Monday, February 05, 2007

More on the Revival of Greek Pagan Worship

After a break of 16 centuries, Greek pagans are worshipping the ancient gods again - despite furious opposition from the Orthodox church. Helena Smith asks them why they're so keen to revive the old religion. [ Full Guardian Story ] I think my favorite bit in this Guardian Op-Ed piece, would have to be in just the fourth paragraph:
the one-hour ceremony has achieved the near-impossible task of unnerving Greece's powerful Orthodox church... hierarchs have redirected the venom they usually reserve for homosexuals, Catholics, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, masons and the "barbaric" Turks at the "miserable resuscitators" of the degenerate dead religion. In fire-and-brimstone sermons priests have slammed the "satanic" New Ageists and fulminated against their idols.
Whoa. Now, the Orthodox church may not be happy about losing their only-religion-on-the-block status. But is that any reason to refer to spiritual seekers as "miserable resuscitators"? Or to call their chosen path a "degenerate dead religion"? If the Greek pagans are truly sincere in turning to their ancestral gods and goddesses, and they feel their path is valid, who is anyone to question it? Greek mythology is no less a collection of fairy stories than the Judeo-Christian mythologies. And, yes, I feel fully justified in refering to the stories of both religions as mythologies. And I do not feel that such a term belittles either camp. It's high time folks got back to the proper use of "myth" as something epic and inspirational ... and get out of the mindset that "myth = untrue".

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