This is going to make me some enemies, but I'm too cranky to care.

[kellinator]

Dear Everyone Who's Whining About What a Terrible Man St. Patrick Was and How Pagans Are So Oppressed,

I was looking forward to an evening of St. Patrick's Day fun with friends, so forgive me for being a little bit cranky about all the vitriol being launched on here today.

Are we Christians supposed to spend the day apologizing for St. Patrick converting Ireland fifteen hundred years ago? I'm no expert in Druidic practices, but how do we really know that the Druids were happy-love-everybody people and St. Patrick was a jerk determined to make sure no one was having a good time? It's not as simple as pagans good/Patrick bad (nor, I suppose, as simple as Patrick good/pagans bad). Imagine you're the person who got picked for the human sacrifice and see if you still think so.

Christianity is not all about hate and oppression, no matter what Jerry Falwell tells you. It's got some good ideas about kindness to one's fellow man. Many terrible sins have been committed in the name of Christ, but much good has been done too.

A lot of people out there seem to demand toleration for everyone but Christians. I almost didn't make this post because I knew it would piss people off, but that would be denying what I feel and what I believe. If it's okay for you to express your faith, then it's okay for me to express mine. I may be a lousy excuse for a Christian, but I still am one. If you want religious toleration, I think that's terrific, but you ought to have some for the Christians too. We progressive Christians have got enough to worry about with retaking our faith from the Pharisees currently in charge without having to constantly apologize for being Christian.

And I'm fucking terrified of snakes, so St. Patrick, you're okay in my book.

Comments

[piratejenny.livejournal.com]

Untrue. Very untrue. The archaeological evidence shows quite clearly that the Druids practiced human sacrifice. Miranda Green's books are a good place to start.

I say this as a neo-pagan Druid.

I put the neo in there purposely because today's paganism is not the paganism of our removed to the nth degree forbears. That paganism was bloody and violent, just like everything else. The Celts very likely had a head cult--the commonly took heads in battle and made both trophies and weapons out of limed brains. Brain balls. Again borne out by archaeological evidence.

btw, not all the classical writers were antagonistic toward the Druids.

[pokeyturtle.livejournal.com]

it's cool. and i'm not one of those people who thinks the druids were all smiley happy and perfect pollyanna people. oh gods no. i just see this pattern of conquerors justifying their conquests by painting the vanquished people as [take your pick] (1) headhunters or (2) cannibals or (3) practitioners of human or animal sacrifice as if that sums up the reaosns why they had to be conquered and mistreated. it pisses me off.

i guess i didn't bother trying to keep up with the scholarship because i assumed there wasn't any, and because i know that researchers can sometimes inject bias into their "findings." my fault.