concerning walking another spiritual path.....sometimes it is best to be quiet, to keep our beliefs to ourselves and live a good life doing good for others.

I have found that acceptance is a rare thing-the general public will either think you are nuts or going to hell. I have been fired from a job when the owner discovered I was a pagan. I said nothing to her- she caught a conversation between me and a known witch in St. Augustine.

What irritates me is the extrinsic and controlling religiosity that these people constantly hammer others with. One day I realized that my beliefs were so precious to me that I did not want to speak of them to others. It's safer that way too.It doesnt matter that others know what your beliefs are but it does matter how you live your life because of them.

Maybe I am a coward or maybe I just jealously guard my beliefs, I dont know.......

any opinions on whether to hide it or not???

You speak words of wisdom Sundog. After living in the south for 3 years I learned very quickly that if you are not Baptist you soul needed to be saved! LOL The first thing anyone would ask you when you met was what church or religion are you? I would say Lutheran and their eyes would get big and invite you to their church. I had a wonderful Doctor in Georgia that asked me if I had be asked about my religion yet? I said of course. He laughed and said, "Tell what I tell them. I'm pagan!" LOL He was kidding of course. So I am with you Sundog. Believe what you belive and be at Peace with yourself and your God or whatever. Don't push it on other people as the one true religion. Live your life the way you want to live it.

Tecumseh's speech
So live your life so that the fear
of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion,
respect others in their views,
and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long,
and its purpose the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song
for the day you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or sign of salute
when passing a friend, or even a stranger,
when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people, and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning
give thanks for the food,
and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks,
the fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and nothing,
for abuse turns the wise into fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those
whose hearts are filled with the fear of death,
so that they weep and pray
for a little more time
to live their life in a different way.
Sing your death song,
and die like a hero going home.
*****************************
I think he pretty well summed it up! I've never been terribly harrassed over religion, but I do agree that sometimes it's best to just stay quiet about it. Expect close-mindedness. It's about the same when it comes to believeing in ghosts - you have to be careful over that too or people will think you're over the edge!

Kell

I guess that there are times to just keep quiet about your faith. You should never lose a job over your faith, unless your faith is tied to your job. (It wouldn't work very well for a person to be a minister of one faith, but practice another, very different faith.) It is so upsetting to think about just how prejudiced our world is... and we have to protect ourselves and guard our hearts from the hurt that others pass out so freely to people they don't even know. You have to live your own faith, of your own choosing, but I think we do have to be careful about sharing "too much" with the average person we are apt to meet. You just have to judge what is best for the situation, and just know that revealing what is in your heart of hearts can be a mistake.

azspirit

I have found alot of discrimination if I tell people what my religion is.I often don't say anything because I feel it's between me and the Creator.I love that Tecumsah speech.I didn't tell those women on the board I wasn't Christian for a year and thought that most of them were alright with it,but I guess not.

[ December 26, 2001: Message edited by: LadyManaka ]

This post really makes me sad. I am a pagan and i can't practes (sp) as much as i want to due to my hubby. He is GREAT and everything else but snice he has always been brought up with witches are bad i can't do a thing about this. I don't want my kids baist (sp) due to i want them to choice their own path. What amkes it worse is that there is only a handfull of people that know what i am. Some days i wish i could just scream on the top of my lungs I AM PAGAN AND I AM PROUD OF IT !!! But do you think that will go down will with a christian family ?? My hubby (the reason why i call him hubby is because we live together and everything else) has asked him to marry him a million and 1 times and i have always said no and said it was because i don't want to get a devioce. The real reason is because his family will make it so we get married in a church (everyone in his family has been). Thats not for me.

So for my being quite is a way of life now =(

Cherrie

Lovely post Sundog.
Thanks for the saying/prayer Kellkell. Those are such wise words. They are beautiful.

I have to respond that you should hide or show your faith as feel. Sometimes it would not be good to express your faith, say when your within earshot of bunch of guys wearing tailored sheets on their heads. Other times it may be just the right time for someone to hear a pronoucement of faith that will lead them to a higher truth of themselves.
I believe that you should follow your heart and conscience as to when you should speak up or be quiet. I believe that can only be known in the moment. Unless of course you are on a crusade or jihad.
God bless all faiths and help them to learn tolerance and acceptance of each other. It breaks my heart to see people working against Peace and Love in the name of God and religion. God gave every one of us freedom of will, to chose what we feel is right and many religions seek to remove what God has given. They have no right to even try.
I believe we should trust ourselves to know when we should speak up or keep silent. Sometimes it is good for us to suffer if it creates awareness in those around us.

There pagans here I far as know they havnt had any problems with there belief. But live in metro area in the midwest. I new age beliefs leaning more Native American. I tell people my beliefs but usally wait a while. If I were Pagan I would have trouble with my husband though he would not like it. I didnt want to marreied In a church either because of my beliefs. I fixed it I got married in a park. I wanted married outdoors anyway. My brother in law lives in Alabamia My husband says every once in a while lets move down there it's warm. I tell him the same thing every time no they will burn at stake there.

I want to get married outdoors too Fairyflwr. Getting married is a church is nice but I can see (with my heart) that getting married in a beautiful natural setting would mean so much more to me.

I think we need a whole new catagory/name for people who believe in Jesus but who aren't "typical" Christians. Jesus never descriminated against anyone, he even treated women as equals and was such a radical in his time with his philosophy about humility, non judgement and love. I sometimes hate to admit to believing in him because of what other purported Christians do with all the holier than thou judgement stuff. Just because I don't want people to think I'm one of "them!" I love my Cherokee beliefs and it's part of who I am and so is my belief in Jesus. I'm of two races and two worlds sometimes. Neither one fits very neatly. You better believe if a pagan invited Jesus to dinner he'd be there with a bottle of wine. =) I'm signing myself as "stuck in the middle and discouraged."

I call myself a Christian because I don't really accept 100% the teachings of any organized religion. To me being Christian means that I believe in Jesus and his teachings although I accept that some of those teachings contained in the bible can be false as the bible was written by humans and humans make mistakes - being Christian also means that other methods of worship are right for others and should be explored so that I can maybe adapt portions of those methods that feel right for me. It is an on going learning experience which has allowed me to meet and love a very wide circle of people. =)

But you can't go to heaven unless you have been born again and have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. And the bible was written with the guidance of the Lord himself so everything in there is perfect and true.

That's what I hear all the time.

Thank you Birdsister and Connie for writing what you did. I was not having a good day. I have been seeing so much sorrow lately. It was nice to see what you two wrote. I believe as you do.
Thanks.

Thank YOU! I posted along these lines over in "Conversations in a Dead Sleep" in the paranormal section. I have kind of discovered something. You see my fraternal grandmother was Cherokee but didn't want people to know. (Opposite of my Mom's Cherokee people!) Anyway first she was a Baptist and then a Pentacostal. She traumatised me with scary stuff about demons and that the devil would come up through the floor and get me if I told a lie. I was 5 years old then. I had to completely redo my spirituality because I saw God as a punishing father and I had one of those on Earth already. So I went to the Cherokee and relearned about the Creator, once I did that I remet Jesus as a teacher of Love. What I realised though is, I still have fear and guilt from early childhood and question what did I do that was "evil" to bring this scarey stuff upon myself right now. I was thinking I should quit anything paranormal. Stay off the message boards, stop doing dream interpretations because it might be "divination" and wrong. I was about to go back to 5 years old and scared to sleep at night. Somewhere in this whole experience may lie some healing. I am just having to struggle to get to it! There are dark forces and mean ghosts just like mean people. Is my childhood fear just feeding this and pushing me almost to the brink now! Is this why I am so paniced when things start up??? Maybe this realisation is the guidance I've been asking for. As Long as I don't revert to the old ingrained fear!