[Cro Dreoilin] "Shoulds"

[ladygreybird at gmail.com]

Well said Chris...well said.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Redmond <redmond at astronomytower.net>
Sender: community-bounces at crodreoilin.org
Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:33:25 
To: <community at crodreoilin.org>; <redmond at astronomytower.net>
Reply-To: community at crodreoilin.org
Subject: Re: [Cro Dreoilin] "Shoulds"

And despite the fact that you were just joking, it brings up some very 
interesting ideas.  In particular, it's gotten me thinking that there 
just might, in fact, be a very good reason to worship a God merely 
because he or she has called to you, for a somewhat limited definition 
of the term "worship".

If by "worship" we're just talking about a formalized or ritualized 
recognition, rendering of honor, and possibly the rendering of votives, 
then you can make a very good analogy to hospitality.  A God that calls 
to you is, in a spiritual sense, like a visitor that has come to your 
door.  Good hospitality dictates that you extend a welcome to those that 
come to your household in good faith whether or not they were 
specifically invited.  You offer them food and drink, and generally do 
your best to make them feel at home until or unless they show themselves 
to be bad guests.

I think a similar argument applies to the calling of a God you didn't 
ask for.  Unless I have some specific reason to consider that God an 
enemy rather than simply a stranger, it seems like it would be very bad 
form simply to slam the door on them.  Doing so would be a good way to 
lose the respect of those Gods that I _do_ look to.

I myself would rather acknowledge them, and recognize that, whether or 
not they are of my tradition, they have chosen to come to me and honor 
me by their attention.  I would even be happy to give a votive of some 
sort, in the spirit of establishing friendly relations.

None of this means that I am under any obligation of fealty or 
commitment to any higher level of worship.  If they accept that, then we 
can go on our separate ways amicably and in mutual respect.  If they 
refuse to accept that, and continue to insist that I commit myself to 
them, then it falls under the heading of 'bad guest':  I'll show them 
the door, as roughly as I need to in order to drive home the message.  
I'll deal with whatever level of divine pissed-offedness that I might 
incur in the process, because I'm not going to be bullied, even by a God.

IMHO, $0.02, and all that.

-- Chris



Kelley Forbes wrote:
> We figured you were being a bit tongue-in-cheek.
>
> Would you like to give a shot to the questions below, anyway?
>
> -- Kelley.
>
> Sebastian wrote:
>> I would just like to clarify something. I was just making a joke 
>> about the pissed off thing. If you dedicate to a god(dess) and then 
>> don't honor them, then yes they will be a mite bit peeved.
>>
>>
>>  
>>> On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 5:01 PM, Kelley Forbes 
>>> <forbesk at astronomytower.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> So two questions:
>>>
>>> 1. What values do your answers represent?
>>>
>>> 2. Why should you worship the Gods that call to you rather than, 
>>> say, Gods
>>> you have chosen? -- or picked randomly out of a hat? You have an 
>>> answer in
>>> "they will be pissed"; is there more to it than that?
>>>
>>>
>>> -- Kelley.
>>>     
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Community mailing list
> Community at crodreoilin.org
> http://crodreoilin.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community
>


_______________________________________________
Community mailing list
Community at crodreoilin.org
http://crodreoilin.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/community