Dear Christian Witches...

CW: Christianity, anti-pagan discrimination

Around Easter time, there's always a pretty big fight in the pagan and witchcraft communities. Namely, about whether Easter was stolen from the pagan holiday Ostara.

It wasn't, by the way, though a lot of Christian holiday traditions were inspired by pagan religions, often Germanic, Norse, Brythonic, Slavic, or Gaelic polytheism specifically.

But I'm not making this post to debate that. I'm making this post because, around the same time, Christian (specifically in countries where Christianity is already the dominant religion) witches get a big fucking chip on their shoulder and decide that pagans are oppressing them.

I've seen Christian witches sneeringly refer to us (meaning pagans) as "those weeby pagans" or snicker about our supposed martyr complex. I mean, Christians have a bigger martyr complex than any other religious group I've ever come across, but okay I guess.

Therefore...

• pagans are not here to be your punching bag
• the fact that witchcraft is often associated with paganism does not mean that pagans are oppressing you
• it just means that pagan witches are far more hypervisible than you, which often means more danger
• most anti-witch sentiment is actually anti-pagan sentiment, because most people seem to think witchcraft is inherently pagan
• you're also very easily able to throw pagan witches under the bus when reassuring other Christians that practicing witchcraft doesn't make you less Christian, i.e. "No, see, I'm a good Christian! Being a witch doesn't make me a depraved sinner doomed to hell!"
• most pagans in America are women and/or LGBT people who have had traumatic or coercive experiences with Christianity
• As a pagan who has had to actively lie about my religion and pretend to be Christian in order to protect myself but was, while being for all intents and purposes a Christian witch, able to broadcast my Christianity without a care in the world (even to the point of making people uncomfortable), I'm pretty sure I can verify that Christians are in fact privileged over pagans
• Yes, a lot of the "Christians stole our holidays!" types are ignorant about history...but the fact that you're able to learn about your religion's history and easily access that information with older members of your faith explaining it to you is just one of the ways Christians hold power over pagans.

• many of us actually do face violence for being pagan, especially in the South, in small rural towns, or in conservative families. 
• Yes, Christian witches are valid, but witchcraft is one of the only spaces in which pagans can openly be ourselves and practice our religions. 
• Therefore, if a pagan witch doesn't want non-pagans in their coven or whatever, just shut the fuck up about it. Not everything needs to be about you.