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I'm a heathen. :shrug: Happy to ally with whoever necessary on issues of importance to both. Such as, you know, schools transing kids.
(Just so you know, the whole "heathen vs. pagan" thing evolved after "pagan" started to gain a connotation of "woke." The "heathens" are the non-woke ones. As usual, that includes everyone from normies to Nazis.)
I mean they did. Can be good; family members can still celebrate the same holidays! :) (Mostly it's whatever but not going to deny that it happened. Roman pagans tried to suppress Christians, Christians then tried to suppress pagans, religions often try to suppress other religions, etc...like I said above I'm more interested in allying with whoever necessary on matters of importance to both.)
There are more heathens out there than just the "oh paganism is just secular humanism" contingent. (Also: I left UU for this. One day I should write about my experiences growing up UU as part of a heritage-AUA family. The post-merger/Boomer-influx changes broke my mom's heart. Though she'd never say so of course because that would be rude.)
AFAIC Jesus was another holy man and anyone who wants to is fine to worship (or heck just study) him. (See also: "What Pagans can learn from Christianity".) I wouldn't particularly recommend becoming a heathen unless you have some actual (religious or philosophical) reason to.
And uh unlike another commenter in this thread I don't have a CS Lewis quote for everything :D but I do have one for this:
You said 'The world is going back to Paganism'.
Oh bright Vision! I saw our dynasty in the bar of the House
Spill from their tumblers a libation to the Erinyes,
And Leavis with Lord Russell wreathed in flowers, heralded with flutes,
Leading white bulls to the cathedral of the solemn Muses
To pay where due the glory of their latest theorem.
Hestia's fire in every flat, rekindled, burned before
The Lardergods. Unmarried daughters with obedient hands
Tended it. By the hearth the white-armd venerable mother
Domum servabat, lanam faciebat. At the hour
Of sacrifice their brothers came, silent, corrected, grave
Before their elders; on their downy cheeks easily the blush
Arose (it is the mark of freemen's children) as they trooped,
Gleaming with oil, demurely home from the palaestra or the dance.
Walk carefully, do not wake the envy of the happy gods,
Shun Hubris. The middle of the road, the middle sort of men,
Are best. Aidos surpasses gold. Reverence for the aged
Is wholesome as seasonable rain, and for a man to die
Defending the city in battle is a harmonious thing.
Thus with magistral hand the Puritan Sophrosune
Cooled and schooled and tempered our uneasy motions;
Heathendom came again, the circumspection and the holy fears ...
You said it. Did you mean it? Oh inordinate liar, stop.
Or did you mean another kind of heathenry?
Think, then, that under heaven-roof the little disc of the earth,
Fortified Midgard, lies encircled by the ravening Worm.
Over its icy bastions faces of giant and troll
Look in, ready to invade it. The Wolf, admittedly, is bound;
But the bond will break, the Beast run free. The weary gods,
Scarred with old wounds the one-eyed Odin, Tyr who has lost a hand,
Will limp to their stations for the Last defence. Make it your hope
To be counted worthy on that day to stand beside them;
For the end of man is to partake of their defeat and die
His second, final death in good company. The stupid, strong
Unteachable monsters are certain to be victorious at last,
And every man of decent blood is on the losing side.
Take as your model the tall women with yellow hair in plaits
Who walked back into burning houses to die with men,
Or him who as the death spear entered into his vitals
Made critical comments on its workmanship and aim.
Are these the Pagans you spoke of? Know your betters and crouch, dogs;
You that have Vichy water in your veins and worship the event
Your goddess History (whom your fathers called the strumpet Fortune).
(Sorry I don't have time right now to get into a long discussion; I just thought I should mention that my type exists and at least one of us is on this forum.)
ETA: @LiberalRetvrn
Interesting, I hadn’t heard of such a movement before and would be interested to hear more: so you have links to forums or the equivalent?
I remember there was an online Roman city state where everyone messaged in Latin but that was openly a LARP.
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