Note: The topic of some of my posts have resulted in emotional outbursts in the comments section. For that reason I decided it might be well to elaborate on the subject that seems to cause such emotional trauma in hopes that better understanding can be had. I make no claims of truth, only of what I’ve learned.

I spent many years studying church history, world history, the Bible and various competing commentaries. I’ve read countless books on the subjects from different beliefs and perspectives. In preparing a lecture for a World Religion class I was teaching, I developed the following graphic that provides a “Cliff’s Notes” summary of how the Christian ‘church’ grew from one Century to the next.

One can see by examining the graphic, that Christianity, as we know it today, evolved over many Centuries. One of the primary goals of the Church’s early adherents was establishing a universal religion that would cement control over the masses. With that goal in mind, the Bible was produced in the Fourth Century. The ‘books’ contained within it were selected by men from hundreds of Scriptures circulating at the time in order to establish one Holy Book for all. One will also note that the religion was developed from the top down by the authorities and imposed on the Folk, often at sword point. Do your own research and you’ll confirm what you see here.

I found it ironic that what was originally called The Way, a way of living taught by Yeshua/Jesus, developed into a religion with doctrines developed by men, well beyond Jesus’ teaching. Christianity developed in a ‘pagan’ world and since there was then no Christian Church, or even a thing called ‘Christianity,’ everyone, including followers of The Way, those following the organic teachings of Jesus, would, by todays standards, have been considered ‘pagan.’

David highlighted the words of Thomas Paine in a recent post, “churches are human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.” Paine declared, “My own mind is my own church.” As a Deist, Paine obviously accepted a Creator, but rejected organized religion of any stripe and walked with the Divine in his own way. He rejected what he considered myth and the history of an alien people to resort to reason. He employed critical thinking.

The Old Testament, the story of the Hebrews, was their story; a story of an ethnic people. African people have their story, as do Native Americans and yes, Europeans and their descendants. Every ethnic people group developed their own understanding of the Divine based on their unique cultures and experiences in the world. Naming Christianity the universal state religion was fundamental in the consolidation of Empire, and once that was established all ethnic faiths were to be destroyed. The church declared that anything that was not Christian was ‘Pagan’ so as to create a binary to be eliminated.

There are many flavors of Pagan, just as there are many flavors of ‘Christian.’ I’ll be the first to condemn many, if not most of what passes as ‘pagan.’ Following The Old Ways of the Europeans is not Wicca, it’s not Satanism, it’s not New Age, it’s not Muslim, Zionist, or anything else. These are all ‘pagan’ from a Christian perspective, but they’re not the ethnic faith of our Germanic ancestors. That faith embraces reverence for our ancestors, seeing the Divine in nature, and gaining insights from the myths of our ancestral Gods.

So, why do I offer this post? It’s an attempt, perhaps a naive attempt, to convince those Christians who ridicule, condemn, and insult those who hold to The Old Ways of our pre-Christian European ancestors that we are not of the devil, do not worship the devil, and that our virtues, ethics, and appreciation for the Divine are not so different from yours. We have a lot in common. We share essentially the same morals as you, but discard the doctrines developed over Centuries to control us and we reject what we consider a foreign religion. We simply have a different way of connecting with the Divine. It is my hope that the Christian reader will at least have gained a better understanding of the history of their religion and a bit more tolerance for those of us who no longer share it.