Shopping Tips and Guidance by Mandy Claire

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored," demon-free deity devotion since 2005! I'm not saying that there are bored god pantheons out there that don't have evil deities in them (your basic Satan and his minions, only bored and forgotten), but we can be very selective about our clientele here. Evil can knock, but it can't get in.

Last night, when I should have been grading papers, I was reading blogs instead. I came across an interesting interview that Peg Aloi conducted with the Catholic priest upon whom this new exorcism movie, The Rite, is based. You can read the interview here http://themediawitches.blogspot.com/2011/01/interview-father-gary-thomas.html

What interested us here at "The Gods Are Bored" was this priest's observation that those who practice Native American religions "opens them up to a spirit realm that can be very dangerous."

Bamp! Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Worshiping another pantheon of deities, be it Celtic, Nordic, Native American, Congolese, you name it, does not open people to a "spirit realm that can be very dangerous." The danger lies in competition to the deity that  Gary Thomas calls the "Supreme Being."

Something that's supreme is better than everything else, right?

That's why we at "The Gods Are Bored" reject the whole concept of YHWH as a Supreme Being. He's a Being, all right. No disputing that. But supreme? Why? Who says?

The only reason I can think of that Native Americans open themselves to a "spirit realm that can be very dangerous" is because they are praising and worshiping deities that Gary Thomas thinks are inferior to the Supreme Being. Hence, no protection from the Supreme Being.

So who says Native American spiritualists need protection from that source? We at "The Gods Are Bored" heartily support the platform that Native American deities will protect Native Americans from demons that conform to the praise and worship systems of Native Americans. Native American practitioners (or Celtic, or Nordic, etc. etc. etc.) need never fear demons from the Christian pantheon. It's kind of like being afraid of the weather patterns on Mars. You only need to worry about Mars if you live on Mars. If you don't, does a tornado there affect you?

We at "The Gods Are Bored" believe that some Christian people do find themselves possessed by demons. This is an unfortunate byproduct of the structure of that particular pantheon. I also feel that we who worship other voices in other rooms cannot help those who are possessed by Christian demons. It's not that our deities are powerless against them (see above), it's just that the problem was created by that pantheon and must be solved by that pantheon. We can sympathize and support, but we can't cast out and remain true to our deities.

This morning's Philadelphia Inquirer featured a front-page story about 37 Catholic priests -- just in this area -- who have been investigated for sexual abuse of children and adult parishioners. Some of these priests worked in parochial schools. In his interview with Ms. Aloi, Gary Thomas admits that this is a big problem in the Catholic Church, and he adds that John Paul II was sick for a long while and therefore not as effective as he could have been in combating the problem.

We here at "The Gods Are Bored" feel that the biggest danger to Roman Catholics is not demons, but the very people who are supposed to be their leaders. I wonder -- for every one person who spits up nails and speaks devil-language, how many thousands of people are out there who have been raped by priests? In other words, who are the real demons here?

We hereby propose a workable solution for you: Research your heritage and re-connect with the deities of your ancient ancestors. Go all the way back to before any Christianity seeped in, because you don't want those Christian demons loading you up with nails. Once you've found your ancestral religion, fall into the arms of the bored gods. You are not opening yourself up to a spirit realm that can be very dangerous. Quite the opposite. You're shutting the gate against a particular busy god and all the negatives that come with Him. As for the positives, your deities have those. Just ask. And then go forward doing the right thing, secure in the knowledge that no harm can come from you ... or into you.

May we be worthy of that which is given.