I watched this video on the rise of paganism. The old gods are coming back. The problem is, I don't know those gods. The ancestors of my ancestors stomped them out. They bought into Empire Christianity and my family has been Christian as far back as we can trace the lines. The Olives were Normans who crossed with William the Conqueror to England in 1066. They were obviously Catholics. By the time the Olives arrived in North Carolina from England they were Protestants who became Church of Christ by the time they had settled in Tennessee and Alabama. The Gevedons were Huguenots who escaped central France to Kentucky via Switzerland and Virginia. They became Southern Baptists. Any ounce of paganism had been stamped out even if they were people of the land (share croppers, mountain farmers and miners).
So we know that after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, all hell broke loose. Pagan temples were destroyed and pagan religions became "satanic." Before we judge the Taliban for blowing up the Buddhas in Afghanistan, Westerners need to understand that Christians did no less than the religious fundamentalists of other cultures. They spread the power of empire through their religion, and used religion to justify the political and cultural domination of Rome. Priests and Kings became all-powerful. A religion of domination and suppression became the rule.
This continued through colonization of North America and Africa. While the Church destroyed pagan temples in Egypt in the earliest years, colonizers would do the same to the indigenous peoples they encountered. Acceptance of Western domination came through acceptance of their god. Evangelism often was a means of westernizing indigenous cultures under the guise of saving souls. In truth, the people saving souls conflated their western practices with their faith, but were no less sincere in their desire to convert souls to Christ.
There was a scene in the Gladiator where Maximus was holding little "fetishes," statues that represented his dead wife and son. Juba, and African gladiator, asked Maximus if they can hear him. Two different cultures, two different men, and a genuine curiosity to the other's beliefs. Living in the United States, even as a Christian, I was always interested in other belief systems. There were commonalities and differences, and faiths and practices of some religions spoke to me in some ways. Some of the differences were off-putting but more often that not I was genuinely interested in others' beliefs and practices.
But the Abrahamic faiths do not allow for this, not officially. As far as Christianity is concerned, where culture and religion collide, the religion assumes the cultural practice and changes its meaning (think Easter, Christmas). The religious figures become saints, demons, angels or the Devil. There is a sort of purity that is imposed. That's not to say that certain practices don't continue, think Vodun, or combine anyway, such as Santeria. But for the most part, paganism is syncretized into Christianity.
When Quakers began their movement, they sought to revive primative Christianity. They were so anti-pagan that they refused to use the names of the days of the week or the months of the year; Monday = second day, April = fourth month. They sought to correct the apostacy of the empire religion with all of its trappings. There were still some unconventional beliefs and practices: Some Quakers professed a belief that they could read souls or detect the use of spiritual gifts, and Quakers practiced faith healing, exorcism, and herbology. Their ecstatic worship, preaching and prayer were often seen as diabolical and therefore they were accused, often by Puritans, of being witches. Quakers refuted these accusations stating that any spiritual gifts were of the Spirit.
Quakers believed in the Devil just like everyone else. To them, their practices weren't witchcraft (pagan) but of Jesus. The very need to refute claims of witchcraft indicates to me that Quakers bought into propaganda of the Church: paganism is of the Devil. Based on the few writings of Puritans about the Quakers I've come across, and I don't even remember what I read, I have the impression that The Puritans were like "looks like a duck, quacks like a duck."
If you want to know what Quaker worship was like in the beginning, think pentecostal with a lot o silence. Quakers invented the hooting and hollering you see in some churches today. Sermons were passionate and fiery. Some of the preachers, men and women, were articulate and charismatic. During worship people would quake in their seats when struggling with something (maybe a reality check, maybe wrestling a leading to speak). People would wail and groan. People would kneel in prayer and rise while preaching. There would also be long pauses of silence out of which more preaching and praying would arise. And in the earliest days there was singing! (They stamped that out real quick!). Pentecostals today would recognize early Quaker worship. Some people today accuse Pentecostals of being of the Devil.
This is completely off topic but did you know that Quakers even developed a style of preaching that influenced modern day charismatic preaching. They called it sing-songing.
Now, at least among liberal Quakers, paganism is not a threat and many Quakers employ various practices or share beliefs about creation and divinity. The Divine Feminine is welcome. Venerating Creation, even pantheism and panentheism coexist. Some Quakers, like myself, continue in a long tradition of a "magical conception of the body, nature and society," or the Quaker Cunning Folk of the 19th century who practiced divination (even while the majority of Friends condemned it) or the Progressive Quaker Spiritualists. From the outside, Quakerism often seemed a bit "witchy," and while most Quakers would counter this with all sorts of theological contortionism, the truth of the matter is any pagan would look at Quaker practices and read their beliefs about divinity's interaction with creation and think "um, take out Jesus and this looks pretty familiar." Even today some groups counsel against joining Quakers because of its theological diversity and practices.
In any event, Evangelical Quakers are correct when stating that much of New Age philosophy and practice has found its way into Liberal Quaker thought and life. And even though there have always been strands of pagan or "witchy" practices among Friends, the Religious Society of Friends has traditionally taken the Empire Religion's stance that anything that smacks of the old faiths is bad. The Religious Society of Friends itself has played a hand in colonization and the spread of Empire Religion. But something is happening among liberal Friends. We increasingly question our own institutions and the requirement of a God who demands belief. Instead, we enter into relationship with the Divine. We continue common practices such as silent worship and doing business without voting, sometimes we recognize ministries and concerns of certain Friends, but gone is the institution of powerful ministers and elders. Our testimonies of stewardship of the earth and simplicity bring us into a deeper relationship with nature, with Creation, and we see the holy in it. We question empire challenge the philosophy of conquest and shape of religion Empire brought, even if we came from that religion. Just as Early Friends sought to revive primitive Christianity, liberal Friends are, in some ways, are opening the doors to religious and spiritual understandings that were disregarded as "savage or superstitious."
The old Gods are back. Ancient practices are being recast and revived. Even among Quakers, who have always been accused of heresy and witchcraft even though they have fought long and hard to deny and oppose such things, there are those of us who look with curiosity if not interest at those old ways, who may pick up a practice here and there.
I wish that we could look at each others' faiths with curiosity and validation. That is one thing I do like about liberal Quakerism. At it's best Christianity, paganism, Buddhism, you name it, they are all valid paths even in this Empire. We respect them, acknowledging our Christian roots, continuing our "ancient" practices (almost 4 centuries now), but opening ourselves to what would feed Spirit in our individual practices.
We are empire, here in the United States, but instead of having one faith, as Christian Nationalists would have it, the diversity of religious expression in this country can and should be our greatest strength. We don't have to adopt a new religion, or any religion. The old gods, those who predate even the I AM, may be back, but their influence has been in Christianity since the start, and you don't have to look far to see it. Instead of starting with telling others about our faith, we can begin with questions about theirs. If they ask questions back, a conversation begins! If not, so mote it be. 😉
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