Acceptable Paganism

~Sept. 11, 2003~

Do you think paganism will ever be nationally accepted?

No, I don�t. I really don�t. I don�t think it will ever have enough people to be considered a mainstream religion, which would be the first step towards being accepted.

Wait, scratch that, back up� Accepted. In part, yes, in part no. This is all really based on the person that�s doing the accepting and how open minded and religiously confined they are.

Accept is defined by Websters as to take or receive; to agree, consent or accede to; to respond or answer affirmatively; to regard as true or valid, to regard as normal, suitable or usual. To be acceptable is defined as capable of worthy of being accepted; pleasing to the receiver; welcome. Acceptance is defined as the act of taking or receiving something offered; favorable reception; the act of assenting or believing...

In 2002, Barna Research took a survey of the religious affiliations in the US and of those that responded, this was the breakdown:

�85% of Americans self-identify as Christians.
�5% of US adults classify as evangelicals (see Evangelical archive for definition)
�35% of US adults classify as born again, but not evangelical
�37% are self-described Christians but are neither evangelical nor born again
�8% of adults nationwide maintain self-identify as atheists or agnostics
�9% of the US population identify with a faith other than Christianity

And in this, Evangelical and born again are both Christian based belief systems. Another survey, last done in 2001, by ASRI of over 200,000,000 Americans put the numbers as follows:

�81.5% Christian based
�1.3% Judaism
�0.5% Muslim
�0.5% Buddhist
�0.3% Unitarian
�0.4% Hindu
�0.4% Atheist
�0.5% Agnostic
�13.2% No religion

This only accounts for 98.1% but the other religions listed are Eastern based with the exception of Wicca and Druidism. Both of which would fall under the �umbrella� of paganism.

Now I�m sure you�re wondering why I�ve got these statistics up here. Reason is to show that Paganism in any form is a HUGE minority. Christian based religions are the majority, they have been and they will be for a long time.

Now, back to the definitions. When religion is the proffered thing to be accepted, people tend to get very locked in to their beliefs and that�s the only thing valid. Therefore, they can�t regard another form of belief as valid if theirs is the valid one. This leads to the conflict that will prevent paganism from ever being really nationally accepted. So long as there are fundamentalists and zealots, it will remain a minority and will remain non-mainstream and non-accepted.

There are, however, the people that, regardless of what they believe, are able to realize that not everyone has the same beliefs. That other people�s beliefs are just as valid as theirs. That not everyone believes in one God and that basic belief structure. And it�s these people that we really could use more of.

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