Neopaganism

When we say that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter."
~ Justin Martyr, First Apology, 21 ~

"In an ancient text known as the Dialogue of the Sages, Saint Patrick asks Caoilte, a member of the Fianna of Fionn mac Cumhaill who has returned unexpectedly from the Otherworld, how the forest warriors found meaning in life before Christianity, as if the old missionary couldn't imagine anyone leading a moral life before the coming of Christ. Caoilte responded, 'We had truth in our hearts, promise on our lips, and strength in our arms.' In other words, inner truth, the promise of that truth, and the physical strength to live up to it sustained the Celts during the heroic age."
~ related by Tom Cowan here. He's an ordained minister in the Circle of the Sacred Earth, a church of animism dedicated to shamanic principles and practices, riverdrum.com

The fourth stream is Neopaganism. The practitioners in this category have much to teach us about the use of the arts in worship and that powerful worship can sometimes occur without the use of a complicated, prewritten ritual. They also are quite experienced in the ways of the World Mother, and are also useful as a "research experiment" to see how too much emphasis on the physical realm often needs balance.

Perhaps most importantly, however, there is great wisdom to be found again in balance. What became the "mainstream" Christian Church focused very intensely on the wickedness of the world, missing the good that can also be found there. This led to extreme reactions against the most obvious target: sex.

Yet More Sex in Church

The results have revererated through the centuries into our present era. Even the founder of the Foursquare Gospel Church, an extremely fundamentalist faith, Aimee Semple McPherson, was involved in an extramarital sexual affair. This is important for our discussion because this very church a few years ago was embroiled in a similar scandal, caused by their denomination's head clergyman, who was subsequently forcibly removed from the church. There was even a 96-minute movie made about the McPherson incident, The Disappearance of Aimee, released by U.S.A. Home Video in 1976, and starring Barry Brown, Severn Darden, Bette Davis, Faye Dunaway, Lelia Goldoni, and John Lehne. The director was Anthony Harvey.

"In 1926, flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared for six weeks. At first feared drowned (she'd been vacationing on a California beach at the time she vanished), Aimee finally showed up, wandering barefoot in the Mexican desert. For the benefit of the press, Aimee related a fantastic story of being kidnapped and held for ransom, a story given 'credence' by a ransom note which popped up at her Four Square Gospel headquarters. Aimee's tale was as full of holes as a Swiss cheese; as more facts became known, it was apparent (to everyone but True Believers) that Aimee had spent those six weeks on a romantic idyll with Kenneth Ormiston, a married radio technician. This made-for-TV movie takes no sides in the controversy, offering generous space to both theories; still, Aimee does not come off as being particularly saint-like. Faye Dunaway stars as Aimee, Bette Davis co-stars as her domineering mother, and William Jordan is man-in-the-middle Ormiston. Written by John McGreevy, The Disappearance of Aimee was the November 17, 1976 presentation of TV's Hallmark Hall of Fame".

Since an enormous number of sex crimes are being commmitted in ostensibly Christian churches, shown by the law suits, exposes be members and clergy, etc., this is an extremely important issue to be addressed to help thousands of people avoid a tragic fate.

All written material in this site is copyrighted by the Most Rev. Jon Ryner, except where noted.