An Open Letter To Christians

We Need To Have A Discussion In Our Post-Election World

I want you to take a look at that image. Stare into it, internalize it. What comes to your mind when you see that? Does it inspire a nation of free people, coexisting, living their lives and going about their business, not bothering each other?

For me, it kinda does. I know there are Christians, Jews, Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus and a diverse cross-section of people who read my work on The Raven’s Nest and others who might just like to read what I post on Against All Odds when I have the time to play a game and post the notes or post the story form of the game I just played. If you’re one of those people, my question to you isn’t are you x, y or z? It’s Did you enjoy what you read? If not, then by all means, skip it. Move on. That’s certainly your right. You don’t have to like the same games, comics, movies, music or even theology that I do. That’s never been a requirement for us to be good with each other. Let’s just find where we meet and build on that. I’ll never demand special attention or that you wear a Mjolnir at work because the company decided to do some Pagan Pride thing. I’m happy to just take part in it myself and I’ll still step in to help you wherever I can because we do have to work together. I’m okay with that.

In reality, I’d approach a company-sponsored Pagan Pride thing with suspicion. Why would that be a thing in the workplace? It’s not the place for it. I certainly don’t think you should feel forced to acknowledge my spiritual path. If it were required, I’d tell the company to get lost on the issue fairly quickly. I don’t trust any company to use some aspect of my life as a means of anything other than beating you about the head and shoulders to scream about how wrong or backwards you are. I won’t stand for it.

This is why we need to have a talk. Already I’m seeing some on the Christian conservative side already acting up.

Let’s take a mild example for just a moment:

The main subject content isn’t what I really want to point out.

Jon Del Arroz does some pretty great work with the stories he publishes. I’m a huge fan of his character Ayla Rin. I think you would be too. His work on Overmind, The Immortal Edge, The Hidden Emperor, The Cosmic Warrior and his Aryshan War Series, is pretty spectacular, however, the opinion that only a Christian can produce something worthwhile, not so much. We’re never going to agree on that. I will agree that the extreme leftist bent on Nu-DND is horrible and doesn’t accomplish the goal stated.

Also, the claims that we’re LARPing as Vikings is also something I’ve seen and, have, in fact had them leveled at me, personally as recently as yesterday.

That’s right. You didn’t read that wrong. I knew of the name Amon Amarth but no idea who they were. That’s not a knock on them, I have a busy life, I miss things. It happens. Steel Haven Game Studios had to give me the elevator pitch. I still haven’t sat down to listen to them yet but I will.

So what did I do to deserve this guy deciding to start trying to harass me online? Nerdcognito posted that they were going to have a member of The BrOSR on as a guest. I let him know I was skipping that episode. There’s a long story there but that group does not like it when you have no interest in what they say. They talk a big game but have yet to produce anything. They’re insufferable and terminally-online. That’s why I have no interest at all. He didn’t like that and came after me. I blocked him. Anyone with that BrOSR hashtag got booted to the curb as well. They don’t stay off your case. They demand you conform or they’ll harass you until you do.

And this is the heart of the matter. Christians, I know this isn’t representative of the whole but I am asking you to understand something. In the article on The Raven’s Nest where I detail how we got here, I’m quick to point out that The Satanic Panic and growing up in it taught me what to look for. Christianity lost me due to that, more than once, same with purity spirals. That can apply to you as well.

See, Pagans like myself value Liberty. I believe Liberty is humankind’s natural state and should be honored and respected. It needs to be taught through Civics in school again because it teaches a balance between responsibility and liberty. Liberty can be pretty unrestrained if you live by yourself, completely away from people altogether or what we call this fragile construct “civilization.”

Just to cite an example, someone living alone probably wouldn’t do anything a “civilized” person wouldn’t do. J. Ash Odinsson even pointed out in one of his articles that people are moving out of cities, homesteading and connecting with the pre-Christian faiths of their ancestry in greater numbers. Personally, though the Norse Pantheon is still where I live, I’m also deep into the Pagan gods and beliefs of Ancient Scotland and Ireland. Where Pagan Danes actually settled after awhile in human history.

Christians, I don’t have a problem with your religion or your practice of it. I don’t have a problem with the values you hold. Believe it or not, though we have a theological difference of opinion, we can all agree to treat each other like human beings, be charitable, try not to judge without having all the facts.

Here’s the thing, take off the label for a moment because I want to end this by showing you something.

There’s been a war raging here in the United States for many, many years and it’s my hope that, I keep hearing the pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction, maybe we can stop it at zero point before things become messy. Being the voice of reason has never resonated with some of you out there and that’s something I can’t help, I have to try at least.

The war that we’ve all been fighting isn’t left, right, Christian, Pagan or about good and evil, whatever your referent for that is. It’s been between people who want to be left alone and noisy busybodies masquerading as the “good guy” who want to meddle in other people’s lives. Maybe you’re well-intentioned on that but, as you’re fond of saying “The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions.”

This war has been a cold civil war in this country for quite a while but this constant Eye For An Eye approach is what has brought the pressure-cooker to start whistling like crazy and that’s our warning. It will blow if we don’t stop.

When it comes to government officials who violated our Constitution and completely dropped a deuce on our laws in order to come after us unjustly, I think every one of them should be held accountable. We’ll worry about the rest once all the facts have come out in a court of law but know one thing, soon, I can see the turn and I want you to consider this. If It’s Wrong, It’s Wrong. It’s not “only okay when WE do it.” That’s how we got here. It’s Wrong. Full Stop. End of. Period. Paragraph. Done.

During the days of the Satanic Panic, I did have a catechism teacher try to have me excommunicated from the church when I defied her edict of not playing D&D that weekend and told her with a full chest and throat, “If Satan is The Father of Lies, Then It’s Not Okay For You To Lie, No Matter What Your Reasons Are.”

That’s a statement that I still live by to this day. If lies are wrong then there’s no reason good enough to ever use them.

You don’t have to agree on every little thing here. We can have points where we disagree and part ways but if you choose to make the disagreement your focus, need I remind you this can quickly reverse and you’ll do so at your own peril.

J. Ash Odinsson even pointed that out and it’s an article I definitely recommend you read carefully. Understand how you got here today and why and how easily your own actions or the actions of your most extreme can change that and you wind up on the losing “side” again. What side would that be? The noisy busybody who can’t seem to respect leaving people alone whom do not wish to be bothered.

That being said, I’m more solution-based than this because, when it comes to people being disrespectful about my spiritual path, I do have a verbal nuke and I normally choose to hold it rather than launch it because, once launched, it means that it won’t stop until one of us or the other gets crushed. I don’t want that. Not for you, not for anyone. Look at that map again. As Diamond Dallas Page says, “What Do You Want?”

A great question. What I want is for us to take us back to our Constitutional values. I don’t care what their origins are. I agree that the first Ten Amendments are sacred to our way of life. That being said, however, means you only get to direct your own life and not the lives of others over something that isn’t your business at all because if that cold civil war goes hot, yes, it’s over. You’ll lose. In fact, we all will. I’ve been trying to consider how we can move forward, keeping what we have and defeat this system that has had many of us in those red zones directly under foot. It’s not about right and left anymore. It’s about those who want to be left alone and those noisy busybodies. The noisy busybodies must now find their humility. I don’t know how to do that but what it won’t entail is a massive conversion campaign. My own faith may not be right for you and that’s fine. I’m okay with that. Yours isn’t right for me. That’s where I’ve landed. That’s okay too.

What is important is finding where we agree and then build on that. That, I’m more than okay with, it’s something I really would like us all to consider. Any extreme types with inflated egos need not apply. You don’t need to do anything really except find where we have that common ground and ignore the rest. Stop treating people at their jobs like they’re a captive audience. It does no good. You’re more likely to drive them away than not. Keep it civil. Keep it respectful. You do you, I’ll do me, we can part ways where we disagree.

I think that works best for all of us because that verbal nuke I have is one that shows nothing but contempt and the last thing you want is to foster contempt. I never want to have to fire it but if pushed, I’ll consider the fact that you’re another in the line of noisy busybodies that can’t leave people alone and never should you underestimate the things people will do in order to be left alone.

“One last look at visions of flesh

The last best hope of Man on Earth

Pontius Pilate’s still washing his hands

The world don’t wanna be saved

…only left alone.”

-Megadeth “Elysian Fields”