"St. Patrick's Day and the Indigenous" Musings (Bi-Annual Kieran Post!)

[goatoverlord42]

Yes, I exist!  Though these days you're better finding me on facebook.

I'll also be posting a sermon in for friends in a bit.

Some friends over at my Salem church's Pagan and Christian interfaith dialog list really like this, so I thought I would repost it here.  It was my response to the questions of "why should we celebrate St. Patrick, who

Comments

[sophonax]

One thing I try to recall is that the same pained interest with which I and others long for lost knowledge of "indigenous" Celtic traditions (often out of disatisfaction with aspects of present Christianity/dominant religion) seems in all likely hood to have been the way many people, particularly the poor or disinfranchised greeted Christianity.I'm not totally sure what you mean by this

[goatoverlord42]

My basic point was that people dissatisfied with the status quo often embrace a new religion or idea... we shouldn't assume Christianity was always opposed, and much evidence shows that particularly lower classes and slaves, from its earliest days embraced and made it their own in every society from Rome to Ireland to the Deep South. We see ancestral traditions being used in the wake of colonial abuses, such as in Native American communities. Neo-pagan traditions seem to be reacting, frequently to both a present dissatisfaction with a dominant faith that also resonates with the perception of the colonial theft, however historically unclear to us, of cultural traditions by Roman/Christian influence in Europe