Gonna be honest, I cannot get over how evangelist Christians can use some of the most violent imagery and be completely unaware of how offputting it is.

I don't mean your mainline Christian here, or your Catholics who are very well aware of how somber and serious the Crucifix is.

I'm talking these cheerful megaChurch sorts, the lady who keeps repeating "I'm covered in his blood" as if that isn't an image of pain and death.

I mean, yes witches like me do deal in death and blood imagery but it's with the full knowledge that it's death imagery, and it's a representation of the pain and sacrifice of life.

But when you hear a fundamentalist Christian describe these things, there's a cluelessness.

Like, they've spent so much time focusing on what THEY get out of the Crucifixion that they gloss over the inherent agony and humiliation involved in that sacrifice. That a divine being was degraded and destroyed.

They only focus on the idea that they are SAVED by this.

And they go "Well, I believe in him with all my heart so I'm SAVED" and then argue (and I have had this argument with them) that there is no backsliding, no change to that. They are going to eternal paradise because they believed.

All sacrifice was performed by Christ...

...so they don't have to do a thing. Most mainline Christians believe they need to at least be good and sects like Catholicism have a set of personal sacrifices but the prosperity gospel/fundamentalist/evangelical school of thought just relieves you of personal responsibility.

So of course you don't need to socially distance or worry about a disease, you're living according to God's Will and have been saved by Jesus.

You're "covered in his blood" and completely unaware of how horrific the image is, because it wasn't your sacrifice after all.

And that complete disconnect is the giveaway. Not even a trace of irony about using an inappropriately violent image.

Because to them, it's a hopeful image. Because for all their belief, they don't even empathize with the divine let alone the rest of humanity.

I've had Newage Christians (who are, by and large, the same mindset and self-centeredness) ask me how I can worship pagan gods when there are so many stories about their bad behavior, instead of a perfect god. I used to try to explain it in that deities weren't really "people"...

...like human beings were, that they were the embodiment of their sphere of influence.

It was a rationalization for a feeling, really. Lately I've come to think I'm more comfortable with the imperfect gods because it allows me to accept my own imperfections.

Imperfect gods are also a bit easier to empathize with. And I think that's what's needed when you sit down and listen to a story that's supposed to impart a moral truth, some empathy with the parties involved. Some understanding for their actions, and for their sacrifices.

Because maybe idolatry isn't so much about who your god is as it is about thinking of the divine as an object. Like some vending machine you put praise and prayer into and out comes Grace.

And then you get so removed from divinity that you can't see divine blood as something that involves pain or sacrifice, which means you miss the POINT of any story with a divine sacrifice. Which is that it was painful, and is a call to make sacrifices--real sacrifices--yourself.

Because if a god is willing to bleed for someone else, the least you can do is be a little uncomfortable for someone else.

The other side, of course, of objectifying the divine is the idea that they are cold and unyielding, fixed and unchanging. That it makes sense for a deity to throw someone into eternal torment for differences of culture and lifestyle that cause no real harm.

It's easier to condemn others when your god is perfect and has CHOSEN you and protects you.

A bit harder to condemn others when your god has the ability to grow and learn, and expects you to do so too.

I'm not saying, by the way, that monotheists can't believe in a merciful, learning, growing, flexible and loving god.

I'm just contrasting the two experiences I've had, strict reactionary Christianity and polytheistic Wicca, to make a point.

Which is that I think we should relate to the divine and see a piece of the divine in everyone, and that a godly sacrifice like Christ on the Cross or Odin on the Tree is a serious story of painful sacrifice, calling us to make sacrifices, and not a Get Out of Hell Free Card.