The problem with Christianity, or at least one of its many problems, is the reliance upon “belief” as the means of salvation.

Do you “believe” in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? 

Belief, here, is largely defined as blind belief and even then, we could assert that it’s largely a matter of one having an opinion.

“I opine that Jesus Christ is God.”

It’s problematic for the very reason that there’s more to it than this. My opinion that Jesus Christ is God could be incorrect.

The answer to this is usually sold in this manner:

“Such-and-such says that it is only an opinion that Jesus Christ is God, but according to (presupposed divinely revealing source), He IS Lord; therefore, such-and-such has only fallen into the clutches of modernity.”

Face it, folks: we have a messed up religion. My typical response is to try to run to the Gnostic truths of which I know, and that works only to a certain extent. There’s a balance that’s difficult to strike, and as much as I hate to say it, heretic or orthodox or otherwise, so much of Christianity IS THE SAME.

I’m not saying all denominations and all denominational attitudes are the same; I am saying that they all share a few things in common as far as attitude goes. 

Even Bishop Stephan Hoeller of the Gnostic Church states overtly that one cannot practice more than one religion effectively.

But the good news for those of us who are former and potential would-be pagans: Christianity is replete with “folk Catholicism” that’s still often more coherent than the best Wicca 101 book. You aren’t just given a huge recipe book from which you have to largely construct your own religion; you take fringe elements and assocaite them with the core story. Sure, you can have your own personal home shrines to Saints that aren’t officially canonized- it’s something that the Orthodox have perfected above and beyond Western Christendom long ago, and whether you approach that the Saints as actual dead people who are glorified in Christ now to whom you actually speak or whether you take them  as role models or manifestations of archetypes, it doesn’t matter: what matters is that you try and you practice it to see what works for you without completing throwing out EVERYTHING the Church teaches at the same time. 

The Church Catholic, whether she be Anglican, Roman, Eastern, Gnostic, or otherwise, has many good things to teach and say.

But just because a puppy can be fun to play with doesn’t mean it can’t bite, and just because there are good things conveyed to us by them doesn’t mean that they’re not also full of shit a lot of the time.