Welcome to Gaia! ::

No, it isn't written as such, you interpreted it as such for whatever reason. It isn't an absolutist statement, but I can see how it can be read that way; it seems in reading you tend to presume a statement is an absolute unless qualified or punctuated with alternatives. Others may not approach things with that assumption. Even better, others might think, 'well, they didn't exactly say this is always the case, nor did they add a qualifier which explicitly stated it wasn't always the case. Since I don't know for sure... hmm... maybe I should ask the poster for clarification before assuming what they meant?'
mrgreen

Well my mom is very accepting and my dad died before I could come out to him so I didn't have much trouble there. With people that I fear might have a problem with it, I just start talking about pagan beliefs like I were just talking about something I had learned. That way I get to feel them out on the subject and better decide what to say so that when/if I finally say "I'm pagan" it's not as much of a shock. Also I can give them information about pagans that is more accurate than anything calling us devil worshippers or non-existant without exactly coming out. Connecting my beliefs to Christian ones to make them seem less threatening works sometimes, but a lot of Christians think we're all going to hell if we don't call ourselves Christian and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and/or whatever else they feel one must do no matter what we say. There's always going to be Christians who want to convert us. It's almost a right of passage among out pagans to have at least one attempt made to convert you. It can even make you stronger in your beliefs and help you figure out what you know and what you should know about your religion and beliefs. If they don't accept you now, you can always just shut up about it, laugh it off if they mention it, and hope they forget or think you're no longer pagan until you're either out on your own or they become less strict about religion. Good Luck!