The Pagan & Christian Moot sadly announced yesterday that Kev, an admin of their forums, had passed away. There is now a permanant memoriam to him at the Moot, which I invite all who knew and respected him to visit and pay their respects.

I did not know Kev well, but I liked him. His writing was full of gentle and humorous wisdom I always enjoyed. One contribution of his to the moot was his advice to Pagans and to Christians about how to approach each other. I would like to share that with you here, so you can know a little bit about the kind of person Kev was, and to spread his useful advice as widely as I can:

A Guide to Understanding Pagans

When you converse with pagans, it might help to keep these few points in mind:

They do not worship the Devil, sacrifice babies or animals or seek to overthrow the Church.

Do not preach to them, accept that they do not follow Christ, but in their own way are as spiritual as you.

Do not tell them they are going to Hell, coz they don’t believe in it, nor do they feel they need to be saved.

Do not tell them their gods are false, or they might tell you the same; quoting the Bible as proof to them is like quoting Grimm’s Fairy Tales to you.

Try to understand that they see the world in a different way, and do not necessarily believe it was created for them.

Prepare to accept that a lot of what you have heard about paganism is probably wrong; approach them with an open mind.

Pagans do not want to lure you away from your faith, but they are normally quite happy to tell you about theirs, if you ask.

There are many different faiths under the term pagan, do not think they are all the same; the ways of one may well contradict the ways of another.

Remember it is better to ask them to explain their faith than it is to tell them why it is wrong.

Do not lay past troubles at their feet; the Romans stopped feeding your brethren to the lions a long time ago, and if Vikings had raided any monasteries recently you can be sure it would have made the news.

Remember that for all the differences you have much in common: you both are proud of your faith and wish to defend it, you both share a belief in a greater power, you both follow laws; whether written, common or self defined.

A Guide to Understanding Christians

When you converse with Christians, it might help to keep these few points in mind:

They worship God and generally believe that Goodness is the creative norm. Evil is a twisting of Good. Just as you cannot have ‘bentness’ without have ’straightness’ first, so also it is not possible to have evil without having goodness. This isn’t polarisation, but broken-ness, or possibly deliberate harm.

Their God is different from yours, but because they cannot accept yours, do not let this stop you from respecting theirs.

It is a Christian’s duty to spread the word of their God, it’s not a personal attack on your beliefs; some of the stories can be quite enjoyable too.

The message of Christ is of love and forgiveness; some of them may forget this occasionally, don’t let the behaviour of the few cloud your view of the majority.

Try to bear in mind the Bible’s message is carried in both parable and fact; if some Christians are unsure which is which do not scold them unless you are prepared to read the book yourself to explain it to them.

Try to understand that they see the world in a different way, and believe that it was all created by their God.

Prepare to accept that a lot of what you have heard about Christians is probably one sided; approach them with an open mind.

Do not lay past troubles at their feet; its very unlikely you will encounter someone who was alive during the ‘Burning Times’ or the Crusades.

There are many different paths that call themselves Christian, do not think they are all the same; the ways of one may well contradict the ways of another.

Remember it is better to ask them to explain their faith than it is to tell them why it is wrong.

Remember that for all the differences you have much in common: you both are proud of your faith and wish to defend it, you both share a belief in a greater power, you both follow laws; whether written, common or self defined.

It is when good people like Kev pass away that I am reminded of how important it is to live a good life. To do so is the best way to honor the memory of those who have gone before us and given of theirselves to us.