Pagan's can be Christ-Like Too!

Originally Posted On a Myspace Profile Blog -- October 15th, 2006.

I wrote and edited this ..and submitted it to Witchvox ( Every Pagan,Witch, and Wiccan should know what Witchvox is)..hopefully they will publish it ..who knows.

Pagan's Can be Christ-Like Too!

You know, I am tired of seeing so-called followers of Christ "Christians" get the teachings of my Jesus --my spiritual teacher all wrong. No I am not trying to Christian bash so please do not think that. I am a non-Christian, however I used to be...but I found the religion too hypocritical for my personal taste so I have moved on to searching out what truly calls to me. I feel that I have found that in Paganism but though that I have never forsaken the teachings of the Christ. I see Jesus as my Spiritual Mentor and I still believe in him. I try to follow the Christ-essence and emulate Christ....and at the same time worship god and goddess it is a personal spiritual path that has called to me and has helped me felt more spiritually fulfilled.

But I honestly feel that if Yeshua (Jesus) Christ would come back today he would be disgusted with the hypocritical, bigoted and judgmental, hateful things that spring forth from the church pulpits today. Some Christians do actually strive to be Christ like and try to emulate Christ....even Some Non-Christians do this. I do not believe Christ' teachings were meant to be used as people of the more fundamentalist persuasion make them out to be. I do not believe they were meant so that people could be racist, bigots, homophobic, or just hateful and hostile towards anybodies life-style choice/philosophy that they personally disagree with.

Again, please do not think I am trying to Christian bash here because I am not. I have the utmost respect for the Christian religion and I am very sure that not all Christians act this way, I am sure some are very spiritual, devout and great people. These are just the impressions I've gotten from Christians I personally have come in contact with in my every day dealings.

I am writing this to voice my opinions not to disrespect or offend anyone.

No I believe that Jesus' teachings were simpler than that.

They were to;

They were to love thy neighbor as thy self.

To love thy enemy.

To not pass judgment on another.

To give when anyone asks of you.

And to just be an all-around helpful, loving, peaceful person.

It really upsets me when I see Christians or anyone who claims to follow the teachings of Jesus put down other people. People who actually try their best to do those things but just because they are not a self-proclaimed Christian their self but either a Pagan, a Wiccan, a homosexual, a person of race, a Muslim, Jew, Mormon, catholic, disabled or what have you they are put down.

Again, I'm not trying to bash any religious preference only to voice my opinion and personal experiences.

It honestly doesn't matter if you are a Christian or Not because; we are all Children of God...There may be 1, 000, 000, 000, 000 interpretations of God....some may see not one God but many gods and goddesses.... some may not have had any experiences yet to justify the existence of. But that does not mean that it isn't there maybe you are not ready to experience yet or you are not meant to be a Theist. Because if you were it might somehow mess up the space-time continuum you might have become a fundamentalist, then chalked science up to the work of the "Devil", and then never got around to inventing the cure for cancer. No Matter what it is to you or if you are able to perceive it or not it is still all the same essence.

Remember this; whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

If you are not a Christian, you will not go to the fiery pits of hell.

Here are some great quotes that I feel help me make my point:

Abraham Joshua Heschel: A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: The problem to be faced is: how to combine loyalty to one's own tradition with reverence for different traditions.

Socrates: Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.

Socrates: Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love.

Socrates: Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

Albert Einstein: Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

Albert Einstein: My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Alfred North Whitehead: Religion is what an individual does with his solitariness.

Algernon Black: Why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the Universe? Let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. Let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication.

Anne Frank: The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.

Felix Adler: Ethical religion can be real only to those who are engaged in ceaseless efforts at moral improvement. By moving upward we acquire faith in an upward movement, without limit.

Felix Adler: The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others. I am myself spiritually dead unless I reach out to the fine quality dormant in others. For it is only with the god enthroned in the innermost shrine of the other, that the god hidden in me, will consent to appear.

Frederick Buechner: Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! That sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself and even more strange than the world.

Finally a bumper sticker I bought the other day said; "Real Christians Emulate Jesus, Not Idolatrize the Bible."

In Conclusion I believe Pagans Can Strive to Emulate Christ and be Christ-like too! Any one religious group does not monopolize it.

Be Blessed!

© Hakan Geir. All opinions expressed in this essay reflect my personal opinions and mine alone and not necessarily any other person of a Pagan or Christian or any other spiritual path.

© Bumper Sticker with quote is from Azure Green http://www.azuregreen.com

Other Quotes were found on http://www.quotationspage.com/ and also on http://www.wisdomquotes.com/

(So What do you honestly think?)