The Christian and his Pagan Wife
A lot of times people view Modern Paganism and Christianity as two factions that cannot blend. I understand that school of thought; throughout history, Pagans and Witches were prosecuted and killed by Christian authority. It would be intellectually dishonest of me to say that these atrocities did not happen. Also, it is true that there are still fundamentalist Christians that view Pagans and the practice of witchcraft are sinful. However, I believe it to be unfair to place all Christians in a bubble of intolerance and fire and brimstone. My marriage to my Christian husband is a fine example of how Christians and Pagans can not only get along but have a beautiful, prosperous marriage.
When my husband found out that I was not only a Pagan whom worshiped the Goddess Brigid and Pan, God of the forest but also believe in Witchcraft, he became nervous. He did not think I was evil or worshiped Satan. No, he had a vision of me feeding a fairy tree a four-course meal and have a bunch of black cats. He got this idea from one of those wife swap reality shows I believe. We went out to a dinner and talked for about two and a half hours. We discussed both of our faiths, our life goals, our morals, and life expectations. Throughout this, the whole talk we realized that we had more things in common than we initially thought. We found that we are on the same page morally and ethically. I learned more about his experiences as a Christian and he got a greater understanding of what it means to me to be Pagan. After that long talk in the restaurant, we decided that we still wanted to have a relationship.
Now, did hubby and I agree on everything we talked about? No, of course not. We did come to compromises on a few things. For example, he hates the smell of burning sage. For those of you who do not know, burning white sage in a space is believed to clear the area of negative energy and spirits. So, since we started living together (and later married) I still burn sage but I only do it outside. I use clear quartz crystals to cleanse a room of negative energy. Same results, different method. One thing that hubby requested of me is that our children are to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. That is not that important to me, but it is to him. Needless to say when we do have children they will be baptized. Pagan and Christian holidays are often in or around the same time of yea; so we blend and celebrate them both together. Blending our holidays together has been a lot of trial and error (mostly error) but I believe that we have created a good balance. As for raising our children? We have decided to teach them both faiths and let them decide for themselves.
We have been married for almost seven years. I believe that the secret to our successful marriage is open communication and compromise. Putting aside what we were taught in the past and wrongdoings of our ancestors. We are focused on the future and are so happy that we are going through life together. Even though our faiths are rather different in almost every way, our common goals, morality, and positive outlook on life are what bonds us together.