Some Questions About Current Christianity for the Current Christians

I grew up in the Christian Church, going from the Catholic church to Protestant (Church of God) to non-demoninational (though roughly following the same views as Protestant). During my years associated with the Christian Church, I came across more and more....outrageous claims, particularly when dealing with other religions, from the people that were supposed to be teachers of the children and teens. Here, at ProgressiveU, I've noticed that there are a lot of people who have clearly stated their dedication to Jesus and the Christian God. I, therefore, have some questions for you. These aren't just more questions about the Bible or God's claims or Jesus' claims. They've been done a million times. These are questions about the people that consider themselves Christian.*

1. What Is This "Satanic Music" You Speak Of?

This one comes from a recent post from w8sted who was talking about drifting away from his religion and that a mission brought him back. It's all well and good, but one of the things he mentioned doing before he went back was listening to "Satanic music."

What is that? Metallica? Manson? Elvis? What makes an artist or song Satanic?

Probably the best example Christians use is Manson, thanks to his...shocking...display in his videos and on stage. Have you ever looked at the lyrics, though? They're typically about things like being an outcast or not following the stereotype/crowd. One is about a person with depression and how she comes from a "perfect world" and should be happy, but really isn't and how the meds have basically made her a shell. And Manson himself? Very well-spoken, very respectful, even when reporters/interviewers are obscenly rude to him.

Also, do you consider Edgar Allen Poe satanic? Or Emily Dickenson? These are people who have written morbid, dark works that, in some cases, put some of today's dark works to shame, and these are considered some of the greatest writers of all time.

2. Christianity vs Pagan Religions

The very nature of Christianity as a religion isn't very tolerant of other religions. That's pretty obvious when the religion is based around an eternal afterlife instead of this life, which makes sense. The problem I have here is the way other religions were portrayed by my "teachers," particularly Wicca and other Pagan/Neo-Pagan religions.

The biggest thing I've seen emphasized is sacrifices.

Now, let's start with history. Almost all the Pagan religions performed sacrifices, some of which were human sacrifices, though oftentimes crops or animals. However, Christianity in the early (primarily pre-Christ) days also had sacrifices, again primarily crops and animals.

Now, in current times, almost all countries consider killing of another human to be murder (this includes sacrifices). Most religions, save some of the more exreme ones in generally isolated areas, have also put a stop human sacrifices.

Yet there were several videos regarding neo-pagan religions performing ritual sacrifice on a regular basis (one especially morbid one was regarding the reasoning against Halloween). I have also met people who claimed to have participated in such sacrifices when involved with what they called witchcraft.**

There's a problem, here, though. The "golden rule" (so to speak) and prime philosophy of Wicca is "an ye harm none, do what ye will." Ye harm none, hmm...sounds like they're against hurting others, don't you think? Wouldn't human sacrifice be considered harming others? I know several practicing Witches (and Druids, and several other members of neo-pagan religions), all of which shun the idea of sacrifice in general, much less human sacrifice.

Where are these claims current Christians have about non-Christians coming from?

3. What's Up With These "Holy Wars"?

There was a line in a movie (I forgot the name) that went something like "as long as there is only one, true God, there will be killing in His name." Considering the chaos that is the Middle East, it's pretty accurate, don't you think?

But wait a minute, one of the Ten Commandments states "Thou shalt not kill." Um...doesn't war equal killing? What makes declaring war on a country or group because they don't believe in the same God as you any better than declaring war over land, oil, or money? Killing is still killing. Even the Bible teaches that "the wages of sin is death" and that all sin is equal, be it stealing, lying, adultery, or murder.

These are just some of the questions that have been plaguing me for some time now. I've had others, but they're typically just passing thoughts.

*I know that not all Christians think this way, but there are enough that do that have prompted me to write this.

**Witchcraft and witches, in my experience, are practices and practioners of the Wiccan religion. My definition of witchcraft is not the same as theirs.