He's spot on, but in my personal opinion, too forgiving. In 2004, my father passed away, and Don and I attempted to move to Kentucky, because it's gorgeous, and we had been selling stuff there at pagan festivals, and making pretty good money.
We were fired from three separate jobs in Kentucky, because we wouldn't go to church, and we weren't against gay marriage. I wish I were exaggerating. We ran out of money living in hotels, with no work, and landlords wouldn't rent to us because we had bumper stickers like "God is not a name, it's job description" and "I found Jesus, he was behind the sofa the whole time".
So we drove back to Illinois, to stay with my aunts, and neither one of them would let us sleep indoors. (Edited to add: They were both pentecostal.) We were forced to live in our van for six months. It froze, the block cracked, and we had no heat. The first night we were parked out front of one of my aunt's houses, it got down to ten below zero, I remember distinctly.
We lit candles, and hung blankets from the ceiling between the seats, to try to keep us alive. We lived on cold canned goods that Don walked two miles to the food bank to get. IT WAS HELLISH
We've had chicken bones thrown at us, at the gates to a festival in Kentucky. A church group was out front with KFC, trying to get attendees to stop and listen to their religious diatribe. When no one did, they ate it themselves and threw the bones at us as we went in.
We had a newsletter that we wanted to have printed, back in 2001, before everybody had printers and the internet, but the local print shop said they wouldn't do it, because they'd "prayed on it" and thought "it was the right thing to do".
We were at a gathering in Columbus in 2000, where the organizer had us all use the park behind his store for the circle. (Pagan religious ritual thing). And a church used the parking lot across the street to set up amplifiers and blast hymns at us the whole time. To his credit, AJ Drew was prepared with a megaphone, so we could still hear him, but it was ridiculous.
And I've spent my entire life constantly telling an endless stream of morons that no, we don't worship Satan. It gets old.
I've had a lot of coworkers over the years get in my face and rant at me about how I'm going to hell. They generally always got in trouble after the fact, but it never stops.
I detest judeo-abrahamic religion. And I think the reasons for that are fair. Not all of them are terrible people, but it inspires the terrible in people. It provides a crutch and an excuse to be just as awful of a human being as you like.
Asenath Waite ⋅ May 06, 2023 (edited May 06, 2023)
Edited
He's spot on, but in my personal opinion, too forgiving. In 2004, my father passed away, and Don and I attempted to move to Kentucky, because it's gorgeous, and we had been selling stuff there at pagan festivals, and making pretty good money.
We were fired from three separate jobs in Kentucky, because we wouldn't go to church, and we weren't against gay marriage. I wish I were exaggerating. We ran out of money living in hotels, with no work, and landlords wouldn't rent to us because we had bumper stickers like "God is not a name, it's job description" and "I found Jesus, he was behind the sofa the whole time".
So we drove back to Illinois, to stay with my aunts, and neither one of them would let us sleep indoors. (Edited to add: They were both pentecostal.) We were forced to live in our van for six months. It froze, the block cracked, and we had no heat. The first night we were parked out front of one of my aunt's houses, it got down to ten below zero, I remember distinctly.
We lit candles, and hung blankets from the ceiling between the seats, to try to keep us alive. We lived on cold canned goods that Don walked two miles to the food bank to get. IT WAS HELLISH
We've had chicken bones thrown at us, at the gates to a festival in Kentucky. A church group was out front with KFC, trying to get attendees to stop and listen to their religious diatribe. When no one did, they ate it themselves and threw the bones at us as we went in.
We had a newsletter that we wanted to have printed, back in 2001, before everybody had printers and the internet, but the local print shop said they wouldn't do it, because they'd "prayed on it" and thought "it was the right thing to do".
We were at a gathering in Columbus in 2000, where the organizer had us all use the park behind his store for the circle. (Pagan religious ritual thing). And a church used the parking lot across the street to set up amplifiers and blast hymns at us the whole time. To his credit, AJ Drew was prepared with a megaphone, so we could still hear him, but it was ridiculous.
And I've spent my entire life constantly telling an endless stream of morons that no, we don't worship Satan. It gets old.
I've had a lot of coworkers over the years get in my face and rant at me about how I'm going to hell. They generally always got in trouble after the fact, but it never stops.
I detest judeo-abrahamic religion. And I think the reasons for that are fair. Not all of them are terrible people, but it inspires the terrible in people. It provides a crutch and an excuse to be just as awful of a human being as you like.
Jodie Asenath Waite ⋅ May 06, 2023
I just wish all religions would accept all people nop matter what...I mean we all do have the same color blood don't we?
Asenath Waite Jodie ⋅ May 06, 2023
Amen, metaphorical sister.
xiampoesravenx ⋅ May 06, 2023
Thank god I'm Wiccan. :o Good article! :) Well written.
toddslife ⋅ May 06, 2023
nice