy. I am trying to separate actual pagan and Wiccan beliefs from all the misconceptions there are about them, and also trying to bring to more widespread attention and understanding some of the darker acts of Christianity as represented by these religions as political institutions. I would again stress that one's own personal religious beliefs are whatever they are, and what is comforting and helps make sense of life and death and the universe is personal and should be respected. I do believe that institutions of mass torture and murder and general divisiveness are fair game for discussion, and don't believe that is cultivating bigotry at all. I think that the fact that most people are almost totally unaware of the negative aspects of religious history is scary, though, and I would certainly like to be a force for education. The Catholics have been roasting people in recent memory, into the last century in South America, in fact. I would argue that whether the Inquisitors ignored or reversed the original teachings of the Roman church is totally irrelevant, since they were acting as Catholics when they burned all those women during the Middle Ages. And you are not the last authority on whether Protestants participated at all in the persecution: "In order to gain a complete religious monopoly, the Christian Church decided during the 15th century to hunt down and exterminate believers in the Old Religion, and other heretics. The Church created an imaginary evil religion, and said that Wiccans were evil Witches who followed that religion, kidnapped babies, killed and ate their victims, sold their sold to Satan, etc. Many suspected witches were exterminated during these "burning times" which lasted until 1792 in Europe and into the 1830's in South America. Some estimates run as high as 10 million and as low as 3,000. An accurate number cannot be determined; it was probably between 100 and 300 thousand. The Roman Catholic church preferred to burn witches; they were hung in Protestant countries. Wiccans went underground, and stayed out of sight until the middle of the 20th century." religioustolerance.org While it is true that there have been no really recent mass roastings of women of which I am aware, I would again draw your attention to the Vatican's recent admission in the press that they were complicit with the Nazis in France, for which they have recently apologized, since obviously their stance caused horrible suffering and murder on a vast scale. This is also an excellent example of one of my primary points--religions as institutions act politically, not charitably or compassionately (or Christ-like). The primary reason for the Vatican complicity in France was that they did not like the political party opposing the Nazis. Sort of like the concept, the enemy of my enemy is my friend!! So the Inquisition is of considerably more than historical interest. It is an example of continuing political activity by religious groups that damage the social fabric, rather than save souls. If these groups are acting out of expedience, or for some ulterior motive other than PURE GOODNESS AND LOVE, then there seems to be hypocrisy, and that makes me uncomfortable. I do not then believe they are carrying Christ's messages and beliefs and compassion out into the world.