02-05-2007, 11:51 PM
I'm all for reenactors having access to monuments. But this "religious" group's ostentatious efforts to gain entry smacks of a political agenda, in my view.
The people will probably roll over. As for ancient religion being "alive and well", a couple hundred aging hippies who apostatized from chrisitanity doesn't even sound like a firm base. So what if the law recognizes them ? "The law is a ass", to quote Dickens. The only real pagans I know of that continue to practice their faith from classical times are the few Zoroastrians that are persecuted in and around modern Iran.
Back to the monuments : as was said earlier, a better case can be made for the Church to have a legitimate claim over them since they were in its care for at least 1,000 years until the Turkish conquest. The Greek government is a twentieth century fabrication originally propped up by the British. Why should they get dibs on the monuments ? If I ran the Greek Church I'd press for full ownership over the sites. Of course, tourism is the the state's golden goose so they'll never relinquish it. As for the "all-powerful" Greek Church, what a joke. They couldn't even stop this little group from gaining access to the site. And a mosque is going to be built right in Athens. All-powerful ? If only it were true.
If the group was sincere about simply wanting to worship, they'd build their own temples, imo.
Theo
Quote: My prediction: minor friction will happen until people get used to the idea
that ancient religion is alive and well and it exists.
The people will probably roll over. As for ancient religion being "alive and well", a couple hundred aging hippies who apostatized from chrisitanity doesn't even sound like a firm base. So what if the law recognizes them ? "The law is a ass", to quote Dickens. The only real pagans I know of that continue to practice their faith from classical times are the few Zoroastrians that are persecuted in and around modern Iran.
Back to the monuments : as was said earlier, a better case can be made for the Church to have a legitimate claim over them since they were in its care for at least 1,000 years until the Turkish conquest. The Greek government is a twentieth century fabrication originally propped up by the British. Why should they get dibs on the monuments ? If I ran the Greek Church I'd press for full ownership over the sites. Of course, tourism is the the state's golden goose so they'll never relinquish it. As for the "all-powerful" Greek Church, what a joke. They couldn't even stop this little group from gaining access to the site. And a mosque is going to be built right in Athens. All-powerful ? If only it were true.
If the group was sincere about simply wanting to worship, they'd build their own temples, imo.
Theo
Jaime
