Fix ignorance please
 

Sooo, I was walking through the good 'ol College green here at Ohio University, and I noticed some people collecting change for some cause or another out of the corner of my eye. I'm a naturally inquisitive person so I walked over and proceeded out of my instinctual sympathy for just about any change collecting cause. I was about to drop my buck into the jar and one of the people manning the booth grabbed my wrist and said "We don't want your dirty Zionist money, get the f*** outta here!" Apparrantly, he had seen the ring on my pinkie finger w/ crosses stamped on it.

So naturally, they got no mula from Bullitt, and as i was walking away, I looked back to see exactly what campus organization they were from and it was the PSOU (Pagan Society of Ohio University).

I googled them and found nothing. So I was just wondering, since I know nothing about Pagans and some of you appear to be exactly that, if you could um, fill me in on Paganism and hopefully tell me that most of them aren't like this.

bullitt-first let me apologize to you for the abuse you suffered under their hands--not only was it NOT in keeping with Pagan tradition it was igorant to boot. That kind of stuff makes me sick. I went to OU (as I PM'd you) back in the dinosaur days--'83-'87 and I never encountered any hostility like that except from the long-suffering Townies (and, you must admit, they DO suffer.) A true Pagan would not have said/treated/thought those hateful things. Sounds like a cover for another cause and just trying to use the very heavy and influencial Pagan community there in Athens as a cover. I am so sorry they were asshats to you.

you know about the graveyards in Athens, don't you? :skull:

There are assholes everywhere. Please don't lump all Pagans in with the psychos you interacted with today.

I don't know what their "cause" was, but I'd be willing to bet that whoever they are, they are probably considered to be weirdo idiots by most of the other Pagans in your community. Intolerance is pretty rare amongst true adherents of the Old Ways, so them calling you a Zionist in a pejorative manner probably marks them as complete wackos and just plain dipshits.

Oh no, don't take m wrong, I'm not really all that offended by these people's actions, I just brush off these kinds of things. It just sparked my curiosity into Paganism and what all it entails.
And yes i know about the graves and the insane asylum (which is now university owned) one of its buildings hasn't been changed since the complex was sold. So if you can get inside (its all boarded up and fenced off) its real creepy cause it was the children's ward. So theres all this crazy stuff on the walls. The gravesites make a pentagram around Athens don't they?

Right. Very weird. Do you have any Townie anecdotes? Is BoJangles still there? I think that's the place when one can 'drink around the world'.

Unless you ran into a bunch of white power folks masquerading as pagans, I am seriously wondering how you were identified as a "Zionist" because of a ring containing crosses. Star of David, I might understand.

I agree with the rest of the folk here, what you encountered is absolutely not typical pagan behavior.

Interesting, nonetheless.

So, are you going to approach the University Diversity Committee to report the behavior, during what was probably an unauthorized fundraiser. My own college was pretty pissy about such things. (unauthorized money gathering, they couldn't have given a shit about diversity. It was the 80s.)

Brianna-I think Bojangles is gone. Either that or I just haven't seen it yet. I just woke up when I'm writing this so I'm kinda of fuzzy as to what you mean by "town anecdotes". Sorry, I don't do well in the mornings :zzz: .

Wolf- Eh, I'm really sure if I'm gonna report it or not. They probly just assumed (correctly) that I'm a Christian and thus called me a Zionist. And there's plenty of crazies around here so I doubt the university is really gonna do anything about it.
Also, kinda of the whole point of this thread, could you, or anyone else for that matter, give me a breif overview of Paganism? Here's what I DO know: It's super old, and these guys def. weren't Pagans. That's about the extent of my knowledge on the subject. I'm a naturally curious person so was just wondering if ya could fill me in a bit.

Wolf or Elspode are WAAAAAY more scholarly scholars on this topic than I am--I am wondering if I've a brain tumor as I cannot articulate self very well of late (and I know some of you will say to yourselves: what does she mean of late??!)

Try or maybe and possibly. :)

http://www.paganfed.demon.co.uk/aboutpf-3ps.htm

So, please correct me if i'm way wrong which i probably am, according to this site, if you lived according to these doctrines, you could be say, Pagan and still be Christian? Because they seem to thave the same set of ideals and basic practices. I.E. respect for other beings, recognition of a higher power which has no "gender", etc.

IMHO most of your Christians would say their God is definitely a male and so is his progeny. And so is the Holy Spirit, amen. I was raised in a Catholic home and went to Catholic schools where women were regarded as second-class citizens and not worthy to minister as a priest(ess) but only as nuns--handmaidens to the priesthood.

Yeah, I was referring to the absolute basics of Christianity. Not one particular sect. I'm a presbyterian myself, but I don't necessarily follow all the doctrines that the Presbyterian church puts forth. I'm more of a "Me and JC and God and I'm just trying to get through life not screwin up too much" kinda deal.

a Lapsed Presbyterian? :) Actually, seems a lot of trouble started when people began assigning gender to their dieties. I became interested in Wicca because of the equality afforded both male and female energies. The Judeo-Christian traditions throw a lot of shame on the female half of humanity.

that's because you lead us fine upstanding menfolk down the path of temptation, don'tcha know?

yeah, unfortunately, some people I know at my church think along those lines. That woman was created to server man and that the rights ands freedoms they enjoy now are just privaledges. Personally, I couldn't dissagree more. I think we were all created on an absolutely equal basis and that anyone who tries to place his or her sex above the other one is contradicting themselves in the fact that they are, in the proccess of making themselves higher, just becoming more arrogant and becoming the lesser person.
If that made any sense at all :eyebrow: . I'm kind of hard to follow sometimes sry.