Sunday, October 12, 2008

Spot the difference

Further discussion has arisen from the synchroblog on interreligious dialogue.

I guess to me the differences between the different styles of communication are as follows:

Interfaith dialogue: Hello, I am a Pagan. I honour both the masculine and feminine Divine, and a multiplicity of deities immanent in the world. I would be interested to hear about your religion.

Evangelism: Hi, I'm a Pagan, and I'm here to tell you that the Goddess really loves you and is yearning to connect with you. She can make your life so much more meaningful.

Proselytising: Hi, I'm a Pagan, and I'm here to tell you that if you don't honour my specific vision of the Divine, the consequences will be disastrous (both cosmically and personally).

(Last 2 styles of communication unlikely to be heard from Pagans, though you might get Baha'i-style "all religions are one" type statements from a few Pagans, or "Jesus was a Pagan really". No. He wasn't. Really.)

4 comments:

Makarios said...

LOL! Let's try some more of these. I'll start:

Televangelism: Hi, I'm a Pagan--and to allow us to continue our interfaith ministry, we need YOUR support. Send your contributions to. . . .

Any other suggestions?

Yewtree said...

LOL........ eeeuuuwww. Let's not ever start that sort of thing.

Stephen Lingwood said...

Just to let you know, when I say "evangelism" I mean what you call "interfaith dialogue."

Yewtree said...

Hi Stephen - I assume the same applies when it's a conversation with someone who doesn't belong to any religious tradition, too?