An Appeal to Evangelists
This letter is to all those people out there, particularly Christians, who feel that their God has directed them to convert others. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that according to your beliefs you are actually doing us a great favour when you tell us about Jesus, but the simple fact is, Pagans do not generally appreciate this service. Many, indeed most of us have come from Christian backgrounds, or at least have absorbed a fair bit about Christianity - it is, after all, the dominant religion in the West. This means that we already know about Jesus, we know why Christians think he died, and for what purpose, we don't see why you need to tell us again.
Thats by the by, though, because whether we like it or not many Christians are still going to tell us. So this isn't an appeal to get you to stop. But I would aks you to consider something. When you look in the Bible, how did Jesus and the Apostles preach to people? Did they shout, and stand on street corners waving booklets? Did they call nonbelievers names and try to insult them into belief? Did they refuse to take a member of another religion's word for what they believed in? Did they accuse the Pagans around them of Satanism? The answer to all of those questions is no. The method of evangelism used by Jesus in particular was to perform miraculous acts, and then to answer questions put to him, and to preach in known locations where all who wished to hear him could go. He never shouted at members of other religions in the streets, nor visited their temples, places of worship or houses to try to convert them, but encouraged through his actions them to come to him. Even Paul, by far the most caustic of the New Testament writers, did not treat potential converts in a contemptuous or agressive way. When Paul went to Athens, to speak in the Areopagus, a place along the general lines of Speakers' Corner in London, he did not call the Athenians Satanists. He did not insult their beliefs, what he did to was to explain both what he believed, and why he believed it. The harsh words in the New Testament about "vipers", "devils", "seducing spirits" and people being under the dominion of Satan were not aimed at Pagans, but at heretic Christians or Jews who opposed Jesus. They were the ones the Apostles condemned: the legalists, the proto-gnostics, the disputers over matters of Judaism and the Trinity: those who were dangerous to the still fragile Christian faith. And so Paul and the rest damned them all to hell and back using particularly harsh language. But were they as we are? o. Even people such as I, once a Christian, now a Pagan, cannot be bracketed with these people to give you an excuse to insult me. Mark this, that I am an apostate, one who has fallen away from the faith entirely, rather than a heretic who believes wrong things about your faith. Arius, the gnostics, and Christian Wiccans can be said to be heretics, but Pagans, Buddhists, Hindus and others are not. The most we can be, if we were once Christians, is apostates. There is no Biblical justification for the use of insults to Pagans - even if, like me, they have no wish to become Christian. Furthermore - and this is the reason Jesus did not use that tactic, insulting those who share no part of your faith will not encourage them to believe, but rather the opposite.
Aside from this different method of preaching, the non-agressive desire to be a living testament to your faith which then encourages others to believe, there are a few things which Christians may wish to do which will annoy Pagans less and might therefore be more effective for you:
- No assumptions. Do not believe that all Pagans believe the same thing. There is an enormous variety of different beliefs under the banner of Paganism. For example - not all Pagans are duotheists, not all believe in reincarnation, not all practise magic of any form. If you're evangelising, why not try to figure out what exactly people believe before you try to refute it?
- Beware falsehoods or misunderstandings propagated by some Christians. For example: Pagans do not worship Satan, there is no such thing as a "Satan" in our belief-system, he is a product of your belief-system. Other common myths are that Pagans/Witches practise human or animal sacrifice, that this is common at Hallowe'en (Samhain), and that ritual orgies are common. Propagating these myths serves simply to annoy Pagans. For more information on these myths, you might wish to check out The Witches' Voice, which has some good articles on prominent Christians who spread falsehoods about Paganism, including Jack Chick.
- Respect. Remember that if you treat others with respect you will be treated with respect too. Just because, in your belief, we're all going to Hell, does not mean we are not human beings worthy of the same respect you are. That goes for our beliefs too - we may not believe the same as you, but you can respect our beliefs anyway. Respecting us and our beliefs sort of precludes you from insulting us - whether those insults are taken directly from the Bible or not.
Pagan and Christian have to live in this world together, despite the fact we believe totally different things. In this day and age we both know surpression of other beliefs or wholesale slaughter of other believers is no longer possible, morally or practically, for either of us, so we have to find a way of living together. You're always going to try to convert others, we'll hopefully never do so, but we can think of ways to make your evangelism of our community a little easier to bear. I hope that some, at least, listen to and use these suggestions.