Links and Stuff (and Cats!)

When I find enough stuff worth sharing on-line I can’t help but present another edition of Links and Stuff (and Cats!) These are my little babies, but send me an email and I’ll be happy to feature your felines (or your dog I guess, and if anyone has a pet goat that’s a definite). Click around and enjoy the great writing.

Lots of ongoing fallout from Sam Webster’s Why You Can’t Worship Jesus and Be a Pagan. I offered my own take here, but some of the other responses to it were so good I had to share them.

My favorite response came from John Halstead over at the Allergic Pagan. His Waiter! There’s Some Christianity In My Pagan Soup! contains an amazing look at the Christian influences on Modern Paganism. Well reasoned, well researched, and well worth your time.

Far removed from John and I’s opinions was the response from the Pagan Layman. Is Christianity the Enemy? contains my second favorite line in this whole debate: “We should set free the gods, all gods.” (My favorite line belonged to John Beckett who responded to my piece with: “I no longer worship Jesus, but we’ve remained on speaking terms. Polytheism is good that way.”)

I like responding to things on-line, but it’s even cooler when I’m responded to! My top 25 Influential Pagans list inspired a couple of other lists, and you can never go wrong with a little extra history. Theapoetics has the 13 Most Influential People in Goddess Spirituality, and let’s just say I loved it and learned a lot in just a couple of minutes. Diane Morrison’s list of influential Canadian Pagans over at Pagan Square will have you eating poutine and wanting to lace up your hockey skates (sorry for stereo-typing you my Canadian friends, for the record I love hockey-Go Pens!). If anyone else puts together a “Top Pagan” list please let me know so I can share it on RtH.

I found it interesting that there is controversy over polyamory in the Unitarian Universalist Church (be warned, the link takes you to an Evangelical blog here at Patheos). Keeping with the relationship theme, T. Thorn Coyle’s Love Will Out is a plea for a new society open to legal rights for committed individuals who exist outside of the traditional “we each get one, and only one” partner system.

Long before Yahweh blessed his flock with some rather regressive attitudes towards sex, the people of Israel were making stone phalluses. A six thousand year old stone phallus was recently unearthed in Northern Israel, along with several other artifacts, but who cares about the other artifacts really? They found a stone penis! I’m digging it.

If you have some time to waste, or are looking for a bit of greater understanding when it comes to people outside of Paganism, check out the “Why I Am What I Am” series here at Patheos. A couple of us here at Patheos Pagan have participated, and you can find our reasons here, here, here, and here.

We just keep adding great writers to our little corner of the interwebs. Our latest weekly addition is Angus McMahan, who debuted on Patheos right here on RtH. I’m not taking all the credit for the guy ending up over here, but I think he owes me a hard cider or one of those Dorito tacos or something. Several editions of Ask Angus have resulted in coffee out of my nose, not the best way to start your morning. Another new contributor is Vivianne Crowley who will be sharing her wisdom with us once a month or so. I could’t be more excited to have them both here at Patheos Pagan.

Happy Springtime!