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Originally posted by DragonMage:
Misconceptions, indeed, G'kar. I come from a God-believing family, but non-traditional. I became a Christian at 18 and still believe that God is who He says He is and that Jesus died for us. I DON'T understand why some Christians still believe that all 'magic users' would be bad.
To try to use the power for evil IS bad and you reap what you sow as a result only three times worse than the harm you intended. I have 'drawn' on the powers that be to aid in healing or to influence GOOD things to happen (someone I know getting a job, etc.). My feeling as a blend of the two faiths is that BOTH can be perverted to dark purposes and therefore each person must guard themselves against the temptation to do harm. I feel that other entities other than God do exist. It says in the Bible: 'thou shalt have no other gods before me'. I take that to mean that other powers exist, but that God is above them all. Christians call them Angels, Native Americans and others call them "Spirit of the Bear", "Spirit of the Wolf", etc. Yet other religions call these helpers by other names.
I believe the Wiccan Goddess is yet another helper. They are His helpers and we can ask them to help us for specific needs. Yes, you can ask God directly, too. But I think God knows that, no matter how He tells us we can come to Him directly, some people feel that He is too far above us to 'bother' Him, so they feel more comfortable with a go-between. What's different between a Catholic praying for intercession from Mary and a Wiccan praying for help from the Goddess or the Native Americans praying to the Spirit of the Hunt?
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DragonMage, I respect your Beliefs and your candor about them.
I see little difference between religions at a funtional/archtypal level in some aspects. I look for what I can appreciate as well as correlate in any religion I encounter. I see the unifying, all-inclusive God as being the wholeness of the god and godess. You can't refer to one without implying the other. The "Yin-Yang" is an excellent symbol of this concept. I could write more about my beliefs and go into details about what I like and see similar about different religions, but I am tired, and yearning for sleep. Thanks for sharing.