I hear this when people find out I am Wiccan. I get tired of it. The truth is most Wiccans are more tolerant, kind and giving then some Christians I know.
People would much rather stay in their comfortable boxes, sticking to what they've been told, than actually learn about beliefs other than those with which they've been raised.
The disrespect on that article was one reason I posted this today. The other was because that meme was sent to me on FB by a friend and it just struck me as something I wanted to throw out there and maybe show some people how disrespectful they sound.
To them, that's a feature, not a bug. They mean to sound disrespectful. It's entirely intentional. And many of them would regularly be more disrespectful, if they could get away with it.
I don't like hate speech but there is no law against it.
However! Those who indulge in hate speech have to expect pushback against them when they open their mouths. Those that don't like the push back think they are being oppressed when its not oppression but opposition
You don't see the deleted comments, because they were not ticketed, as comments promoting negative stereotypes and meta have been. Check the numbering of the thread. Also, anyone following the conversation up until now can tell you that I made quite a few more comments here than can be seen now, but I deleted them in the interest of keeping to the topic Veronica wants to discuss.
Is a lot of that really mean, though? I can see ignorant comments like with pregnant women or a guy with no ears - people just don't know how to pick up the conversation.
And when they attack something you care about then you can feel that way. I will feel the way I feel. I don't need you to tell me how I should feel about people attacking my faith when you sit here on this site every fucking Christmas & side with the idiots spouting shit about a war on Christmas.
it's all about freedom of religion to the blinders brigade. as long as your belief system conforms to what they think is legitimate, you're free to practice it, otherwise you're considered less than equal and that freedom doesn't apply. the salem witch trials were basically an excuse by religious cults to remove women that they considered trouble makers and didn't conform to the traditional subjugated roles which imposed upon them.
the salem witch trials were basically an excuse by religious cults to remove women that they considered trouble makers and didn't conform to the traditional subjugated roles which imposed upon them.
You really know your history, too many mistakenly think it arose from King William’s War, or the Second Indian War and the strain on resources in Salem that refugees placed. Then several little girls blamed some women for their fits and paranoia set in.
Which is why Giles Corey refused to confess and allowed himself to be crushed to death. If he had confessed his heirs would have lost the land, however since he did not confess, his heirs were allowed to inherit.
I practice the religious and Spiritual beliefs of my Cherokee ancestors. Christians labeled us as being pagans and Godless savages. If the Native Americans had not reached out to them and helped them settle into their new land regardless of their difference in religious beliefs most, if not all, would have perished in the first year here.
Yet, these greedy Christians found it A-OK to turn on their saviors and kill as many as they could to take their land. And that was/has been their accepted way of dealing with Indigenous people all over the world.
The religious and Spiritual beliefs of others are their own to believe, and I have no right to decide what their own beliefs should be. And.....I ask the same of others for my own religious and Spiritual beliefs.
I really enjoy your Blogs and articles/seeds. I enjoy learning about other beliefs and traditions. I find your Wiccan beliefs very interesting, enlightening and Spiritual. They give me an opportunity to learn and better understand the Wiccan beliefs and traditions.
Thank you for sharing your chosen path with us. It is truly appreciated.
The High Priestess of this coven was very aggressive in her pursuit for me to join, but at the monthly Pagan Meet-Ups we belonged she actively dismissed and disparaged men. I flat out told her she was no better than woman haters and pagan haters.
I left that Pagan Meet-Ups group because when we met instead of discussing pagan things (feasts, spells, blessings, ETC.) they would start criticizing all faiths that were not pagan. Sometimes they got downright nasty. I refused to be a part of that so I left the group. The leader of the group still contacts me after 4 years to see if I want back in.
There was a well known NT'er who was rather intolerant of your faith and beliefs, Veronica. I believe there is another, also. The one currently in residence is highly intolerant of the Catholic faith.
There are actually a lot of people out there like that. Some hide it better than others. My former hairdresser was always asking me about my feast days and appeared to be tolerant. Then one day at my job a woman I know came up to me (she goes to the same salon) and told me some of the nasty things the hairdresser was telling other customers about me. I told the owner of the salon I was going to find another salon and the reason for it...she took me on as her client and schedules me when the salon is very quiet.
I was very angry. I would never have talked about it unless she asked, but then to gossip about me & my beliefs to others. One of the worst things is that the woman from my job then spread it through the department that I am a witch...I don't hide the fact, but I also do not advertise it at work, because of the things posted in the meme above and they don't have to say it is my religion that caused them to fire my ass.
Exactly. You live in small town NY, don't you? Small towns in the north are every bit as intolerant of "otherness" as they are in the south. I grew up in rural PA and people didn't talk about religion much but anything other than a Christian world view would have you branded as "strange, odd, heretic"
My coworker was participating in a "mentorship" program at her church. She was mentoring a young woman who was being abused by her husband. She said mentoring her was difficult, because she was a Satan worshipper. I asked why a Satan worshipper would be a church member. Well, she was Wiccan. I told her that Wiccans don't worship Satan. She didn't believe me; only believed what her pastor told her about Wicca.
Even more disturbing was the fact that the church expected that any planned calls to the police regarding the abuse be run by the church leadership first. They were the ones to decide if the physical abuse was quite bad enough for somebody to be arrested over it.
Not any more, but I work for a medical center and all they have to do is suggest a HIPAA violation and I am gone. Most of my "superiors" are Christians and I do not wish to find out if they are tolerant or not.
Good thing nobody is doing that, or many would be outraged that a democrat Congress is threatening big tech with anti-trust lawsuits because they won’t toe the “correct” line when is comes to messaging.
I went to a blood drive there one time. While I was waiting my turn, a few church members were talking, catching up because they hadn't seen each other for a while. One was telling the other she'd had a few kids. "Well, you're homeschooling them, aren't you?" Very aggressively, as if there were no other legitimate choice but to homeschool.
I have to admit that I don't know a lot about Wicca, but from what the few Wiccans I know have said, it seems to be a belief system that is accepting of pretty much whatever spiritual path one chooses to take as valid for that person. If we could all mind our own like that, the world would be a better place.
I would love to tell you that all Wiccans are tolerant of other beliefs and such, but alas there are some intolerant witches as well. For the most part, those that I do "hang" with are of the mind "do as thy will, but do no harm" philosophy and also the philosophy of P3(what you do to someone (something) good or bad comes back to you 3 fold).
I enjoy peans to tolerance form the person who gives a Klansman a thumbs up for bragging about beating up Catholics.
Is that word salad, Ceaser salad or a tossed salad. You might want to lay off the sauce when trying to comment.
Maybe don't support bigots before you start lecturing people?
You consider that lecturing people. It was simply a statement now if I was lecturing people I would say, ''you express bigoted views on a regular basis'' or ''your drinking too much and can't write a coherent sentence''.
To be honest your comment about making yourself sound more tolerant than Christians sounds kind of intolerant. I get what you are trying to say but this isn't the way to go about it. You wouldn't have worded it that way if you didn't suffer the same affliction they did.
Understand I am not a Christian but I vehemently disagree with this type of method to further progress. It will only work as a sounding board to others angry at Christians. This is what we have to change if we intend to actually make a point and make this world a better place.
We have to remove ourselves from the cause. We have to live by example and ensure we don't make the same mistakes as those we hope to enlighten. We cannot give up on our neighbors however difficult it may seem. No matter how misguided we might believe them to be, we are better to love them than to discount them.
Intolerance abounds.
Everywhere...
It is everywhere. It is like a virus and infects people.
People would much rather stay in their comfortable boxes, sticking to what they've been told, than actually learn about beliefs other than those with which they've been raised.
Seems here lately, some people want to spout their gospel as the only truth and think the country should succumb to their wishes.
Many also want to put down the beliefs of others, but don't often care to have their own questioned.
And as the video posted below resort to stereotypes that are offensive.
Hell just look at the article we were both on. We have people fighting tooth and nail in order just to be able to abuse trans people.
The disrespect on that article was one reason I posted this today. The other was because that meme was sent to me on FB by a friend and it just struck me as something I wanted to throw out there and maybe show some people how disrespectful they sound.
To them, that's a feature, not a bug. They mean to sound disrespectful. It's entirely intentional. And many of them would regularly be more disrespectful, if they could get away with it.
It is so sad how far this country has fallen into intolerance.
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To some people, free speech is nothing more than a rational to be assholes to everyone.
And most of them do not understand what free speech truly means.
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So in your mind the biggest threat to democracy is not allowing hate speech.
Ok.....
Like I was saying to someone yesterday...it's legal to someone a derogatory name but it's morally wrong. Not that I let that stop me some days
I don't like hate speech but there is no law against it.
However! Those who indulge in hate speech have to expect pushback against them when they open their mouths. Those that don't like the push back think they are being oppressed when its not oppression but opposition
So many people like that.
You are correct. That is the thing. They spout their hate yet when someone says something back they act like they are being persecuted.
Some people don't understand consequences.
And you are exactly right! The answer to speech you don’t like is more speech! Better ideas!
I would like for the discussion of government, companies and presidents past and current to stop, please. My topic is how people treat people...
I have cleaned up the off-topic comments, including my own.
Thank you.
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Please stop.
You don't see the deleted comments, because they were not ticketed, as comments promoting negative stereotypes and meta have been. Check the numbering of the thread. Also, anyone following the conversation up until now can tell you that I made quite a few more comments here than can be seen now, but I deleted them in the interest of keeping to the topic Veronica wants to discuss.
Thanks for the explanation.
Is a lot of that really mean, though? I can see ignorant comments like with pregnant women or a guy with no ears - people just don't know how to pick up the conversation.
It is ignorant.
I agree with stupidity but I don't think every awkward comment is made with the kind of malice that needs attention.
And when they attack something you care about then you can feel that way. I will feel the way I feel. I don't need you to tell me how I should feel about people attacking my faith when you sit here on this site every fucking Christmas & side with the idiots spouting shit about a war on Christmas.
it's all about freedom of religion to the blinders brigade. as long as your belief system conforms to what they think is legitimate, you're free to practice it, otherwise you're considered less than equal and that freedom doesn't apply. the salem witch trials were basically an excuse by religious cults to remove women that they considered trouble makers and didn't conform to the traditional subjugated roles which imposed upon them.
You really know your history, too many mistakenly think it arose from King William’s War, or the Second Indian War and the strain on resources in Salem that refugees placed. Then several little girls blamed some women for their fits and paranoia set in.
Thanks for the clarification.
Some of these women were widows who inherited lands that their neighbors coveted.
that's exactly what it was...a land grab by the wealthier citizens
Which is why Giles Corey refused to confess and allowed himself to be crushed to death. If he had confessed his heirs would have lost the land, however since he did not confess, his heirs were allowed to inherit.
Have been an outspoken atheist/agnostic my whole life.
These days don't much care what anybody believes.
Got sick and tired of the ignorance of the others.
I know exactly what you are saying.
I practice the religious and Spiritual beliefs of my Cherokee ancestors. Christians labeled us as being pagans and Godless savages. If the Native Americans had not reached out to them and helped them settle into their new land regardless of their difference in religious beliefs most, if not all, would have perished in the first year here.
Yet, these greedy Christians found it A-OK to turn on their saviors and kill as many as they could to take their land. And that was/has been their accepted way of dealing with Indigenous people all over the world.
The religious and Spiritual beliefs of others are their own to believe, and I have no right to decide what their own beliefs should be. And.....I ask the same of others for my own religious and Spiritual beliefs.
I really enjoy your Blogs and articles/seeds. I enjoy learning about other beliefs and traditions. I find your Wiccan beliefs very interesting, enlightening and Spiritual. They give me an opportunity to learn and better understand the Wiccan beliefs and traditions.
Thank you for sharing your chosen path with us. It is truly appreciated.
I was offered to be the first male member of an all female coven back in 1986 in Carlsbad, New Mexico. It was a very attractive offer.
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I bet you were. wink wink
I was a young 20 year old and very tempted, but in the end I declined since I didn't really want to live in Carlsbad, New Mexico.
Can't blame you there
I was invited into a coven that was anti-man. I didn't join. I prefer to be a solitary, but wouldn't join any group that discriminates.
One of the ladies was that way, but none of the others were.
The High Priestess of this coven was very aggressive in her pursuit for me to join, but at the monthly Pagan Meet-Ups we belonged she actively dismissed and disparaged men. I flat out told her she was no better than woman haters and pagan haters.
I left that Pagan Meet-Ups group because when we met instead of discussing pagan things (feasts, spells, blessings, ETC.) they would start criticizing all faiths that were not pagan. Sometimes they got downright nasty. I refused to be a part of that so I left the group. The leader of the group still contacts me after 4 years to see if I want back in.
I was once offered a iob as a Chippendales dancer back in the day.
Was the doorman/bouncer in a strip club they played one night.
I respectfully declined.
didn't think I'd like strange/deranged/ fat women grabbing my junk.
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There was a well known NT'er who was rather intolerant of your faith and beliefs, Veronica. I believe there is another, also. The one currently in residence is highly intolerant of the Catholic faith.
There are actually a lot of people out there like that. Some hide it better than others. My former hairdresser was always asking me about my feast days and appeared to be tolerant. Then one day at my job a woman I know came up to me (she goes to the same salon) and told me some of the nasty things the hairdresser was telling other customers about me. I told the owner of the salon I was going to find another salon and the reason for it...she took me on as her client and schedules me when the salon is very quiet.
I hate phonies. And I really hate people who say things behind your back that don't have the balls to say it to your face
I was very angry. I would never have talked about it unless she asked, but then to gossip about me & my beliefs to others. One of the worst things is that the woman from my job then spread it through the department that I am a witch...I don't hide the fact, but I also do not advertise it at work, because of the things posted in the meme above and they don't have to say it is my religion that caused them to fire my ass.
One time in my old house I spilled some gas on the road. It was a small puddle so I lit it on fire to get rid of it.
Very small puddle and fire. The next day my neighbor was telling people I do witchcraft.
Exactly. You live in small town NY, don't you? Small towns in the north are every bit as intolerant of "otherness" as they are in the south. I grew up in rural PA and people didn't talk about religion much but anything other than a Christian world view would have you branded as "strange, odd, heretic"
When I was growing up in MD there wasn't much diversity where I lived.
There was intolerance between denominations of the same faith...
OMG they go to the Lutheran church!
I guess people just want something to be against to somehow make what they believe seem superior.
My coworker was participating in a "mentorship" program at her church. She was mentoring a young woman who was being abused by her husband. She said mentoring her was difficult, because she was a Satan worshipper. I asked why a Satan worshipper would be a church member. Well, she was Wiccan. I told her that Wiccans don't worship Satan. She didn't believe me; only believed what her pastor told her about Wicca.
Even more disturbing was the fact that the church expected that any planned calls to the police regarding the abuse be run by the church leadership first. They were the ones to decide if the physical abuse was quite bad enough for somebody to be arrested over it.
And they call Wicca a cult.
That church sounds like one I would steer clear of'....like 500 miles away
Not any more, but I work for a medical center and all they have to do is suggest a HIPAA violation and I am gone. Most of my "superiors" are Christians and I do not wish to find out if they are tolerant or not.
Fire does play into a lot of my feast days, but certainly not in my garage.
Another person that just does not understand and does not care to, but enjoys bearing false witness.
I went to a blood drive there one time. While I was waiting my turn, a few church members were talking, catching up because they hadn't seen each other for a while. One was telling the other she'd had a few kids. "Well, you're homeschooling them, aren't you?" Very aggressively, as if there were no other legitimate choice but to homeschool.
Yeah, they were pretty...different.
In truth Satan is a Christian construct and Wicca are not Christian. Funny how they put all their bad dealings on us poor nature lovers.
I think Satan got a raw deal
If I believed in him I might agree.
Jewish and Muslim construct as well.
Was a hard-core blues rocker back in the day and always distrusted the A&R folk who claimed that they had your best interest at heart.
I'm not sure what hard-core blues rocker means, b ut do you like Stan Webb's guitar and Christine's Perfects voice in Chicken Shack?
I think that Etta had a great version as we ll:
[deleted] the mockery is the required penance they must pay to enter heaven. it's my duty.
It's wonderful that you've finally found your calling.
I have no tolerance for lemming type displays of ignorance and I'm also surprised you haven't picked up on that well before now.
I see that you enjoy the myth about lemmings.
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I have to admit that I don't know a lot about Wicca, but from what the few Wiccans I know have said, it seems to be a belief system that is accepting of pretty much whatever spiritual path one chooses to take as valid for that person. If we could all mind our own like that, the world would be a better place.
I would love to tell you that all Wiccans are tolerant of other beliefs and such, but alas there are some intolerant witches as well. For the most part, those that I do "hang" with are of the mind "do as thy will, but do no harm" philosophy and also the philosophy of P3(what you do to someone (something) good or bad comes back to you 3 fold).
Arvo Veronica..I find it all rather fascinating and appreciate and enjoy your articles..I have never heard of Wicca and enjoy your posts immensely...
I always go by respect and each to their own..and I don't think you can go to far wrong. Peace to all. 🐨
I don't tolerate bigots, racists, or trolls other than that I'm a very tolerant guy.
I enjoy peans to tolerance form the person who gives a Klansman a thumbs up for bragging about beating up Catholics.
Maybe don't support bigots before you start lecturing people?
Is that word salad, Ceaser salad or a tossed salad. You might want to lay off the sauce when trying to comment.
You consider that lecturing people. It was simply a statement now if I was lecturing people I would say, ''you express bigoted views on a regular basis'' or ''your drinking too much and can't write a coherent sentence''.
See the difference?
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LOL, nice try at insulting me, Sean. You'll have to do much better than what you just posted.
No reason I wouldn't want to play it, Sean.
Now, instead of attacking me, you should actually address the subject matter that Veronica put up for discussion.
ow, instead of attacking m
You made it personal Kavika.
But it's clear where we stand. I'm against attacking people on the basis of what they believe. You defend it.
Nothing else really needs to be said.
Cough...politics....cough
ough...politics....cough
Politics, at least for me, are not a religion.
yeah, that would be a whole 'nother kettle of fish...
To be honest your comment about making yourself sound more tolerant than Christians sounds kind of intolerant. I get what you are trying to say but this isn't the way to go about it. You wouldn't have worded it that way if you didn't suffer the same affliction they did.
Understand I am not a Christian but I vehemently disagree with this type of method to further progress. It will only work as a sounding board to others angry at Christians. This is what we have to change if we intend to actually make a point and make this world a better place.
We have to remove ourselves from the cause. We have to live by example and ensure we don't make the same mistakes as those we hope to enlighten. We cannot give up on our neighbors however difficult it may seem. No matter how misguided we might believe them to be, we are better to love them than to discount them.