One Simple Question
Feb. 10th, 2007 10:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vervain13This morning, while doing some research, this website:
http://www.carm.org/wicca.htm
came up. In checking it out, the owner/founder seems sincere enough in his beliefs. And yet, with all the grammatical errors and erroneous information scattered throughout the website, one simple question for him and others like him always comes to the fore:
"Have you ever been to a Circle or course of study with the intent to genuinely learn instead of critique?"
Back in my fundamentalist days, it always puzzled me when "non-believers" would accuse me of ignorance or an innate inability to enter into a genuine dialogue. Now, after much life experience, study, and training, I understand where those "non-believers" were coming from. And, to be fair, I also went through the "slam Christianity" phase. While fundamentalism is still loathesome to me, in any religious stripe, real Christianity demonstrates compassion towards one's fellow human beings...regardless of their religious path. That understanding came through the example of a church I attended in Delaware several years ago as well as the example continuously set by my sister. And even though she has never been to a Circle or entered a course of study to learn about our religion, she gets it that everyone has the right to live according to the dictates of their conscience/spirit without being picked apart by others who disagree with them.
The thought occurred to contact this person and attempt to inform him of some of his genuine errors...mostly of the grammatical type...just so he could at least appear more credible to his audience. But then I thought about my above-mentioned history and realized that, in all likelihood, he would just use such contact to try to win me over to his way of thinking. Understandable though that may be, it simply isn't something on which I wish to expend valuable energy.
But hey...we all have the opportunity to grow.
http://www.carm.org/wicca.htm
came up. In checking it out, the owner/founder seems sincere enough in his beliefs. And yet, with all the grammatical errors and erroneous information scattered throughout the website, one simple question for him and others like him always comes to the fore:
"Have you ever been to a Circle or course of study with the intent to genuinely learn instead of critique?"
Back in my fundamentalist days, it always puzzled me when "non-believers" would accuse me of ignorance or an innate inability to enter into a genuine dialogue. Now, after much life experience, study, and training, I understand where those "non-believers" were coming from. And, to be fair, I also went through the "slam Christianity" phase. While fundamentalism is still loathesome to me, in any religious stripe, real Christianity demonstrates compassion towards one's fellow human beings...regardless of their religious path. That understanding came through the example of a church I attended in Delaware several years ago as well as the example continuously set by my sister. And even though she has never been to a Circle or entered a course of study to learn about our religion, she gets it that everyone has the right to live according to the dictates of their conscience/spirit without being picked apart by others who disagree with them.
The thought occurred to contact this person and attempt to inform him of some of his genuine errors...mostly of the grammatical type...just so he could at least appear more credible to his audience. But then I thought about my above-mentioned history and realized that, in all likelihood, he would just use such contact to try to win me over to his way of thinking. Understandable though that may be, it simply isn't something on which I wish to expend valuable energy.
But hey...we all have the opportunity to grow.
