Religious Harassment ?

Originally Posted by Quintessence

Funny. To me saying Paganism isn't a religion is a deeply personal insult that suggests Pagan religions (and people who identify simply as Neopagan/Pagan and nothing else) aren't real or valid and that they therefore don't deserve nor warrant respect (such as under religious freedom). This is also the message it probably sends to outsiders like this sixteen year-old.

Pagan and paganism are derogatory terms

you can't save them

Originally Posted by Troll_ov_Grimness

Pagan and paganism are derogatory terms

you can't save them

Lol... fair point. Given enough time, though, words evolve. They take on additional meanings and subtexts. I think that has already happened in at least some people's vocabularies with words like "pagan" and "witch." Hard to say how linguistic trends will play out in the long run. A better person to ask about that would be someone who works on the Oxford English dictionary.

[Dragonfly1]

Pagan is like..'gentile' or heathen or infidel...
Pagan = Christianity (In christianity anyone who isn't a christian).... Gentile = Judaism (In Judaism anyone who isn't a Jew).... Infidel = Islam (In Islam anyone who isn't a mulsim) Heathen, well anyone who doesn't follow any particular religion (I guess I'm well and truly a heathen,lol).....this is my understanding...please correct me if Im wrong....Peace..

Originally Posted by Quintessence

Funny. To me saying Paganism isn't a religion is a deeply personal insult that suggests Pagan religions (and people who identify simply as Neopagan/Pagan and nothing else) aren't real or valid and that they therefore don't deserve nor warrant respect (such as under religious freedom). This is also the message it probably sends to outsiders like this sixteen year-old.

I am a legally ordained Pagan Priestess and I practice my Religion.

Peace and Love on the path of your choice...

Blessed be...

[norseman]

I assume that everyone is aware that all coven-trained wiccans are priests.

They are Wiccan Priests and wicca is pagan.
Druids are priests and Druidry is pagan
But neither is a pagan priest. "Pagan/Neo-pagan" is a generic word which covers quite a broad field. Part of the field is religious and part is not.

link to wikipedia removed cause I am not allowed to post links. I was going to post the definition of Pagan.

Maybe this isn't the best encyclopedia in the world, but if I may be so bold. We are really arguing semantics here. The reason being that we aren't all speaking the same language. It is pretty clear that the lady in question was not simply a non-believer as christians would call her, or a country dweller. I would suggest then that so we are all on the same page, we pick a dictionary or encyclopedia (preferably an on line, free, one) and agree to use the definitions found there. As an alternative we could each define every word in our posts to avoid confusion, but then we would have to define the words in our definitions as well.

[Hazel]

I think the fact he didnt know it was a religion dosent give him a reason to torment her about it - Even if it wasnt a religionn wouldnt give him a right to torment this woman over what she believes in

I think the fact it is not a religion beckons the question what did he really do wrong?

He's making fun of a religion that DOESN'T EXIST

period!

Of course he didn't know it was a religion

[Hazel]

Originally Posted by Troll_ov_Grimness

I think the fact it is not a religion beckons the question what did he really do wrong?

He's making fun of a religion that DOESN'T EXIST

period!

Of course he didn't know it was a religion

Not a religion...hmmm...I think the hundreds of pagans in the world would disagree with you there, just a little bit

Originally Posted by Hazel

Not a religion...hmmm...I think the hundreds of pagans in the world would disagree with you there, just a little bit

Define paganism?

Can it even be defined?

I am not saying that druidism, wicca, and all these ideas are not religions

but not all spirituality constitutes even being a religion