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comments and discussion.








                      PAGAN AMERICA

     It seems that many pagans live in a virtual shadowland
that exists somewhere between their public and private lives.
It is understandable that few people will invite the stigma
of public ridicule, especially in such a socially conscious
environment as modern America.  This tends to impart a
certain secrecy to paganism.  Let's face it, one of the
fundamental tenets of the pagan religion tends to require a
certain amount of privacy.  Much of the bad press pagans
endure is directly related to this secrecy.
     There is, however, an historical analogy to the current
events surrounding religion in our country today.  Long
before the utter dissolution of the Roman Empire, paganism
was the prevalent religion in the world.  In the world of
that time religion was purely eclectic.  Temples and shrines
were numerous for the worship any of the multitudinous
deities.  The first centuries of the Anno Dominie where a
time of great political and social turmoil.
     The world was changing.  The Emperors of Rome were
coming to and consolidating their power.  Christianity
started and began to flourish.  The establishment of imperial
rule over Rome was the culmination of long standing social
unrest within the republic.  The century before Julius
Caesar's ascension to power was punctuated by a great civil
war wherein the very fabric of Roman social life was
threatened.  Events of such magnitude are the direct
indicators of the underlying social problems in any
historical analysis.
     Rome was still quaking from the reverberation of this
civil war when newly acquired Athens decided to revolt (-88)
and slaves, led by Spartacus, revolted in -71.  Jerusalem and
the kingdom of Judea fell to Roman general Pompey in 64 BCE.
     Christianity came at roughly the same time as Augustan
rule began the freezing of Roman borders, creating the Pax
Romana.  During this time Judea was the location of
continuous unrest eventually leading to the dispersion of the
Jews.  Early Christianity was dispersed along with the Hebrew
people.  Christianity gradually became accepted and in 313 AD
was adopted as the Roman state religion by Constantine the
First.
     The next few centuries marked its absorption of the
roman state and by 1000 AD the persecutions of the pagan
population began in earnest.   This marked the Dark Ages and
the Inquisition.
     The renaissance began a great philosophy of thought
encompassing the idea of the common man.  The settlers of the
New World were essentially renegade Europeans seeking
religious freedom or material gratification.  The settlement
of the American colonies set into motion a chain of events
which led to the modern American state.
     Since religious tolerance was one of the fundamental
aspects of our forebears it was inevitably included in the
laws of our country.
     The first amendment guaranties the rights of the
American citizenry to religious freedom.  The expansion of
America could was not accomplished without the absorption of
many diverse societies and all the ethnic religious beliefs
and traditions of these societies had to be honored.  It also
stands to reason that any faith could exist, even one of an
entirely American descent.
     America developed in much the same way as Rome.
Technology has, of course, sped things up quite a bit.  By
every definition available to us for historical analysis, we
have reached the pinnacle of classic civilization, reached by
the same formula that all great societies have at their
foundations.
     The conquest of the American west and immigration of
great masses of people to populate it is analogous to the
occupation of Europe and Africa by Rome.  The immigrations
were adherent to acceptance of ethnic beliefs.  So it was
with Rome, which incorporated all the religions of its
provinces.
     Paganism is the strictest definition of what American
society has become in the late twentieth century.  A look at
any yellow pages entry under churches will reveal a diversity
of religions in our country.
     In order for a civilization to reach the state we now
have, all these multitudinous religions must live in harmony.
We are now reaching a greater perception of this fundamental
element in the formula of empire.  Religious diversification
is independently growing in spite of manifest moral-majority,
governmental reform.
     Sounds like paganism to me.������������