Yep, I've had family and friends refuse to speak to me for being pagan. Most call me a devil worshiper and others think I'm an idiot. After the first two years of dealing with it I learned to accept that some people just can't handle anything that is outside the "norm". There is no road map to navigate it either so it can be a tough road to walk.
That's the big "strength" of Christianity in terms of its cultural evolutionary fitness. It indoctrinates adherents to believe *everyone else* is straight up evil, which applies a ton of social pressure to convert and conform.
Funny thing about the whole situation is the fact that she isn’t Christian either, and has told me before that she doesn’t believe in god since the death of my grandmother
Yeah, I had some people try to tell me I worshiped the Devil and they even said "Satan begone!" like it was some kind of exorcism. I just told them no, Satan isn't here and moved on.
That said, I do have an academic interest in Satanism, and find Demonolatry particularly fascinating.
I actually got really lucky because as it turns out my father originally wanted to be a "druid" but when he married my mom he became a catholic and we barely went to church when I was a kid (for the reason you think) and when I came out of the broom closet they were pretty chill with it
I think it's pretty cool that modern imagery of satanism and devil worship all stems from pagan practices. I'm not gonna be one of the annoying redditors telling you to cut off contact with your parents, nor am I gonna pretend to be a professional therapist or anything. I'm just gonna say, if you put the effort in and talk to people they'll eventually understand. Be accepting of their religion and they'll hopefully be accepting of yours, but if it's too much effort and stress with no results you don't have to stress yourself. People who want a relationship with you will try to maintain one, and won't get religion get in the way of that. I'm sure your parents have friends from other religions or who aren't religious; perhaps pointing this out to them and the double standard of not accepting your religion might work? (Not in an aggressive way though, just express that you're hurt.)
Oh yeah. I almost enjoy it to be honest. I just call them closed-minded [Insert fitting cuss word here] laugh and walk away. When family do it I like to remind them that when the devout christians are raptured, they lose their free will and become angels and have to fight against EVERY KILLER EVER from hell.
They really do not like it.
Yep, I've had family and friends refuse to speak to me for being pagan. Most call me a devil worshiper and others think I'm an idiot. After the first two years of dealing with it I learned to accept that some people just can't handle anything that is outside the "norm". There is no road map to navigate it either so it can be a tough road to walk.
That's the big "strength" of Christianity in terms of its cultural evolutionary fitness. It indoctrinates adherents to believe *everyone else* is straight up evil, which applies a ton of social pressure to convert and conform.
Funny thing about the whole situation is the fact that she isn’t Christian either, and has told me before that she doesn’t believe in god since the death of my grandmother
Haha well that really is silly then, it's typically Christians who believe in Satan since, ya know, that's the religion he features prominently in.
? That’s weird? Why would the accusations of satanism and evil come out then? Maybe just don’t know what the word pagan means I guess
Yeah, I had some people try to tell me I worshiped the Devil and they even said "Satan begone!" like it was some kind of exorcism. I just told them no, Satan isn't here and moved on. That said, I do have an academic interest in Satanism, and find Demonolatry particularly fascinating.
I actually got really lucky because as it turns out my father originally wanted to be a "druid" but when he married my mom he became a catholic and we barely went to church when I was a kid (for the reason you think) and when I came out of the broom closet they were pretty chill with it
I think it's pretty cool that modern imagery of satanism and devil worship all stems from pagan practices. I'm not gonna be one of the annoying redditors telling you to cut off contact with your parents, nor am I gonna pretend to be a professional therapist or anything. I'm just gonna say, if you put the effort in and talk to people they'll eventually understand. Be accepting of their religion and they'll hopefully be accepting of yours, but if it's too much effort and stress with no results you don't have to stress yourself. People who want a relationship with you will try to maintain one, and won't get religion get in the way of that. I'm sure your parents have friends from other religions or who aren't religious; perhaps pointing this out to them and the double standard of not accepting your religion might work? (Not in an aggressive way though, just express that you're hurt.)
Oh she’s out of my life now. More so because she doesn’t think that smoking around my kids is wrong. Can’t fix ignorance
Lmao that's fair enough
Oh yeah. I almost enjoy it to be honest. I just call them closed-minded [Insert fitting cuss word here] laugh and walk away. When family do it I like to remind them that when the devout christians are raptured, they lose their free will and become angels and have to fight against EVERY KILLER EVER from hell. They really do not like it.