Rejoiners to a Pagan

© Lúcio Mascarenhas. URL: http://www.geocities.com/livrant/rejoiners-to-a-pagan.html

1. Paganism

   Hindus are nowadays vocal in demanding that the term "pagan" not be applied to them, and demanding a privileged status from Christians excluding them from that definition.
   
   This is reminiscent of the mutual relationship between the Boers and Japanese, when the Japanese were granted exemption from being an "inferior race" by the white Boers of South Africa and as "honorary whites."
   
   By the same logic, Hindus seem to be demanding from Christians the status of "honorary Christians". God forbid it!
   
   Of course, the very notion is nonsensical to commonsense.
   
   Let us consider further. On the web, one of the best dictionary references is http://www.Dictionary.com.
   
   Click on these links to see what result a search using this dictionary search engine throws up on the meaning of "pagan" and "heathen".
   
   http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=pagan
   
   http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=heathen
   
   Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, although it has its limitations. Here is what it has to say about the word "pagan": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagan




2. Mediaeval vs. "Modern" Christianity

   An allegation has been made that the theology of St. Francis Xavier was "mediaeval", by which an effort is made to dismiss and mitigate it, indeed even substitute for it a bastardized new theology, even as a pretension is carried on of a cult of pious devotion, love and respect for St. Francis Xavier.
   
   The pagan's pretension to a syncretic, eclectic cult of St. Xavier is pure hypocrisy that would make the Pharisees and Saduccees go green with envy, and is designed merely to mislead the Christian into spiritual fornication and adultery.
   
   However, that is not the main issue. For Christians, the Bible defines their faith. And the Bible is vehement in forbidding us from accepting the legitimacy of the Baals of the Canaanites, Amorrhites, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Philistines, Aramites, Egyptians, etc., etc.
   
   The Christian is strictly forbidden from accepting Baal, Chemosh, Astarte, Kenaan, Moloch, Dagun, etc.
   
   But on what basis can we pretend that while the Bible forbids the acceptance of the Baals of the West Asians, it did not forbid the acceptance of the Baals of South Asia?
   
   For two thousand years, Christians refused to accept any false god and any false religion, and too many of them have paid for it with their blood, just as they did under the persecution of the Selucid kings of Antioch, which had provoked the Maccabee rebellion.
   
   This is true, not only of the West Asians, but also of the Greeks, Romans, Tuetons, Celts, Numidians, etc. St. Athanasius (not to be confused with the Patriarch of Alexandria), St. Shapoor, etc. were murdered by the Zoroastrians for converting to Christianity and not reverting even when threatened with death.
   
   In South Asia itself, pagans murdered St. Thomas because he refused to worship their demoness Kali or Durga. In his martyrology, it is reported that they seized him and took him to their temple and demanded that he worship their demoness. After his warnings failed to make them see reason, he made the sign of the cross over the idol, and it turned into a bitch in flames that ran around yelping in great pain and then collapsed and died. Seeing this the Brahmins became enraged and pierced him with a lance.
   
   In Kalyan, St. Bartholomeo the Apostle was flayed alive again for the same reasons.
   
   In Rome, St. Peter and St. Paul were murdered because they refused to offer sacrifices to the idols of the pagan demons. Ditto for Sts. Catherine of Alexandria, Rita, Cecilia, Mauritius, Sebastian, Lawrence, etc., etc.
   
   In Japan, the Christians, including St. Goncalo Garcia, were murdered because they refused to apostatize to Buddhism.
   
   If Christianity is true, then Christianity forbids the cult of the demons Rama, Krishna, Ganapati, Shiva, Vishnu, etc., just as much as it forbids the cults of Baal, Moloch, Chemosh, Astarte, Kenaan, Dagun, etc.
   
   But if any who call themselves Christian wish to accept the cults of these demons as legitimate, then they must thrash the Bible. Honesty demands that such people go out and formally revert to paganism or found their own religion and leave Christianity alone. Do not pervert Christianity. Christianity does not force anyone to accept it, or anyone to remain in it.