(*) The difference that this makes can be seen, merely by witnessing the Sunday rituals (or "mass") of the Pauline Christians. Rather than offering the half-bow of Judaism, which they see as being the parent of their faith, they will kneel before their god, a gesture which, in Jewish eyes, would be considered an act bordering on idolatry. Theirs' is not the covenant relationship with God of Judaism, in which God has his duties toward man, just as man has his toward God. In their view, God unilaterally establishes a relationship with man, which man is morally obligated to accept, placing God above man's judgment. Not surprisingly, they will speak of "the fear of God" as being the basis for piety, as fear is exactly the emotion being expressed by, and demanded of the faithful. What they are to make of Abraham's negotiation with God over the fate of Sodom (Genesis 20:16-33), on these terms, is anybody's guess.

In the Catholic form of Christianity, this sense of fear is tempered by an understanding of what it is, that their god wants: "good works", ie. the living of a caring, moral life. Even if lip service is not payed to the notion of divine duties, or even hinted at, God has placed upon himself the obligation to deal fairly with his worshippers. Thus, while a formerly Catholic convert to any form of "Paganism" will be not be pre-disposed to asking "what should the gods do ?", he will usually see no difficulty in asking "what would the gods do ?". Being told of Divine injustice, his first response will be to refuse to believe in it, his second being to deny that the being who acted in such a fashion could possibly be a god at all.

Protestantism, with its emphasis on "salvation through faith alone", and denial of the possibility salvation through the doing of good works, will predispose its former adherents in a different way. God's motives may well be as beyond human understanding, as they are immune to human criticism. A touch of the Catholic moderation of these fears may be found in those coming from the more "mainstream" Protestant denominations, in which the worshipper is reminded that "faith without works is dead". Even this faint trace of hope, however, is usually lost in those who come to "Pagandom" from Fundamentalism, in which the importance of good works is wholly discounted, the emphasis being completely put on the emotionalistic expression of "faith".

Far more often than not, one will find that they enter the worship of their new deities with no moral compass to guide them, at all, and no resistence to the worst tendencies of their new gods. The results are proverbial. What is evil in their new gods will soon become part of what is evil in them, the good that is to be found being there merely by a happy coincidence. Lacking any basis for determining which is a good god and which is a bad one, or any conceptual basis for making such a determination, all that will be left to them is the dictum "if it feels good, do it", as they shall, without remorse.

This last group has seemed to be the richest source of converts to "Paganism", locally, for the last few years. As Robin Williams said in What Dreams May Come, "Sometimes, when you win, you lose".

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