I'm in a somewhat unusual situation in Neopaganism. I was raised as an atheist or agnostic, I'm a practicing Celtic Pagan, and I'm married to a Christian. One of the things that most distresses me about our religious community is the Christian-bashing that occurs on many newsgroups and mailing lists, often by people who have such a small view of Christianity that they've missed all the beauty of the faith.
I realize that it may be that a majority of Neopagans are secure enough in their faith to hold no opinion on Christianity, or to look at it in the same light as they consider other religions -- intriguing, rich, and something that other people follow. The comments that I'm responding to here may be ridiculous enough that they don't deserve the dignity of any response, much less an entire essay devoted to them.
The problem is, when I first came to Neopaganism, I found a number of sites with variants on "Why Pagans are Better than Christians," and "Ways to Prove to Fundamentalists That They're Wrong". It took a good deal more searching to find essays advocating things Neopagans can do to have healthier relationships with Christians. So, I'd like to make it a little easier to find such a page. As such, here is a list of misconceptions I've seen tossed off by some Neopagan writers as "common knowledge" about Christianity. We ought to know better.
Yes, Christians can ask forgiveness of their God. It must be asked for sincerely, and asking for and receiving forgiveness doesn't necessarily exclude a person from the earthly consequences. Having heavenly forgiveness for disobeying an earthly law doesn't mean that you get to throw away the traffic ticket.
Not all Christians blame failings on Satan. Satan's existence is de-emphasized in many modern, liberal churches, or viewed as a mythical description of how evil works within people and in society. Many modern Christians have as much problem with a "deity of ultimate evil" as most Neopagans do.
Perhaps some Christians do, but this is no more universally true of Christians than it is for any religion. In general, there are always some people in a religion that are more serious about their religion than others.
Christians have a designated worship cycle that includes spending at least part of one day a week in worship. This worship cycle falls within a larger, yearly worship cycle that includes Christmas and Easter. This isn't much different from a Neopagan who spends some time each week in front of a home altar and keeps religious festivals. As for spoon-feeding, Christians benefit by having organized places in which to discuss their theology. Because Neopaganism is so much newer and smaller, our equivalent to Sunday school is our chat rooms, email lists, and newsgroups. Our sermons are rarely delivered orally, instead being written essays delivered by similar electronic means.
Some will; others believe that if it's important for someone to come to Christianity, God will see to it on His own. Unfortunately, people are more likely to hear from ones that try to convert everyone.
Some Catholics still go to confession, although that is significantly less common in the United States than it used to be. Most Christians seem perfectly comfortable addressing their God directly. Some of them believe that you have to go through particular training before you can perform religious ceremonies or act as a counselor to people, but that's a rather more complex profession than simply being an intermediary to speak to God.
I'm sure some do. More of them probably have no idea what it is we worship, and wonder why so many of us start conversations by vehemently denying that we worship the Devil, when they never expected it in the first place.
Yes. Not all Christians accept the Bible as infallible. Some view it as a collection of inspiring tales that indicate how they should lead their life. In any case, the New Testament is usually regarded as a good deal more important than the Old Testament, so finding picky problems with the Old Testament doesn't really prove anything. Fundamentalists who choose portions of the Old Testament to support particular beliefs are unlikely to be swayed by an argument that there are errors in the Bible; many of them have had training on how to refute such assertions and passionately believe that unbelievers simply do not understand the proper context in which to interpret the readings.
See my essay on Tolerance.
Never spoken, this idea lies behind comments that begin "Christians do/are/think..." Christianity is an extremely varied and diverse set of beliefs, and often is deceptively homogenous.
There are freaks, fundamentalists, and closed-minded people everywhere in the world. Some of them are Christians. Some of them are Pagans. Pointing to the ones in the Christian world and judging all Christians by them is not only pointless, but small-minded and divisive. Many Neopagan sites ask viewer not to judge based on their preconceptions of our religions -- we would do well to follow our own advice.