A common impression I get from many Christians concerning Paganism is that us pagans are a sex cult that loves to murder babies. Overall it is fear and confusion as it seems that so many Christians cannot handle the fact that Pagans exist and do not engage in Satanic activities, primarily because Pagans do not believe in Satan.
What are the perceptions you have on the Neo-Paganism movement?
There are so many different answers to the question in the thread title, so I'll just try to cover the ones that I, having been raised Christian, have personally encountered throughout my life.
There is a vast lack of knowledge in the Christian world about what paganism is and what it is not. This is compounded by a few different things. First off, the number of "ex-witches" who come into the Christian sphere and then proceed to make a fortune off of Christian ignorance and fear by embellishing their testimony and sensationalizing their experiences. Since Christians already believe in the spiritual and in supernatural powers, we don't seem to have much trouble believing stories about demonic practices that include cursing your neighbors or sending demons after your rivals.
Second, many Christians are taught that to to even seek knowledge about these subjects will open you up to demonic attack. So it is impossible to learn good, reliable information about what other people practice and believe if we are too afraid to discuss it with them or to read up on it. The only source of information then comes from the above mentioned "ex" whatevers, because any other source is only out there to deceive us, draw us in, or to send demons after us. I'm sure you can see how this would be a self-perpetuating problem.
Third, many Christians have a dualistic mind-set. That is to say, we believe that anything not of God is from Satan. When taken to the extreme, this can close a person into a very narrow world in which anything new or not easily understood is suspect. It also creates the unfortunate situation in which any religion that is not Christian is considered Satanic - such as paganism.
There is a huge problem with this type of understanding, because there IS actually a religion called Satanism in the world today. Calling something Satanism that is not Satanism makes one appear to be ignorant and uninformed. The protest that I hear most often when I try to explain to another Christian that Satanism is not the same thing as Wicca, for example (any pagan practice could be included here) is something along the lines of, "Well that distinction is just splitting hairs because they all worship Satan whether they realize it or not." No, it is not "just splitting hairs." If I go to the hospital with a broken toe, I don't want the doctor to put a cast on my finger and then tell me, "Well I treated the same problem - your bone is broken, and you needed a cast."
As you may imagine, this problem of lumping all things pagan into one basket is not at all helped by the fact that there is no (or very little) cohesion or uniformity of belief among the pagan community. That makes it very, very difficult to handle because humans are obsessed with labeling and categorizing things. That which cannot be categorized easily must be assigned a label at random or related to something else that is more easily understood.
Fourth, as I am sure you are aware, there was this thing in the US during the 80's called the "Satanic Panic." I am pretty sure that this is where the sex-cult and murdering babies aspect of fears came in, but I was born in 1982. So I don't recall a world before the Satanic Panic, so I can't tell you what the insider view was in the Christian world before that. Though I think at this point that MOST Christian communities have moved past the height of this hysteria, there are still some lingering fears that cling to the fringes and travel inwards. Due to point number 3 - the grouping together of all things under the same label, that is why you
might have encountered a Christian somewhere at some time who is afraid that you have sacrificed a baby to Satan.
Fifth - a point that also goes back to the third point, is the fact that Christians associate paganism with occult practices. In fact, this isn't really a separate point. It is more of the same... But basically what I am trying to say is that if you do stuff like mess with a Ouija board, most Christians will not see a difference between that and paganism. Or seances or whatever... You know, the sort of stuff that become popular during the Spiritualist movement of the 1800's. I mention that specifically because I have some personal friends who are pagan, and they would NEVER mess with a Ouija board, go to a seance, or make any attempt whatsoever to contact a spirit. Also, there are some strong taboos in Christianity in regard to contacting spirits or the dead; so that adds to the perception of paganism being demonic.
So where do modern, nature-based religions fit into all of these perceptions? GOOD QUESTION! I rarely, if ever, have seen Christians discuss paganism from that perspective.
Hopefully I have been able to give you some insight on your question. I am Christian myself. So I do believe in Jesus, and I am not seeking spiritual enlightenment from any other religion. I am, however, very passionate about truth and accuracy; so I want to know what other people
actually believe rather than what propaganda says they believe. Clearly, I don't know everything, though.
. What is old just gets replaced, hatred never really goes away
