Life has been good for us. Which is obvious to any reader of this blog since I tend to post when I am down and depressed. But my present mindset and philosophy has gone a long way to fight back the melancholy. I love walking the Green Path!
On that note, I have had a recent challenge to my new-found religion/philosophy/mindest. It comes in the form of a dear friend from my past that is a Fundamentalist Christian.
Before I go on let me say that I am well over being mad at Christianity and Christians. The gods I serve dont want me to dwell on that, and I find that just giving it up has made me a happier person. I find that faith is important to a persons sense of purpose and well-being. Destroying someones faith because you do not agree with it is just wrong, in fact it is evil in my book. So, I dont want to argue or prothletize. I just want to enjoy my relationship to the gods, and to the land and let others enjoy their connection.
Of course, my dear friend doesn't feel that way. In his grey-colored world there is one path, and all others lead to hell. He regularly comments on any Druidy posts I put up on Facebook or Instagram with a diatribe that basically says to repent or I am going to hell. He has even sent me photos of himself crying because I have "fallen away from Christ" and I am hurting him.
As I said before, I am over being angry. But, these comments make me feel angry again. I try to reply in the most gentle and non-confrontational way as possible. But, what I want to do is go on the offensive. I want to lay into him and tell him how wrong and manipulative his religion is. I want to tell him to wake up to the lies and stop following a god that really doesnt care a lick about him.
But, he is a zealot. His identity is so entangled with his strict fundamentalist faith that he can never be reasoned with or moved to see anything else. In short, in order to reach him, I would have to destroy his faith. To me, that is among the basest things you could do to a person, and I do not want that on my conscience. Even though he has no qualms about doing it to me.
This lies at the heart of the difference between the book religions and the religion of the earth. On is a law that must be followed while the other is a path of discovery, a path of the heart. I just dont think it is healthy to hand someone their belief and motivate them to fidelity through fear.
