I accidently accomplished #56 on my 101 Things in 1001 Days list yesterday – come out as a Pagan to a coworker. We were bored at work so the other vet and I went for a walk. She is Hindu but her child goes to a church school. She asked me if I go to church every Sunday. I said that I never go to church. She said that I was a very bad Christian. I said that I wasn’t any type of Christian at all. That threw her. After all I was born here to American parents, therefore I am a Christian in her worldview.
She asked what I was. I said I was a Pagan. She asked me to spell it. She didn’t seem to believe it. She told me that I was trying to make fun of her. I said that I really wasn’t a Christian and that being Pagan was a real thing. She asked if my family was Christian. I said that they were. That confirmed for her that I was therefore a Christian because my family is Christian and that is that.
That was the end of the discussion but I know that at some point she will ask someone else about it to try to find out if I was playing a joke on her. Then it will get interesting.
You could give her some bit of literature which will explain Paganism to her. That’s what I did with one of my aunts.
My Dad’s family still considers me Catholic because I was baptised. It seems no matter how much I say “I’m not Christian” I will be in there eyes.
That’s interesting. I know in Judaism they have that view that if you are born to Jewish parents you are Jewish even if you are an Atheist.
When I was leaving Christianity I had this weird idea that I could never be another religion if I wasn’t raised in it. I’m not sure why I had that view, but eventuallly I realized how wrong I was. Maybe it’s more common of a view than I realized.
I heard from a Pagan who had Hindu coworkers that they called him an American Hindu.