Reader Questions- Why do Christians hate us?

I was actually driven away from Christianity by a pastor who decided that since I wasn't one of her perfect darlings, I wasn't worth her time. I found Paganism, and eventually Wicca. I also found an awesome group of friends who were all Pagans or Wiccan or some mixture of Earth religions.  And it was the happiest I  had been. But people kept telling me I was going to 'hell'. And people were afraid of us, afraid we would harm their children or sacrifice their animals. No one seemed to understand that we were (not) inherently evil. Even the head of the Quaker program kept his distance from us, even though it was a Quaker school.  We had allies and we kept our beliefs to ourselves, but we weren't, aren't, evil. We were kids, young adults, who for the first time didn't feel so alone because we had each other and staff sponsors who understood us, who cared about us. We had professors who were one hundred percent Christian and they did good by us. They fought for us when necessary and that is an amazing feeling. But it's rare. People condemn us to hell automatically. I don't even believe in hell. How can I go somewhere I don't believe exists? What is it about us that makes us so frightening and evil? Is it just because we are different?


-StarkweatherCL

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Thanks for writing in, Stark.

The easiest of your questions to answer is the one of how you could go somewhere you don't believe exists. Belief does not dictate reality. Should Hell be real, you can go there, belief system or no, in the same way a member of the flat earth society, if strapped into a rocket ship, could fly underneath the planet. This is not to say that you should accept that it does exist. My understanding of hell is so different from the one people like those you have mentioned believe in that they have little in common beyond a name, so I could probably say, rather safely, that I don't believe in it, either. 

For the rest of it, let me open up by saying how sorry I am that this has been your experience, and prelude my response with a statement as strong as I can make it... NOTHING you believe in warrants that kind of behavior from anyone else, much less someone who claims to be Christian. 

Because you asked, I am going to attempt to list the reasons why North American Christians would react in this way, and from time to time that may sound like making excuses or justifying it, because there are limitations to text media. So let me make it as clear as I can right here... neither you personally, nor your faith, are responsible for the behavior of anyone else. I am not saying these reasons are good or justifying, just saying that they exist and trying to explain WHY I think they exist.

Ok. I'll probably still offend some people with this, but at least my conscience is clear. Here we go.

Fear of the other is a pretty standard reaction nearly any group. North American Christians, however, have gotten particularly good at it. Many of our denominations have a narrative that speaks of escape from persecution, be it political (like protestants fleeing persecution in Catholic countries where not being Catholic carried a death sentence, or vice versa) ideological (pacifists fleeing war) theological (they believe differently then they should, and think we should believe like them! Let's go over here and believe what's right!) to the completely insane (they say we should stop treating gays badly. I'm tired of being persecuted! New Church!).

Some of these persecution narratives have some truth to them, others are obviously simple paranoia. Regardless of the validity of their basis, however, many churches use that sense of persecution to form a kind of xenophobia that serves to keep communities tight at the cost of being able to interact with anyone else in a way that is at all sane.

I have heard people go into great detail about how a Seminary Education merely installs the Devil into someone who would otherwise be a good believer. When I told them that I myself was Seminary educated, they looked at me like they were trying to find the horns. (fools, why do you think my hair is so poofy?!) This system has been used for centuries by splinter groups to prevent members from going to other mainstream denominations, even if their own pastors were getting a little crazy. (That's right... xenophobia created Christian Hipsters before it was cool.)

Over time, this attitude transforms even well-meaning evangelism into a demand for social assimilation. I wish it was a new pattern, but it isn't. It's a very, very old one, and can be found in every group, of every ideology, of every time. But it can't be denied that of the current perpetrators in North America, Christians (especially so called non-denominational Evangelicals) have a leg up.

So, with this culture of xenophobia established, it doesn't much matter what an outsider does... they have to be converted if possible, but carefully, like how you would treat someone with a deadly, highly communicable disease. Try to help them if you can, but protect yourself first. The fact that this goes straight in the face of what the Bible teaches us about outsiders (even, specifically, those with deadly communicable diseases) is apparently besides the point.

This is the main impetus for what you experienced. Other specific things about Wicca and Paganism are not actually particularly important. They may be the NAMED reasons (even the worst Christians know better than to say "I hate you because you're different") but in the end they are really just excuses. Those excuses could include, but are probably not limited to:

1. The connections made between Wicca and Witchcraft. I've honestly never really been able to make the connection myself, beyond perhaps a desire to connect something new to something old. But for some of these Christians, you may as well be saying "Go Team Satan!"

2. There has been a certain... glee... in how some people who claim Wicca flaunt their "unholiness." This is entirely their prerogative and does not even approach the glee with which groups like Westboro Baptist flaunt the concept of hellfire. I'm not victim blaming, here, but it does slot very neatly into the paranoid "Christians" worldview.  

3. From what I have seen, Wicca groups slant liberal in the same way those evangelicals slant conservative. So suddenly its not just the pastor demonizing you, but Fox News, as well.

To any Christian reading this and getting mad at me for being "ashamed of my faith," you're wrong. I am very proud of who I am and what I believe. I want to do it right. But I speak to people like StarkweatherCL every day. Every day, I hear a story of yet another person who encountered the adherents of a faith that claims to be loving and met with only scorn, fear, and hatred. To you, I say, stop fearing the people of the world and start loving them like Christ commanded you to do.

To you, Stark, I can only offer the likely weak consolation that those who hate and fear you in the name of their faith are doing their faith wrong. Then again, they say the same thing about me.

Just be who you are, and boldly. God loves you. Never let anyone who believes in God tell you otherwise.