Great piece from John Beckett this morning which covers some really good points about how to write about different religions, why the word “religion” should not be used as a synonym for Christianity, and how not all religions fit the “Protestant lens” (the way people tend to use the Protestant paradigm as a way to try to make sense of other religions—which doesn’t work).
John Beckett
Patron deities
The concept of patron deities in polytheism caused me a lot of trouble back in the day. I was on a polytheist mailing list and it seemed like everyone on the list had a patron deity who had approached them personally. They were also adamant that the deity approached them and not the other way around. So I thought I should have a patron deity. This left me uniquely vulnerable to what happened next.
Continue readingDe-baptism
There’s been a discussion on the internet recently about de-baptism.
Here’s an excellent article about it from John Beckett over at Patheos: Debaptism: You Probably Don’t Need It, But It Can Be Done
…you can’t unpour water. The baptism happened and we can’t pretend it didn’t.
John Beckett
But we can reverse its effects.
Further thoughts and resources on de-baptism after the jump.
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Changing Paths 