Hallowe'en/Samhain is my favourite holiday, but the holiday I'm celebrating is really from someone else's religion.
Hm. At one point you described yourself as a Christian Pagan; now you sound like you identify as a Christian. What caused the shift?
Someone else commented on the parallel between a Christian celebrating the Fourth of July and a Christian celebrating Samhain/Hallowe'en; I think that's a false analogy. There's a difference between a secular holiday like a national country-birthday, a holiday with mixed secular and pan-religious significance like Thanksgiving, and a holiday rooted in someone else's religion. While Christianity has always been good at co-opting pieces of other religions, it's never had much tolerance for paying direct reverence to their customs or Gods.
I've always (well, since sometime in 7th grade) identified as a Christian. For a while, noting that some of my friends identfied as "ChristoPagans", I contemplated what that label would mean in my case, and whether it made sense to me, but pretty much where I landed quite some time ago is "a Christian who has learned a lot from Pagans and who sees more points of commonality than difference between Christians and Pagans". In many ways I feel more comfortable around Pagans than with many of my fellow Christians, so "Christian member of Pagan community" also describes me.
I don't remember describing myself as a "Christian Pagan" ... I wonder whether I was keeping a diary then (or wrote about it online).
"While Christianity has always been good at co-opting pieces of other religions, it's never had much tolerance for paying direct reverence to their customs or Gods."
True. And while I'm not revering their deities, I'm treading interesting ground by honoring their customs and (unlike a lot of folks celebrating Hallowe'en) acknowledging to myself that that's what I'm doing.
While Christianity has always been good at co-opting pieces of other religions, it's never had much tolerance for paying direct reverence to their customs or Gods.
[emphasis mine]
When one's religion contains a prohibition against worshiping other gods, it makes sense to refuse to pay direct reverence to the gods of other religions. Sure.
So.... what about paying reverence to their customs? Is that the same thing? What are the rules against that?
(no subject)
Hm. At one point you described yourself as a Christian Pagan; now you sound like you identify as a Christian. What caused the shift?
Someone else commented on the parallel between a Christian celebrating the Fourth of July and a Christian celebrating Samhain/Hallowe'en; I think that's a false analogy. There's a difference between a secular holiday like a national country-birthday, a holiday with mixed secular and pan-religious significance like Thanksgiving, and a holiday rooted in someone else's religion. While Christianity has always been good at co-opting pieces of other religions, it's never had much tolerance for paying direct reverence to their customs or Gods.
(no subject)
I don't remember describing myself as a "Christian Pagan" ... I wonder whether I was keeping a diary then (or wrote about it online).
"While Christianity has always been good at co-opting pieces of other religions, it's never had much tolerance for paying direct reverence to their customs or Gods."
True. And while I'm not revering their deities, I'm treading interesting ground by honoring their customs and (unlike a lot of folks celebrating Hallowe'en) acknowledging to myself that that's what I'm doing.
Hmm.
(no subject)
[emphasis mine]
When one's religion contains a prohibition against worshiping other gods, it makes sense to refuse to pay direct reverence to the gods of other religions. Sure.
So.... what about paying reverence to their customs? Is that the same thing? What are the rules against that?