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Ryonne's avatar

I admire your work and I have to say your criticisms and critiques of movements are usually very solid, especially your criticism of the Alt-Right back in the day. That's where I think it's really a shame you've so dramatically missed the mark on this one, to the extent that I could only conclude you've either not talked to any intelligent Pagans or that you're ignoring some of the stronger arguments. (The dreaded word "strawman" comes to mind?)

For instance, in the first core critique of Christianity by Pagans, you merely say Christianity is responsible for progressivism and then agree partially in that you consider progressivism a Christian heresy. I think you ignore the much more fundamental and I’d argue more widespread right-wing Pagan argument that Christianity is a fundamentally leftist and progressive religion, that Jesus himself preached as fundamental values of pacifism, forgiveness, universalism, egalitarianism, and anti-elitism. Viewed properly, progressivism is the truest and most genuine interpretation of Christianity, and the past healthy, masculine, traditional, and hierarchical forms of Christianity are Pagan-influenced corruptions of the genuine faith. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature, and that ironically the only reason the software was working correctly is because it’s been bugged.

I also take exception to the analogy that if the heart isn’t working, it should be ripped out. That seems to view Christianity as something so integral to Western civilization and humanity at large that it could not function without it, like a heart, but that’s clearly wrong in view of history. The Roman Empire reached its height in physical power, morality, technology, and culture without Christianity, as did the Greeks, the Egyptians, and so on. This argument is also dismissive of Bronze Age civilizations beyond the Mediterranean, which while not leaving as strong of a written record as Christian Europe still birthed many great peoples, great stories, and great cultures.

These are just two illustrative examples of a general pattern of sloppy misrepresentation of Pagan arguments throughout this essay. As a practicing Asatruar I was eager to hear your viewpoint and am always open to strong arguments against what has come to be my own faith, but I’m disappointed. I feel you would benefit from an actual constructive dialogue with an intelligent Pagan or reading a stronger Pagan critique of Christianity rather than responding to what I can only conclude are poorly-thought out comments or posts on internet forums.

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The Fyrgen's avatar

This article doesn't contain the words 'jew', 'torah', 'judaism', 'hebrew' or 'testament'. Key words in my primary criticism of Christianity. Nice attempt other than that.

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