As someone who has also been persecuted by Christians, had a wife leave me years ago when I announced I wasn't going to pretend to be a Christian anymore, and so on, I sympathize. I, too, have a little altar space in my home where I practice my faith on the high, holy days. My wife, who is a fairly new Christian convert from Buddhism, just shrugs her shoulders when I retreat and hold a celebration of one kind or another.
Fanatical Christians, Muslims, Hindu's and other religions are always going to be everywhere we go. I don't advertise, nor do I hide my religious preferences from the world. Just visit my website to see how public I can be.
I have no use for fanatics of any kind, and I have met many in my life. All we can do is stay true to our beliefs and let the others do as they will, as long as they don't try to convert us in the process. I tend to become a little belligerent when they do.
Former third order Franciscan here Sam who left the church when the Pope ruled that transgender folk could not be valid members of the Catholic Church. A number of scandals about priests sexually abusing young people broke about the same time along with the fact that bishops had been actively working to cover up and hide the abuse which only helped to firm up my decision to leave. These days I acknowledge the formerly heretical Doctrine of the Free Spirit as well as the writings of other Christian mystics as being the spiritual direction that I prefer to follow. I have absolutely no problem with anyone who follows the so called 'pagan' religions, but I definitely do with christian fundamentalists who have plainly never read the Bibles they like to wave around.
As someone who has also been persecuted by Christians, had a wife leave me years ago when I announced I wasn't going to pretend to be a Christian anymore, and so on, I sympathize. I, too, have a little altar space in my home where I practice my faith on the high, holy days. My wife, who is a fairly new Christian convert from Buddhism, just shrugs her shoulders when I retreat and hold a celebration of one kind or another.
Fanatical Christians, Muslims, Hindu's and other religions are always going to be everywhere we go. I don't advertise, nor do I hide my religious preferences from the world. Just visit my website to see how public I can be.
I have no use for fanatics of any kind, and I have met many in my life. All we can do is stay true to our beliefs and let the others do as they will, as long as they don't try to convert us in the process. I tend to become a little belligerent when they do.
Former third order Franciscan here Sam who left the church when the Pope ruled that transgender folk could not be valid members of the Catholic Church. A number of scandals about priests sexually abusing young people broke about the same time along with the fact that bishops had been actively working to cover up and hide the abuse which only helped to firm up my decision to leave. These days I acknowledge the formerly heretical Doctrine of the Free Spirit as well as the writings of other Christian mystics as being the spiritual direction that I prefer to follow. I have absolutely no problem with anyone who follows the so called 'pagan' religions, but I definitely do with christian fundamentalists who have plainly never read the Bibles they like to wave around.