How Dare They!!!

[MoonBreath]

Has there ever been a time in your life when someone has said or done something offensive to you in regards to your religious or spiritual preference? :rant:

[Athena-Nadine]

Sure, it happens all the time, mostly because people are ignorant. They don't know any better. I don't bother getting worked up over it anymore.

I'm sorry someone upset you.

[morningstar2651]

Has there ever been a time in your life when someone has said or done something offensive to you in regards to your religious or spiritual preference? :rant: Of course. Who hasn't offended someone? The only way to be inoffensive to all is to say and do nothing meaningful.

No doubt, the fact that I practice sex magick is offensive to many people.

[MoonBreath]

i also wanted to add this to my posted question the first time, but i forgot to! *Are there any specific times you wouldn't mind talking about? if so, how did you react to it or what did you do in response?*

[Pagan Warrior]

i also wanted to add this to my posted question the first time, but i forgot to! *Are there any specific times you wouldn't mind talking about? if so, how did you react to it or what did you do in response?*

I will admit there have been a few times that have stirred up a reaction from me. I try very hard to take the high road, but this one incident got me a little steamed. I worked the night shift at this one job and was heading into work when I passed a woman who was sitting on the side of the road. From her expression, and the vehicle parked in front of her on the shoulder, she seemed troubled.

So ... I turned around and pulled up, rolled down my window, and very politely asked "Is there something wrong with your vehicle? Would you like to borrow my cell phone?"

I knew I was in trouble when she looked up to me and said, "No, I'm just very sad for all the lost souls in the world" ... then of course proceeded to prod into my beliefs. I very politely told her I was not Christian, and not interested. She inquired about my beliefs, I gave her my canned answer, then she started to badmouth my evil ways. I stopped her mid sentence with a loud "Excuse me!!" ... when I had her attention I continued, "Exactly how many Christians have stopped today to see if you were in need of help?" ... after bout two seconds of silence I rolled up my window and drove off very irritated. I got over it tho :)

[Kalika]

I'm pretty difficult to offend... I prefer to laugh at them instead. :) That usually gets people riled.

[Zephyrstorm]

Sure, I've been offended - usually by the context of the words rather than the words themselves.
Most of my co-workers are conservative Christians, and one day one of them referred to all non-Christians as snakes. She didn't mean anything pleasant by it - she was painting a context of all non-Christians as laying in the grass trying to poison her efforts to live a godly life. *shrug*
I bit my tongue, and went on with my day.

Usually I just let it slide off.

[LostSheep]

Sure, I've been offended - usually by the context of the words rather than the words themselves.
Most of my co-workers are conservative Christians, and one day one of them referred to all non-Christians as snakes. She didn't mean anything pleasant by it - she was painting a context of all non-Christians as laying in the grass trying to poison her efforts to live a godly life. *shrug*
I bit my tongue, and went on with my day.

Usually I just let it slide off.

A St Patrick analogy, maybe? The snakes he drove out of Ireland being the unbelievers ... or rather, not the believers in what he believed in ...

i'm rambling. sorry

I worked the night shift at this one job and was heading into work when I passed a woman who was sitting on the side of the road. From her expression, and the vehicle parked in front of her on the shoulder, she seemed troubled.

So ... I turned around and pulled up, rolled down my window, and very politely asked "Is there something wrong with your vehicle? Would you like to borrow my cell phone?"

I knew I was in trouble when she looked up to me and said, "No, I'm just very sad for all the lost souls in the world" ... Was she waiting for a tow truck for them?

[Pagan Warrior]

Was she waiting for a tow truck for them?

:yayah: I dunno, does AAA cover souls??

[Meadhbh]

Of course people have said things that bother me. But for the most part I just let it go, I figure if they are going to be that closed minded theres nothing I can do to change it. But the worse time was when I was in a park and I guess I had some thing vaguely paganish with me, I don't remember it was a while ago. Anyway this little was wondering around like little kids do and I glanced at her. Next thing I know heres comes the mom charging up the hill. She basically said she didn't want me looking at her child because she knew I was planning to offer her sould to satan because thats what my kind of people did and spit at me feet. Grabs her child and walks off muttering about how some people have the nerve to show their face in public when their one of satan's whores. Aren't people fun. Hope some drugs took care of that problem for her.

[Marcasite]

My Dad laughed at my fiance when he revealed he was Wiccan. Most other people I've talked to about it are actually very open-minded and understanding. But I don't really say anything unless someone asks a very specific question

[Lynleigh]

I'm pretty difficult to offend... I prefer to laugh at them instead. :) That usually gets people riled.

Same here.

I don't remember where I first heard this, but I think it's great:

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

[Philosophia]

Has there ever been a time in your life when someone has said or done something offensive to you in regards to your religious or spiritual preference? :rant:

Sure. Do I care? Nope. How I react to it depends on how well I know the person. If its somebody that I just meant, I would usually just say "whatever" and walk away. However, if I know the person then I'd say something witty :nyah: and get on with life. I can't be bothered being offended anymore. Its not my problem somebody has an issue with it.

i also wanted to add this to my posted question the first time, but i forgot to! *Are there any specific times you wouldn't mind talking about? if so, how did you react to it or what did you do in response?*

If they seriously want to know, I'll answer any questions they have. If not, I'd just say "I'm a witch" and leave it be. I don't need to justify or prove myself to anybody but me.

[Rainbow]

I get more ignorant comments about other stuff than my religion. Stuff said about religion tends to be more of the "clueless" sort than the "outrightly bigoted" sort. So it's not that they mean to be insensitive, they just don't know any better.

For example, I was helping design a program for kids which involved different cultural projects from Asia. Some of the projects had a sort of religious nature (Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, etc. I didn't like how they were mixed at the time, but then, that's why I was helping). One of the people working with us stood and said "As much as I want to teach these kids about other cultures, we have to remember that this is a Christian organization..."

It's not.

I was just about to say something when our boss at the time told her "No, this is not a Christian organization, and if you think it's in your right to treat the kids like it is, please stop." And she did. It was a clueless thing to say, but it wasn't mean-spirited at least.

[Glory]

Like Rainbow, I mostly find that comments that would be offensive come from a lack of knowledge.

A friend of mine who did not know I was pagan (though I was aware he was raised Christian and still is Christian) told me that he was tolerant of many things, like homosexuality, that most Christians dislike, but he hated witchcraft. I sort of went 'oh?' and he said that it was the one thing that was completely unacceptable to him, that it could only be bad.

I was a little bewildered as one might expect, so I asked him what about it was evil for him, and he gave me an example that a friend of his came across a group of "witches" who were digging up a grave. Right away I knew that his position came from a place of ignorance. He didn't hate witches, just the false idea he had. And while I'm sure there are pagans who might very well dig up a grave, I think we can all agree it's definitely not a common feature.

So I went on to try and open him up a little to the realities of modern paganism, and the one thing he was really caught on is that if witches do practice magic, then that can't come from God, only Satan. We talked a little more, I tried to explain why that, in a lot of cases, is not so. He didn't argue, just sort of took it all in, which was nice.

Overall, I wasn't really offended, just a little stunned that he knew so little about something he was so strongly against.

[Cindlady2]

Well, for the first question.... sure... what I did depended on the situation. Mostly I would tell them that they have, like most people, been misinformed.



i also wanted to add this to my posted question the first time, but i forgot to! *Are there any specific times you wouldn't mind talking about? if so, how did you react to it or what did you do in response?*

If a person seems interested in knowing how I really feel without being too judgmental I will tell them. When I was in the hospital last year my husbands pastor came to visit. He knew I was pagan, but we spent 2 1/2 hours talking. I also have talked to and been to a few peoples homes of members of his parish.

[Shaw]

Sure, I've been offended - usually by the context of the words rather than the words themselves.
Most of my co-workers are conservative Christians, and one day one of them referred to all non-Christians as snakes. She didn't mean anything pleasant by it - she was painting a context of all non-Christians as laying in the grass trying to poison her efforts to live a godly life. *shrug*
I bit my tongue, and went on with my day.

Usually I just let it slide off.

Little known fact about snakes that I learned as a boy. My Grandpa used to take me and my cousins hunting three times a year, spring, summer, and winter. He taught us all about the wild, and the seasons, the plants, and the wild life. One afternoon I killed a snake and brought it back to camp. My Grandpa told all of us that snakes only seem bad. He said they kill and eat many poisonous spiders and attack scorpions. He went on and said, "You see the snakes, but you need the snakes to see the hidden bad things". I was 7, that's why this my sound like he was talking down to us.

[ravenmyst]

was once told I was a horrible parent, sending my kids to hell etc.. I take great pride in raising accepting kids, and I talk myself to be a parent as rolemodels were....lacking, but he was an ignorant hypocrite, so I got over it. that person did not know my religious affiliation, just knew I didnt go to church, as he was a coworker, and I stated I would work sunday, so that those who wanted to go to church could.

[Crysiira]

I'm lucky that where I live is a pretty open, liberal city... Not many people really care what you do!
I am, however, taking a class right now... It's called Anthropology of Myth, Magic, and Religion. I really question why some of the people in there even took it. Look, I have no problem with atheism, but when you sit there and make disparaging remarks about a religion you are paying to sit in class and study... wtf, man, wtf. The attitudes toward magic in there are atrocious. "If they really think they can do that kind of stuff, well, then they are just stupid, aren't they?" so on and so forth. And sadly, this applies towards every religion we study... Christians, Buddhists, indigenous religions, and now we are moving toward paganism, and it's getting me more and more sad to hear what they have to say. I think, as other people said, it's lack of knowledge and lack of actually knowing a real person who practices that religion that causes them to talk like this. Hm...

[Nitefalle]

I must live in some strange vortex because I've never been proselytized to in a bookstore or other mundane setting, I've never been told something offensive by a Christian, nothing. And I'm from the Bible Belt! I feel kinda left out :lol: Or maybe people just know better than to mess with me..... HA HA HA I wish. 8O

[LostSheep]

I'm lucky that where I live is a pretty open, liberal city... Not many people really care what you do!
I am, however, taking a class right now... It's called Anthropology of Myth, Magic, and Religion. I really question why some of the people in there even took it. Look, I have no problem with atheism, but when you sit there and make disparaging remarks about a religion you are paying to sit in class and study... wtf, man, wtf. The attitudes toward magic in there are atrocious. "If they really think they can do that kind of stuff, well, then they are just stupid, aren't they?" so on and so forth. And sadly, this applies towards every religion we study... Christians, Buddhists, indigenous religions, and now we are moving toward paganism, and it's getting me more and more sad to hear what they have to say. I think, as other people said, it's lack of knowledge and lack of actually knowing a real person who practices that religion that causes them to talk like this. Hm...

That's the ironic thing ... hardline atheists are just as fundamentalist as the most extreme followers of any religion you care to name, aren't they. I think there's a difference between someone who's actually studied the subject and then decided that they don't believe in any kind of god, and someone who's just competely close-minded and dogmatic about it. A lot of the kind of comments about paganism that I hear are from people who don't take it seriously and just laugh at it, rather than from hardline fundamentalists who do take it seriously, even if they take it the wrong way.

[inkywitch]

I haven't been offended in regards to religion or spirituality. I have a pretty thick skin in that department and usually just laugh at people who are ignorant, or stare and raise and eyebrow.

I've probably offended others though. I can't think of any particular instance, bur I'm sure I have more than once or twice before.

The only thing that offends me is those crazy religious people who ramble and PUSH and PUSH their crazy rambles down other peoples throats. Or gatecrash military funerals with hugs signs with offensive words on them. I haven't had too many people do this to me, but I see it happen in the media, and to others, and it makes me angry.

[David19]

I haven't been offended about my beliefs, probably 'cause no one knows them, (I don't and probably never will tell people, as people need to keep their religion at home).