Maybe I am just getting old and crochety; however, I can hardly see straight when modern people take over and occasionally subvert another religion's holidays/festivals. The thing that brings this to mind is a recent discussion happening over at the Google+ Pagan community about what "we" can "get out of Easter."
Give me a f*****ing break here, for Olympos' sake! This is just another wonderful reason why I refuse to be targeted as a pagan -- oooh, the stupid shows so much it hurts my head. If Christians need the nefarious dogma of vicarious atonement to understand that life goes on, let them. I knew this a long time ago from both philosophical and scientific resources -- I don't need to be atoned for because there is no such thing as Original Sin (TM), created out of whole cloth by Augustine of Hippo. You can't pick-and-choose what you want from a menu: their menu is fixed -- it's all or nothing.
This is probably why I am moving further away from Unitarian-Universalism, too. I like the people at our local congregation; however, I don't like it that if religion comes up it usually has either a Judeo-Christian slant, neo-pagan, or is Buddhist in orientation (I guess they love Joseph Campbell, well I can't influence their taste, it's just not mine). It ignores the entire Western Classical tradition as if it's not "Politically Correct" enough for a liberal organization. Of course, African drums are not off the menu, either, and I do prefer a Haydn string quartet. As a further matter of interest, I do not believe in the concept of race at all -- there are only ethnicities. The genetic difference I have between myself and any living person on this planet is the same difference I have with any member of my birth family. What I like is what I like, irrespective of the who, what, where, or when. BAH! FLUFF BUNNIES ALL!
As a further note, these people have completely ignored Eastern Orthodox Easter, which occurs in May this year. How about those apples! This is why syncretism does not work -- and will never really work. The idiots only think about Roman Easter. Will my headache ever go away!
