'Pagan' - A Dirty Word?

[Jameta]

While online I have never really run into the issue, in person I have found that the term 'Pagan' carries a negative connotation for some followers of faiths that would be considered it.

It is ture that the term comes from a late Latin term meaning "country-dweller", and was (and is) used as a derogatory term. But just as other words have evolved in meaning, can Paganism slide out of its old skin? If so, how long do you think it will take people? If not, what do you think is holding it back and why people place so much value on it?

As some may know, I plan on starting a student union for Pagans my sophmore or junior year of college. To combat this dirty-word syndrome, I'm going to put forth a name along the lines of "Neo, Ecclectic, and Reconstructive Faith Student Union".

...Naturally, I'm going to find an acronym. sweatdrop  

[Atma311]

Hmm.... this is a tough one. I think the word itself is positive due to how the Pagan community has shaped it INTO something positive. However, it will always depend on the person who uses the word. For example, a biggotted pastor might use that word as if it were a cuss word (and thusly shaping the term "Pagan" with negative connotations to all the people who listen and respect him), while on the other hand, a person who is friends with a Pagan would use the word more neutrally or even positively.

It mainly just comes down to personal experience.

Acronyms? Hmmm...

Students Affirming Faith Equality "SAFE"
Religious Education Among Leaders "REAL" ("Leaders" was the best I could think of)
Religious Interest for Students' Education "RISE"
Helping Others with Pagan Education "HOPE"

There's a couple of ideas mrgreen  

[xxx-The_Cookie_Demon-xxx]

Quote:

It mainly just comes down to personal experience.

I would agree to that though in a sense no so much of personal experience but that of your personal beliefs and teachings  

[Azana Brown]

Atma311

Hmm.... this is a tough one. I think the word itself is positive due to how the Pagan community has shaped it INTO something positive. However, it will always depend on the person who uses the word. For example, a biggotted pastor might use that word as if it were a cuss word (and thusly shaping the term "Pagan" with negative connotations to all the people who listen and respect him), while on the other hand, a person who is friends with a Pagan would use the word more neutrally or even positively.

It mainly just comes down to personal experience.

Acronyms? Hmmm...

Students Affirming Faith Equality "SAFE"
Religious Education Among Leaders "REAL" ("Leaders" was the best I could think of)
Religious Interest for Students' Education "RISE"
Helping Others with Pagan Education "HOPE"

There's a couple of ideas mrgreen

I dunno, the "Neo, Eclectic, and Reconstructionist Faith Students" Jameta went for spells NERFS. ^_^

Though HOPE is pretty darn cool, too.  

[MOD66]

Jameta

While online I have never really run into the issue, in person I have found that the term 'Pagan' carries a negative connotation for some followers of faiths that would be considered it.

It is ture that the term comes from a late Latin term meaning "country-dweller", and was (and is) used as a derogatory term. But just as other words have evolved in meaning, can Paganism slide out of its old skin? If so, how long do you think it will take people? If not, what do you think is holding it back and why people place so much value on it?

As some may know, I plan on starting a student union for Pagans my sophmore or junior year of college. To combat this dirty-word syndrome, I'm going to put forth a name along the lines of "Neo, Ecclectic, and Reconstructive Faith Student Union".

...Naturally, I'm going to find an acronym. sweatdrop

well in a southern church comunity the word is dirty, even sinful rolleyes . Example i was at lunch me antwo other guys( hardcore agnostic and a bible thumper, yah were an odd group sweatdrop (normly were cool though)) were play an game where you say a haloday and it was my turn and stupid me said Yule, and the bible thumper said that its the same as christmass and i went off on how christainty dose nothing but steal sheite from other relgions and you know me sweatdrop so at one point a said quite loudly well you stole our holaday your stole a PAGAN holoday...my entire table went quite and yah it didn't go over too well, but yah for the next few days people were talking about the "witch" at school, and to most of them (mainly the WASPs) they used pagan as a dirty word. stressed

But with most of my other friends pagan is just a word not good not bad though some times when we joke around they'll make cracks about it but to educated slightly open minded people pagan is just another word  

[Starlock]

The word Pagan has traditionally had a negative connotation and can be used as an all-purpose 'dirty' word. Religious tolerance brings this up. I'll copy it here for your ease of reading:

Quote:

Second meaning: Pagans are people to hate:

Religious and social conservatives sometimes use "Pagan" as a general purpose "snarl" word to refer to cultures or religions that are very different from the speaker's. There is no general consensus as to meaning. It can be seen directed at any religious or cultural group that the speaker hates. Some examples:

Dr. John Patrick, professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada was discussing at a conference the number of abortions performed worldwide. He said: "Gods and goddesses are beginning to re-inhabit the Western world. Infant sacrifice -– there are 52 million a year. It is paganism." 4

Dr. Richard Swenson, director of the Future Health Study Center. said at the same conference: "We went into post-Christian and neopaganism very quickly...We want the culture to change, we want some spiritual sanity, but we need to understand that this is a pluralistic and even neopaganist society." 4

Jerry Falwell appeared as a guest on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" program on 2001-SEP-13. He said that God became sufficiently angry at America that he engineered the terrorist attack on New York City and Washington-- presumably to send Americans a message. He said: "I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ...all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.' " Pat Robertson responded: "Well, I totally concur..." 15 [We have asked Falwell's office via repeated Emails to tell us exactly to whom he was referring with the word "Pagans." They declined to respond.] More details.

 

[Ezinu]

Starlock

The word Pagan has traditionally had a negative connotation and can be used as an all-purpose 'dirty' word. Religious tolerance brings this up. I'll copy it here for your ease of reading:

Quote:

Second meaning: Pagans are people to hate:

Religious and social conservatives sometimes use "Pagan" as a general purpose "snarl" word to refer to cultures or religions that are very different from the speaker's. There is no general consensus as to meaning. It can be seen directed at any religious or cultural group that the speaker hates. Some examples:

Dr. John Patrick, professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada was discussing at a conference the number of abortions performed worldwide. He said: "Gods and goddesses are beginning to re-inhabit the Western world. Infant sacrifice -– there are 52 million a year. It is paganism." 4

Dr. Richard Swenson, director of the Future Health Study Center. said at the same conference: "We went into post-Christian and neopaganism very quickly...We want the culture to change, we want some spiritual sanity, but we need to understand that this is a pluralistic and even neopaganist society." 4

Jerry Falwell appeared as a guest on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" program on 2001-SEP-13. He said that God became sufficiently angry at America that he engineered the terrorist attack on New York City and Washington-- presumably to send Americans a message. He said: "I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ...all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.' " Pat Robertson responded: "Well, I totally concur..." 15 [We have asked Falwell's office via repeated Emails to tell us exactly to whom he was referring with the word "Pagans." They declined to respond.] More details.

urg i hate pat robertson stupid old man and his narrow view of the world. *shakes her fist*  

[MOD66]

Starlock

The word Pagan has traditionally had a negative connotation and can be used as an all-purpose 'dirty' word. Religious tolerance brings this up. I'll copy it here for your ease of reading:

Quote:

Jerry Falwell appeared as a guest on Pat Robertson's "700 Club" program on 2001-SEP-13. He said that God became sufficiently angry at America that he engineered the terrorist attack on New York City and Washington-- presumably to send Americans a message. He said: "I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians ...all of them who have tried to secularize America - I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.' " Pat Robertson responded: "Well, I totally concur..." 15 [We have asked Falwell's office via repeated Emails to tell us exactly to whom he was referring with the word "Pagans." They declined to respond.] More details.

*angry twich* wow that makes me love pat robertson sooooo much more evil  

[FireonYce]

Sadly Many people think badly of this word. Coworkers practically died when I wore My Pagan pride shirt one day. Then there are some people who think if Im pagan that I run in the trees naked and drink squirrel blood. ninja Either people will take the term as condemned evil or will not have a wide enough spectrum to understand all that paganism entails.

I had one lady at my job bring holy water with her at all times when she found out I was pagan. I was tempted to foam at the mouth with alka seltzer and scare the s**t out of her. I decided agains't it as funny as it would have been. xd  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Christo Minaverus

some people who think if Im pagan that I run in the trees naked

You mean there are no pagans that do that? Try going to a pagan convention on a campgrounds, you'll see a lot of stereutypes made true. A friend of my mothers went to Kaleidiscope, and was kinda scared for life by the old man with the 50 pounds of piercings dancing around the fire naked.  

[FireonYce]

Nihilistic Seraph

Christo Minaverus

some people who think if Im pagan that I run in the trees naked

You mean there are no pagans that do that? Try going to a pagan convention on a campgrounds, you'll see a lot of stereutypes made true. A friend of my mothers went to Kaleidiscope, and was kinda scared for life by the old man with the 50 pounds of piercings dancing around the fire naked.

Im not saying that no pagans will do that however there are many different ways to be pagan as there are many different ways to be Christan and ect. And if someone did that down here in florida they would be shot on sight ^^;;;;;  

[Esteloth]

Actually, I like HOPE...
I wonder if I should/could change the name of the club? Would that mean more members?

Honestly, I never had a problem with the word pagan and have not yet met someone who thinks I am doomed to Hell. (except on the internet, but somehow it's not quite the same thing, not for me anyway...)  

[Jameta]

I'm still waiting for my assisnged room mate's reaction. sweatdrop

Edit: My room mate doesn't think I'm weird. heart  

[The Bookwyrm]

I've heard a lot of term on reclaiming a word; blacks have reclaimed ******, women have reclaimed c**t (the v****a Monologues have taught me that ^^), and the gay community has reclaimed queer.

What I honestly don't understand is why marginalized groups tend to think that they gain power through taking a derogatory and hateful term, calling themselves by that and thinking that they've reclaimed it. Yes, it takes some of the power away from the word to be able to laugh off the connotations that were previously attached to it, but then we get into the muddle you're discussing with the word "Pagan": You get a muddled meaning.

Now, with time and effort, education and the work of many open minded people you can start to make amends, but I highly doubt that in our life time we're going to be able to proclaim ourselves as Pagans, NeoPagans, Witches, or what have you and not have that either raise an eyebrow or down right terrify some people due to the staggering amount of ignorance and misinformation in circulation.  

[skipparoo]

Nihilistic Seraph

Christo Minaverus

some people who think if Im pagan that I run in the trees naked

You mean there are no pagans that do that? Try going to a pagan convention on a campgrounds, you'll see a lot of stereutypes made true. A friend of my mothers went to Kaleidiscope, and was kinda scared for life by the old man with the 50 pounds of piercings dancing around the fire naked.

Hmmm, yeah. I remember reading Spiral Dance, and they do a lot of stuff naked. Dancing and rituals and stuff, but they were going back to the beggining of it all. Celtic and even shamans and awsome stuff like that. This book actualy promotes naked stuff. Anyways, awsome book, running around naked in a forest seams crazy though.

Yeah, I'm a guy! GLEE