PARTIALLY Pagan

From an article in The Plain Truth Online about why Christians should not do Harry-Potter-book burnings (also a nice concise reminder of how Christians blew away our pagan ancestors):

"Western culture has been shaped and influenced by Christianity for only the last two millennia. Some portions of Europe and the British Isles were converted [sic] to Christianity only about a thousand years ago.... The names of our days and months echo the ancient deities -- Saturn, Janus, Frea, Woden and Thor.

"Early on, the Christian church co-opted some of the ancient, pagan festivals and customs .... Churches were erected on formerly pagan holy sites.... God, a pagan Anglo-Saxon word which once referred to deities such as Balder and Thor, came to refer to the Christian [god]....

"... [A]rtifacts of paganism are all around us -- Easter eggs, mistletoe and the days of the week.... We cannot reasonably expect our literature, or our language to be laundered of pagan references, names and characters...."

So far, so good. But then comes the kick below the belt:

"...The pagan elements in our culture are no more than ... reminders of our ignorant and superstitious origins."

Now to be honest, this statement initially made me want to tear someone's typing fingers off, one by one -- ten, nine, eight, seven.... But this violent streak in me stems from being reared in a patriarchal (read: violent) culture. My Goddess self tells me that this guy -- like many Christians -- is himself seriously ignorant and simply needs some heavy-duty teaching. "The Goddess solution," quoth she, "lieth not in violent finger removal, but in peaceful pacification of the beast...."