An Interview: Christians and Pagans
Casey and I have been friends since junior high school. Way back when, we would sit all night and talk about the big questions that I’m sure no other 6th grader could have cared about. What is the nature of God? What is the purpose of the universe? At the time, we were mostly in agreement with the answers we came up with.
She’ll be turning 21 at around the time of this publication. These days, while we’re still good friends, we have very different religious ideas. Casey has been a Christian and I a Pagan for many years now, and while we share most ideas in common (be they politically, ethically, etc), religion has become an area where our theories differ. This doesn’t mean that we no longer talk about religion – on the contrary, I drag her into religious conversations whenever I can and we really enjoy comparing the vast and not-so-vast differences in our beliefs.
And in fact, when I interviewed her for this piece, we sat in her bedroom, lounging about in exactly the same fashion as we did over seven years ago.
It’s important to continue to listen to ideas outside of our own. Many Pagans come to this faith because of a bad experience with Christianity. Perhaps they felt pressured or limited by a patriarchal religious structure, or felt offended by the idea that they were born full of sin, and so on; but there are positive and useful ideas still among Christians.
I wanted to take the chance to not only listen for myself, but share that opportunity with the rest of the Pagan community.
KPP: How did you become a Christian?
CP: When I was younger, I was a Christian because I was raised that way. You go to church on Sunday, give your offerings, listen to the preacher for an hour, then go to Sunday School and draw pretty pictures of Jesus… when you’re a kid, that kind of stuff is just fed to you, and I believed it because everyone else around me believed it. When I got in middle school, around the age when the other kids didn’t believe in Christ, I started thinking, “Why do I believe in Christ?” I started searching for that answer, and after I tried out a few different religions, I just realized I believe in God. I believe in one, true, ultimate being.
I was looking in the Bible after hearing all the horrible things people were telling me about. It wasn’t until then that I realized I was learning other amazing stories and about how God forgives everyone and I just fell in love with the religion.
KPP: How big a part of your life is your religion?
CP: My faith is a big part of my life. I incorporate my faith into everything I do, regardless of whether it’s something that is of my faith. For example, I freeze up when I have to take an exam, but I pray that God will clear my mind, let me focus a little more.
Faith has always been the most important part of my life – I thank God for everything I do. Everything that happens to me, I ask God why; so, for me, God has always been a big part of my life.
KPP: What is your definition of your faith?
CP: My definition of Christianity would be to believe in God and his principles. I would consider Christianity to be pretty simple; I mean, [if] you believe in God, you’re probably a Christian… it’s so hard to put Christianity in one small sentence because there is a million different definitions! But to call yourself a Christian, you have to believe in God.
KPP: Pagans constantly fight with a huge part of the population having a false understanding of us. What are some common misconceptions about your faith?
CP: That we’re all narrow-minded. Being a biologist and being a Christian, I get a lot of questions [from fellow students], like asking how I can believe scientific facts if the Earth was created in seven days. There is a common misconception that we’re all fat, Caucasian, Republican males trying to take money away from people who don’t believe in God, which isn’t fair. Most of the time, when I tell someone I’m a Christian, they automatically think I’m closed to new ideas beyond the Ten Commandments.
KPP: Why do you think that religious tolerance and understanding is essential?
CP: Once I was accused of keeping the company of people who weren’t Christian. The way I always looked at it was that if you’re always around a Christian, and not anyone else, how are you supposed to spread your faith around, how are you supposed to share your ideas and beliefs? The point is to get that faith and then share it with someone else who is missing something in their life that you think maybe faith can replace. The reason I believe in religious tolerance is that if you don’t keep an open mind to others’ ideas, then how are they going to keep an open mind to yours? I wouldn’t want to listen to someone if they told me, “Your religion is completely wrong and I don’t see how you believe that; you must be stupid.” To me, that’s not fair to tell someone that their ideas are wrong.
KPP: In your religious life, who is your role model?
CP: Sherry Phelps was my substitute youth pastor for two weeks. Two Sundays in a row, she taught in our classroom, and her ideas were “outside the box”… they didn’t always follow the path that the youth books did, and she didn’t just read from the books as though she was giving us what God said and what we were supposed to believe. She gave you a different view of the Bible – she didn’t just say that God made the world in seven days, she asked us, “How long is a day in the eyes of God? Look at all these clues and symbols you can find in the Bible instead of taking a literal translation.” I thank her for that because I wouldn’t have that free-thinking if I didn’t have her as a youth pastor.
