What makes Pagans valuable to America? What do we bring to the table? How do we exemplify American values? Looking back on the contributions that Jews and Catholics have made to our collective American identity, how do Pagans enrich the American identity?
– Star Foster
We are a million individual voices.
We share no unified belief, but we encourage the development of a personal and a communal practice.
We force our traditions on no one, but we seek to build community.
We are the unique, en masse.
We remember the Earth. Many of us deify Her.
We live liturgically, led most commonly by the natural rhythms of the changing seasons.
We worship.
We make offerings.
Many of us hold paramount the principle, “Harm None,” and we are constantly in a dialogue about what that means.
We live our lives in service to Gods, Spirits, or Ancestors, and, standing beside the humanist pagans, we seek to serve the living kingdoms of this Earth.
We honor the traditions of those who belong to our large, amorphous community, and, like other Americans, we struggle to honor those whose are outside the boundaries we’ve created.
We are no more valuable to this Nation than people of any other religious or social group, but we are equally as valuable.
Today is the 4th of July, and I affirm my intrinsic value as an American citizen, as a religious person whose religious expression is deserving of full protection under the Law, as a member of a community comprised of diverse, imaginative, complicated and creative persons, each of whom is deserving and worthy of the all the rights afforded to any other American citizen, and I affirm the value of all life, human or otherwise.
I am a Pagan-American.
If you are moved at all by these statements, or you feel these messages could initiate valuable dialogue, please share this post on Facebook or Twitter.
Comments
23 responses to “What We Are: One Pagan-American Response”
Absolutely wonderfully said! Very true and worth sharing. I will be putting this on my facebook. Brightest Blessings to you!
Thank you so much for sharing! I’m glad the words resonated with you!
Beautiful. Bright Blessings.
And to you, Joe. Thank you for the comment.
Thank You so much for this!!! I agree with every word!!! I had to share. 🙂
<3. Blessed Be. <3
Thank You so much for this!!! I had to share. 🙂
<3. Blessed Be. <3
Much appreciated, Bekah. Thank you for sharing. Peace to you.
Beautifully said. I will definitely be sharing this one. Blessed Be!
Thank you, LaTrice! Blessed Be!
Beautifully expressed, I'll be sharing it.
Thank you so much, Melissa. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Feel free to check out some of the other posts. I'd love to know if there are other messages that speak to you.
Blessings.
I love this, Thank you !
You're welcome, Jeri! Thank you for the comment.
Shared and loved! Thank you so much for expressing this so beautifully 🙂
Thank you for sharing the love, Kallan. I appreciate it.
I had to share this one. Very well said, very well said indeed.
Thank you, Traveler! I appreciate you sharing it!
Wonderful words, and they really hit the spot. Thank you! Am sharing.
Much appreciated, Paula! Bright blessings to you.
Thank you so much for this. I agree with every word, and shared the article on facebook 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Valerie. I'm glad the post spoke to you.
This is beautiful and thought provoking. Thank you.
I'm glad it resonated with you, Alyss. Blessings.