the other day I attended a birthday party for a coworker's son. for the last two years i have heard stories about her inlaws, and i finally understand what she was talking about. they are all born-again christians, which i admit i'm pretty prejudiced against. my experience with born-agains has been less than desirable as of yet, and this time was no exception. it all started out normally enough, introductions and pleasantries and such. i moved into the dining room with my coworker, and we sat discussing work things and relaying funny anecdotes about work to her mother. during a lull in the conversation, i began to absent-mindedly eavesdrop on the conversation in the other room. they were talking about the bible. this was odd to me, being that it was a twelve year old's birthday party, but I let it go. not my party or my house. then her sister-in-law, “the drunk,“ as she was described to me, showed up. all of a sudden, the topic turned to atheism and paganism. I suppose since none of them knew there was a pagan not ten feet from them, they felt it safe to voice their opinions on the matter, which were not flattering, to say the least. being that I was a guest in their home, i resisted my urge to jump into their conversation. instead I took it as an opportunity to learn. this was a fantastic look into how people behave when they do not need to be politically correct. i heard the usual things. we are heathens who are going to burn in hell etc. but then I heard the most sickening thing of all. "the drunk" began speaking of a woman who is said to be a witch. then she stated, "but shes not really a witch, shes just really into nature and things like that." of all the vile things stated that day, that seemingly innocent statement disturbed me the most. I do not know if this woman is a witch or not, but the fact that she felt the need to make an excuse for her insulted me. the sister-in-law may have felt she was doing it as a kindness, but what she was doing was really a disservice. most of the population in the US who practice the craft do not come to it by birth. a lot of time, research, and soul searching is done before making that decision, and we work extremely hard to be able to call ourselves witches. to make excuses for us essentially invalidates the years we have invested into studying and working the craft. im proud to say that i am a witch. it is something I worked long and hard for, and i am more proud of it than i ever was of being a catholic. not all witches are "out of the broom closet," but we are all equally proud. I just wish people could learn acceptance without judgement. i wish they would do their homework before speaking on a subject they know nothing about. mostly, i wish more christians would begin acting as their savior did.
peace, love and unity. blessed be.
No comments:
Post a Comment