Growing up I was forced to attend a Christian church (several churches over the years), where an angry man who's face turned red and he began to sweat heavily two minutes into the sermon would scream randomly it seemed about witnessing to "thy neighbors" the word of "God". He would stop yelling into his microphone long enough to read a Bible verse that supported how right he was in "suggesting" loudly that we should shove the Bible down the throats of the nearest person to pass by.

The point I am making is not that Christians are bad people or that they mean any harm by their prostilitizing, but that it is a cultural thing that needs to be worked on. Can you imagine if Pagans were encouraged to do this? How accepting would these type of Christians be to someone walking up to them on a bus or in a restaraunt and handing them a pamphlet on Goddess worship with quotes from the Witches Bible Complete by the Farrars, The Spiral Dance by StarHawk, or To Ride a Silver Broomstick by Ravenwolf?

As a kid my father used to "go pray for the sick". He expected it to be fine and dandy to go into dying patients' rooms at hospitals, both uninvited and most often unwanted. When patients expressed just how unwanted his presence was, he told them that he would leave but he would still pray for their soul. This, to me, is clearly harassment of innocent sick people. My father wasn't the only one who made these trips to hospitals to pray for complete strangers, disrupting their privacy and forcing opinions upon the ill. There were at least 30 that I met over the years. I was subjected to this treatment when I had the misfortune of being hospitalized after surgery when I was fifteen. A man from some local church, whom I didn't know, came into my room, looked at my mom and asked if he could pray for me. I, being both half conscious and not entirely religious (especially in the sense of Christianity) reacted badly to this. My opinion, of course, did not matter so much and my rejection of this treatment, in my groggy state, went ignored. My mother, being a good Christian woman told the man yes. He proceeded to put his dirty (literally) hand on my forehead and start shouting to "Christ" to relieve my pain and praising the "lord" at the top of his lungs, while pressing his filthy hand hard onto my forehead and shaking my head so hard I that my body moved. I thought that the stitches in my stomach from my operation were going to rip. This ordeal lasted what seemed like an hour, but it was probably 5 minutes. To make matters worse, my mom helped the man pray, knowing my feelings on religion. This experience was quite upsetting to me, not to mention painful.

Not to get into a rant, but inflicting opinions on other people who neither asked for them or want them just isn't right. The fact that my father did this and then made us hide and pretend we were not home when a certain unnamed Christian group (we will call them the J. Witnesses) came knocking at our door seems quite hypocritical. I mean he forces people to listen to his side of the story, why not give others a chance to tell theirs?

I think Christianity is the only religion that goes out like vacuum cleaner or encyclopedia salesmen and recruits for their growing masses. How likely is it that faced with pagans doing this they would put up with our recruiting lectures and pamphlets. I am not saying that we should recruit and I am not slamming Christians, but stating facts. I know not all Christians do this, but many of the one's I know do.

It has gotten to the point in society where you cannot have a safe haven from this kind of public and/or private recruitment. It has happened to me numerous times outside that hospital visit. Just a few examples of this are on a bus going to New York, in a restaraunt in Corbin, going into the student center at my school, and walking around at a park near my school. This is not the end of my long list. I have even had someone blatantly staring at the pentacle around my neck walk up to me and ask if I knew Jesus. My reply was, "Is he the Mexican guy across the hall?" I know this was rude, but it worked. The woman said something about my going to hell if I didn't change my ways, called me a blastphemor and walked away.

I for one am tired of the constant harassment that I never asked for or need. I suppose it is different to preach on the street corner where the person doesn't chase you down and rudely say that you are going to hell and that you are the child of the devil (which I was called by my mother's cousin which my mom's nephew believed and repeated to my mother). You can walk away from someone yelling to a crowd, but you cannot walk away from someone yelling to you. Most of the time they will chase you and continue to yell. My whole point in everything I have said is that we need some way to escape from these (excuse my harsh language) idiots.

Here is my proposal. We make up signs for our doors we big pentacles and in large bold print right above: "Are you trying to convert me?" and right below "Let's see who can can convert whom!" Then we print up pamphlets about the true nature of Goddess Worship quoting Starhawk, the Farrars, RavenWolf, and Cunningham and carry them with us at all times. Then the next time someone walks up to us and says "Have you accepted Jesus into your heart?", "Have you accepted the lord as your personal savior?", or "Jesus died for your sins!" and hands us a pamphlet, we can hand them our pamphlet and say, "Have you accepted meditation as a way to change your own life instead of looking for someone to change it for you?", "Have you accepted Isis, Estra, Cerridwen, Brigid, Hecate, Athena, Pandora or any other Goddess into your life as your personal savior?", or "Mother Earth dies for your sins daily."