It really sticks in your mind when someone says something wildly unexpected.

Last week, I went with my grandma, mom, mom's boyfriend and his mother and sister, and his sister's significant other to see Star Trek. I thought it was pretty good. They did their best to make it something the "purists" couldn't complain about...(but of course they will anyway.)

There was nothing really glaringly wrong about their take on it. I've heard some say the alternate time line is a cop-out, but honestly....it's nothing Star Trek hasn't done before. They've done various time traveling story arcs. Star Trek in and of itself in its original form was full of flaws and plot holes anyway! It was a masterpiece for its time, but if you're honest with yourself as a Trekkie, you'll admit it's not a perfect show. You can only achieve so much realism with cardboard, paint and duct tape. Our current real-world rockets have more modern-looking consoles than the original Star Trek ships! My grandma, being the purist, had a few complaints...one being the ships in the movie looked too advanced and modern. Like I said, our current space vessels look more modern than the original Enterprise. Why would the makers of the movie, with the technology we have today, make future ships that look less advanced than what we have in reality? The other complaints she had stemmed from her missing a couple details because....because she's old and doesn't remember everything she's seen/heard in the last 15 minutes. So it's excusable.
That all being said, I'm not really here to blog about Star Trek. I just couldn't very well bring it up without giving my thoughts on it.

What I want to blog about is something that happened in the restaurant where we ate dinner after the movie.



As I mentioned in the beginning, I was out with my grandma, my mom and her boyfriend, and his mother and sister, and his sister's significant other. Hopefully you can keep up with that! Now, it's important to note: the sister and her significant other are a multiracial couple. Why is that important to note? I'll get to that in a minute.
The restaurant was some random little Italian place...I don't remember the name, and it's not really important. I was stuffed with popcorn and feeling a little sick because the particular theater we went to has strange butter that always makes me sick...and I always eat it....IT'S TASTY, SHADDUP! Anyway. I was just having some garlic bread and marinara sauce. I was focusing on my food and not paying too close attention to the conversation unless it was directed at me.
Near the end of the meal, we were talking about the economy, and then money. In the course of talking about money, my grandma was describing some of the problems she had as a divorced mom in the '70s. For example, shortly after her divorce, she went to the bank to cash a paycheck. The clerk wasn't going to let her cash it without a husband's signature. My grandma was surprised and said something along the lines of, "What? I can't cash my paycheck, that I earned myself, when my account at this bank is mine, and doesn't have his name on it at all, without my husband's signature?!" Nope! So she told the clerk she was divorced. The clerk wouldn't believe her until she brought in her divorce papers! Pretty ridonkulous, no? (I love that word....ridonkulous!) My mom's boyfriend's sister (I'll just call her "the sister" from here) expressed surprise that women's civil rights were still so limited as late as the '70s. So we talked a little bit about civil rights, and how long it took, and is still taking, for some groups!
I brought up that the gay community still doesn't have all the civil rights yet. And then...then I said, "And the Pagan community has only gotten civil rights in the last 10 years or so!"
To which the sister replied, with much eye rolling, "Tch! Big whup!"
I was surprised, shocked, speechless, stunned and at a loss for words. I had planned on saying something else, but it just fell out of my brain and I couldn't remember it. I was just so completely caught off guard that she didn't care that someone in America was lacking civil rights. (See why it was important to point out she's in a multiracial relationship, now?)

America's very existence is completely, entirely, 100% because the Pilgrims were seeking religious freedom. The right to worship who, what, when, where, how and why you want is the most basic, central, core concept of America! As Americans, we have a duty, nay, a requirement to acknowledge that EVERYONE has the legal, civil right to freedom of religion. IT'S IN THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, PEOPLE!! "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
And though I don't know exactly where it comes from, I believe we've all heard at least part of the quote that includes "regardless of race, religion or creed."

For anyone to disagree that everyone has that right, is to not only deny the most basic principle of America, but to support the oppression of religion as a whole. If you are a Christian saying Pagans don't deserve religious freedom, then you are condoning what the Romans did to the early Christians! You are saying the Romans were right and just in throwing people to the lions, locking them in furnaces, and otherwise executing them for being Christian. How can any Christian justify the mistreatment of anyone over religion (or anything else for that matter) after what the Christians themselves have gone through? By what twisted sense of arrogant self involvement gives Christians the right to be the ones yielding the whips now, when they still bear the historic welts from the whip-bearers of the past?

To me, that kind of attitude is the same as if some black person said white people should be enslaved and dehumanized! I could be wrong (because I don't know everyone in the world), but based on the black people I know and have talked to, they don't support slavery in any way, shape or form, because they went through it, and the persecution that followed. It would be a grave, grave hypocrisy to support the mistreatment of others after speaking out against the exact same mistreatment when it was previously against you. And yet....that's what many, many Christians do on a daily basis.

Ok, I got a little off-track there, sorry. I just found it very shocking to hear the sister be so cavalier about Pagans being denied civil rights. As a woman who is (I think) in her 50's, involved in a multiracial relationship, you would think she would be more conscientious of everyone's right to civil liberties! I suppose it might come from ignorance (which is the most common cause of hatred and bigotry anyway) of what "Pagan" encompasses. Basically, Paganism covers anything and everything that isn't Christian, Jewish or Islamic. So when "Pagans" are denied civil rights, that means Shinto, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, Norse, Celtic, Ancient Greek, Ancient Egyptian, Aboriginal, Native American and Inuit followers were all denied certain basic civil rights. It was OK to deny them employment because of their religion. It was OK to deny them housing. It was OK to pay them a lower salary. It was OK to have them evicted. It was OK to ban them from commercial venues. It was not a "hate crime" to vandalize their property or attack them because of their beliefs. (Still vandalism, destriction of property, assault, etc...but those are not as "severe" crimes as those that fall under the "hate crime" category.)
Note: I did not include Satanism in "Paganism". That's because it's technically not. It's still part of the Judeo-Christian system. Satanists believe in God, just like Jews and Christians believe in Satan. "Believing in" is not the same thing as "worship". They believe in the same things as Jews and Christians, it's just that they're on the opposing side of the field, and have a different set of religious morals they follow.

Pagan does not mean "not Christian", and it does not mean "anyone the Christians think will go to Hell for their beliefs."

Everyone in America deserves all the civil rights, no matter the color of their skin, the language they speak, the size of their bodies, their sexual preference or their religious beliefs.
To disagree with that is to disagree with the very existance of America.
And I'm sure there are people out there who do disagree with the existance of America...and if you do, you can support/deny the civil liberties of others to your heart's content. I don't have to agree with you!