Just HAVE To Get This Off My Chest

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Okay I just have to get this off my chest and speak my mind out, so yes venting here a bit. I came across a discussion how one MyLotter thought that by taking prayer, especially the Christian "Lord's Prayer" out of schools, and of the popularity of such has increased the trend to paganism---what nonsense is all I can think. Taking prayer out of schools or the popularity of Harry Potter has nothing to do with people switching to the pagan or wiccan path--people have been accepting this path a life long before Harry Potter. As for taking prayer out of schools, there is a valid reason for this...now it's one's thing if a child does go to a Christian oriented school and for all I know they might still have prayers in them--However, in my area, many children do go to say the large Catholic schools near me, but many of the children, believe it or not aren't Catholic and the only reason they go to these schools is that it is felt that the education system is far superior than those of public schools, but they, the schools have to make allowances for those children NOT of the Catholic faith, and who are instead, perhaps of the Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, or even Protestant faiths that attend these schools and thus the reason for eliminating Christian type prayers, so as to not offend those who aren't Christian, or particularly Catholic. It infuriated me no end though, that this person said that she had no interest in witches or wizards unless it was "us against them and by God's power we defeat them"...Grrrr. How sad, how narrow minded...Before people get up in arms against we who are followers of the pagan or wicca path, it would be NICE if these same people who are so willing to condemn those of us who chose by our own free will to follow this path to begin with maybe, just maybe did a little research and reading to the world of paganism and wicca in general. Too many people when they think of Witchcraft in general are thinking in terms of all the garbage that has been perpetuated by both the Christian church itself, and by the glamorization of how witchcraft is portrayed in the movies. Let me just give you a thumbnail sketch of the "history" of Christianity first, for one thing she mentioned was how the pagan Roman Empire persecuted and killed many of the early Christians...This is true, yes, the early Christians were rounded up by the Romans, thrown into the arenas of coliseums for the "entertainment" of the Romans as they watched the Christians being torn apart by tigers or lions. Ah...but when Christianity became stronger and there were more followers, they in turn persecuted Romans...destroying the temples, destroying any images of the pagan gods and goddesses, and raped the Vestal Virgins. Now lets zoom up to St. Patrick's time, as this is another area this person hit upon...she mentions that is was St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland was the one responsible for ridding Ireland of snakes...uh...that wasn't all he was trying to eliminate for he was also trying to eradicate and persecute those of the pagan Druid religion. Oh, gee and don't forget the mighty Crusaders where the "soldiers of Christ" champaigned their "Holy War" against the Muslim kingdoms --the Holy War crusades lasted a whopping 250 years by the way and all in the name of Christ and his glory--the basic idea being that Christians wanted to recapture Jerusalem back from the Muslims, as Christians felt that since Christ was born in nearby Bethlehem and spent his life in Jerusalem that it was sacred to Christians...while on the other hand Muslims also considered Jerusalem sacred to their beliefs--there is no record of how many Muslims were killed/slaughered by Christians. The point I'm trying to make is that in my opinion, Christianity has probably been one of the bloodiest religions going....need I remind you of the "burning times" when millions of people from Medieval times up until the 1700s, and were considered heretics or "witches" were burned, killed, slaughtered--the worst was in various towns of Germany, where whole towns of people where killed because they suspected witches to live there. Then there is the early settlers of America, many who were escaping religious persecution but became persecutors themselves of anyone who didn't believe the way they did and felt it was their duty to God to eradicate and kill those not of their beliefs, particularly of course the "heathens" that is Native Americans---America unfortunately has always had a low tolerance for anyone not of the Christian faith, particularly non=Protestant sects...look at the hoopla that was made when President Kennedy became President because he was Catholic...gee, it might stun people to know that the Presidents, Teddy and Frank Roosevelt were of Dutch Jewish decent--a little known fact...Most of all, lets not forget the millions of Jews killed during the Holocaust by Christians. So it infuriates me no end when someone rattles on that they believe that their religion is the one and only right one, and that everyone else is going to Hell when they die--gee, I guess that means an AWFUL LOT of people are going to Hell then. Let me see that would include Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, etc, etc...and of course us pagan/wiccans. I also get infuriated when such people will also condemn those of us of the pagan/wicca religion when they don't have the slightest idea of who we are and maintain the erroneous misconceived beliefs, many of which were perpetuated by the church itself, and further enhanced by the glamorization of movies ...many of which show the "Left Hand" path of witchcraft, or Satanism, which by the way has NOTHING to do with pagan/wiccan beliefs but a corruption of Christian ones. These same people don't have a clue or know about their own bloody history of their religion--this person even suggested that we pagans/wiccans are trying to seek converts--what a laugh....Like, hey, it's not Pagans/wiccans going around door to door to gain converts, but those of various Christian sects asking "Has your soul been saved?' Is it any wonder that for many people Christianity has left a bitter taste to people? Now..hold on folks...before you start bashing me....My father's side of the family were Methodist, my mother's side Catholic..I grew up Catholic, was confirmed Protestant...got interested and involved with Unity and Science of Mind, studied Hinduism, Buddhism, and even Sufism---I STILL maintain MANY of my Christian beliefs, but chose to follow the Pagan/Wiccan path--a path that I feel more harmonious and more content with and many of the beliefs are actually ones I held all my life, without realizing it...my great-grandmother of Celtic origin (Irish) while Catholic herself, was a pagan/wiccan---you might say I'm just continuing her beliefs. Also, to say that Harry Potter and books like them are encouraging children or people in general to become witches is also ridiculous--people have decided the pagan/wiccan path did so long before the popularity of these books---besides Harry Potter is a work of fiction and I think people will realize that real witches don't fly on brooms ( though would be nice...think how much gas one would save) nor can we twitch our noses like Samantha Stevens of Bewitched and have our homes instantly cleaned (that would be nice too), nor do we wave wands and say wingardium leviosa and make things levitate. If people only took the time to read, really read what the pagan/wiccan religions were all about, maybe they won't make such erroneous assumptions about us and of who we are. I would truly like to see the day, when we can all really understand and respect each others religions...wouldn't that be great? When is it going to sink in, that despite the various names we may call the Divine or Supreme Entity or Diety (deities) we ALL have some kind of belief in something...we just call it by a different name. As a final thing....and I'm definitely out of the "broom" closet...I'm content and happy to be a pagan and wiccan, and I'm proud to call myself "witch" Got a problem with that? :)