So to say "i also remember someone say there are 3 topics that you should never discuss, Religion, Politics and another mans wife, they all end up in a fight." is pretty much moot - unless you wanted to discuss religion, I would have thought it would have been safer for you to stick to News24 or the like (where I see ANY kind of religion has been painted with the brush of xtianity i.e. fear-mongering lip-service to prosperity-cultists).

I never suggested a debate - and I'm way past debating anything with xtians, unless they're willing to provide me with proof (real, non-dogmatic, non-xtian, absolute historical empirical PROOF) that their God-man myths (stolen from Pagan Myths) are NOT myths, but (as they claim) the factual history of an actual figure, a real man from a town named Nazareth (not the actual 3-family hamlet which it really was back then - it wasn't a town 2000 years ago), whose mother was a virgin (not a maiden who became a virgin quite conveniently 600-odd years after the fact when the xtians decided to assimilate some MORE Pagan DNA), and so on and so forth. Their most common bleat is that "OUR God was one REAL man who actually walked upon the earth, a REAL flesh & blood man - unlike the Pagan Gods..." - but there were at least SIX people who claimed to be Jesus Christ, one of whom actually happened to be a Roman Legionary. Which one, if any, or perhaps all of them was the Christ you refer to?

Here's another hint: Just have a look at the Egyptian myths (where EXACTLY were the Israelites slaves for HOW many years?) and then tell me that xtianity isn't a 'Borg' version of Paganism.

Sadly, there aren't any xtians willing or able to take up that challenge - and while I reiterate that I count amongst my friends several xtians (one of whom called me tonight from the border to ask me - yup, ME! - to pray for him on his route into Botswana to perform an outreach to the people there), these are people who can understand the differences between dogma, facts, and faith. And with whom issues of faith are discussed, not debated. In short, intelligent people with a great depth of knowledge about their religion and its origins - not just what the minister told them in Sunday School - and with respect for ALL other religions (Chapter 2 of the S.A. Constitution refers to freedom of religion - and that means ANY religion, not just xtianity).

While we're at it, and you want to try and paint my scribblings as disrespectful, why don't YOU tell your fellow xtians on their xtian websites that it's uncomplimentary and offensive to talk about Pagans and Witches being put to death in the name of your god? That, I'm afraid, is a common biblical quotation hauled out by xtian prosperity-cult evangelists in order to scare people into accepting THEIR little make-believe god, the god of fear, the god of (conditional) forgiveness, the god whose OTHER side (the meaning of "Satan" is derived from "Shai'tan" which means "the antagonist") is the most famous and feared of ALL xtian gods, one Satan. Duality indeed - and then they blame it all on the Pagans...
To refresh your memory, have a look here:
Exodus 22:18 says, "Suffer not a witch to live." Deuteronomy 18:10 says, "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch."
http://www.landoverbaptist.org/sermons/witches.html

I kid you not - it's real, it's now, it's hate-speech, and it's defended in the name of xtianity. This is only ONE of dozens, if not hundreds, of similar hate-spewing xtian sites out there on the web RIGHT NOW!

While we're at it, go and look up 'Lucifer' and ask yourself why Satan (the Prince of light) has his name usurped by Jesus in Revelations 22... However, if you would like the answer, look no further than the word "Duality" - the Yin & the Yang of xtianity, as it were. The light and the dark? Two sides of the same coin?

To refute your claims of innocence wronged, did you perhaps miss this paragraph (especially the last 20 or so words)?:
"A recent posting by Erebos got me to thinking about this currently fashionable tendency to 'dialogue' with xtians, and I figured I should perhaps, in the interests of helping my fellow-Pagans avoid unpleasantnesses, share my own experiences of the matter."

Let's end this discourse by saying the same thing that teenage girls' parents should be telling their daughters - "unless you respect yourself, don't expect anybody else to respect you." Hence the 'xtian'.

Other than that, hopefully you at least learned something here today. Other than the obvious fact that some (gatvol) Pagans can spell and construct grammatically correct and properly punctuated sentences, that is...

Tyr's Blessings upon you!

Ah, it feels like coming home...

To find myself once more amongst kindred spirits.

This last stretch of time has weighed heavily upon my spirit - like Wotanwulf, I too was beginning to despair, to question the reasons for my commitment to the Pagan Community and to resent the toll it has levied upon myself.

The losses of the last year have taken their toll on our own little spiritual community: one of our number, after fighting and beating off the dreaded spectre of cancer, was killed in a MVA; a partnership of senior members within our coven was destroyed by the cancer of addiction on the part of one, leaving us bereft and grieving, angry at this untimely sundering of what had been a beautiful relationship; and the loneliness of the warrior, always on guard, never deeply sleeping, has exacted a terrible price - to feel isolated and alone, committed to the Gods and the Pagan way of life, but watching as others pay only lip-service, and to live with that deep dark anger and resentment at those who trivialise and marginalise the honesty and purity of the Pagan way of life - that has imposed a toll greater than I ever suspected.

Thank you both.

I am pleased to see the warriors of the Old Gods and to feel the passion of our ancestors.
We can Heal with Cold Steel, we can cleave minds with ancient wisdom, we do not live by faith...
Ours is the path of of the warrior - both spiritual and physical. Solemn, strong, logical and wise.

As the blood of our warrior fathers courses through us in this age of watery escapism, let us not forget that we are few. This site is for Pagans (as defined by SAPC), it is a public forum.
Let us always speak with this in mind, protecting at all times the dignity of a warrior class.
Mynie once said to me that a soldier knows when to retreat. I replied that a warrior is not a soldier who follows orders. A warrior never retreats, he fights to the death in the name of what he believes to be right, moral and upright.
Let us at all times strive to be real warriors - chivalrous, gallant, honourable - and never bring our "Paganness" into disrepute.
BB
Luke