Anti-Christian haters

Okay what I am posting below is a comment I made on another's blog and thought it worthy of putting here as well.  The main point of her blog post was that there is a small but significant group of people of other belief systems: pagans, Wiccans, atheists, and others that react poorly to Christianity.  Christianity being the dominant religious viewpoint in this country, tends to provide a seemingly uniform view.  This is untrue of course but I think that non-Christians, especially the young who are trying to establish their religious identity or those who have had bad run-ins with Christians in the past, are Christian haters.  My friend's blog post basically said that they need to grow up and gave her reasons for that.  Here is my only slightly truncated response.

Agreed.  I will say as a practicing solitary polytheistic animist... (see? that's why I just say pagan now when people ask) I have been in all aspects of this argument.  More so because as you well know I also teach and teach primarily in predominantly Christian communities.  For example where I live/teach right now is 70%+ Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints - a.k.a. Mormons.  So as a supposed "pillar" or "exemplar," I have to be very cautious about spreading any information about my own beliefs.  Several know but it is only through a sort of screening process that I choose who is going to be okay with my beliefs and who is not.

This issue is very similar to a friend of mine who is an English professor.  He has to choose whether to come out as a gay man to each class based on an evaluation of that class' ability to "handle it" or not.  His being gay is often relevant to the discussion so he feels pressure to do so but he also has had unfortunate incidents in which his being out has backfired with his students.  I feel the same way as a pagan (short-hand).  

I have never felt hatred toward Christians of any ilk.  Even the hate-spewing and occasionally violently-inclined Christians who have attacked me in the past.  I feel that some brands of Christianity encourage that sort of behavior more than others based on their route to salvation.  In my experience, certain sects of Christians are sort of set up to fail.  Because their salvation is dependent upon my actions as a potential convert.  For anyone who has been on this path for any length of time, you know that fighting to even have your own beliefs in this society, when those beliefs are non-Christian, causes one to stick to them quite tenaciously if paganism, Wicca, whatever is what works for that person.  So it is not bloody likely at this stage in the game that I'm ever going to say "you know what? you're right, I was wrong about everything that I spent the last 25 years on."  Therefore, I don't convert, but I do listen politely as long as the person proselytizing is also being polite.  Then I politely decline.

If you truly are a pagan, most adhere to something similar to the three-fold rule of Wicca.  So whatever you do for good or for ill comes back to you three times.  I live that in my daily life and I have no reason to lose the good things I have done in my life by being cruel or malicious to somebody that attacks me for my own beliefs.  It is not my fault that they are stupidly acting out due to frustration, but it is my responsibility to govern my own responses to the situation.  You can't fix stupid, but you can inform the ignorant.  So if you want to put it in karmic terms, I don't wish to have bad karma by hating someone else for their own belief systems. 

In my view, religion is a guide and a path to self-discovery.  It can also be a balm for the mind or soul, depending on your point of view.  So if someone believes in something that gives them strength and comfort and tries to make of them better people, I respect their right to choose that.  Just as I always have hope that they will do the same for me.  It is not always the case, but again I only govern my own reactions to it.