Church influenced by paganism?
The main thrust of charging the Catholic Church with pagan influence started in the nineteenth century. Here is an article showing how it came about, and why it is a logical fallacy:
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/pagan-influence-fallacy
Issue of paganism in the Catholic Church
https://www.catholic.com/tract/is-catholicism-pagan
Are Pagan Holidays ok?
What Does it Mean to be No Part of the World? – Tom Cabeen
At one time I believed that I was a member of the only true religious organization on earth. I believed all other religious organizations to be false, even those claiming to be Christian. I now see that my former view was narrow, based on a peculiar perspective of Jehovah’s Witnesses. The WT approach to what they call “paganism” assumes that God is reacting to the actions of his enemy the devil. After Satan influenced Adam and Eve to sin, “Jehovah” reacted by setting up the ransom arrangement, which included bringing 144,000 from earth to live in heaven. The
implication is that if there had been no sin, no humans would have been called to heavenly life, but would have lived forever on earth. In this perspective, the devil is “in the driver’s seat”, calling the shots as it were, which attributes to him much more power than he actually has.
God is infinitely more powerful than any creature. He can never be surprised, for he knows everything. The sin of Adam and Eve was not unexpected, which is why Jesus (the name given to God’s Incarnate Son) was known before the founding of the world. (1 Pet 1:20) Since Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, whatever power the devil had over mankind has been severely limited, for he has been completely conquered, and mankind has been set free if they want to be free.
For Jehovah’s Witnesses, all who do not explicitly worship “Jehovah” are considered by default to be worshipers of Satan, therefore anything done by these “pagans” (even including Jews or traditional Christians) is often considered to be false worship, especially if the same actions are performed by Christians. Therefore, there is a very strong tendency among JWs to reject
anything that comes from a non-Christian (or even a non-JW) source as “pagan corruption”.
That approach makes it very easy to condemn as “pagan” just about any practice that someone at Bethel doesn’t like. Since JWs reject most Christian traditions, too, “true Christianity”, in their view, consists only of the meager stable of distinctly JW practices (door to door literature distribution, attending meetings and conventions, reading and studying WT publications and strict obedience to WT laws). Only those who practice these things are considered by many JWs to be truly “pure”.
In contrast, early Christians (perhaps most notably Justin, who lived in the first half of the second century) recognized and respected those pagan philosophers who had searched for
truth using only their natural powers and found some of it, at least. Perhaps the three most famous are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Thomas Aquinas, very highly regarded by the Catholic
Church, harmonized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian teaching in his writings.
Catholics teach that all humans are God’s children, and that any who seek truth will find it, for God gave us intelligence that we might use it to find him. During the course of human history,
many have lived by their conscience, to the best of their ability, as attested to by the apostle Paul in his letter to Roman Christians. “That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made…” (Rom 1:19-20) Paul recognized the religious attributes of the Athenians, as witnessed to by their actions, and an altar “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD” (that altar may have been erected by Socrates). Some Greek poets recognized that “we also are His children.” (Acts 17:28)
Still, Jesus’ followers are to be different from the world around them. About his disciples, he prayed, “They are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” (John 17:14-16)
James said that true religion means keeping ourselves “without spot from the world.” I was taught from my youth up that the way to do that was by strict non-participation in a whole list of practices and activities which I believed could contaminate me, including celebrating any birthday or holiday, saluting any nation’s flag, or standing for the singing of the national anthem.
Such practices, I was taught, had pagan connections, and participation in them was false worship. As time went on, I began to question the meaning and validity of that view. What, exactly, makes some act or perspective “pagan”? If I perform some act which a pagan also performs, does that also make me a pagan? Can an act or celebration be pagan in itself, so that any practice of it would make one a pagan? I needed to address these questions as I began to associate with Christians who did participate in celebrations with possible pagan connections.
To begin, I needed a definition of what constitutes being a “pagan”. “Paganism, in the broadest sense includes all religions other than the true one revealed by God, and, in a narrower sense,
all except Christianity, Judaism, and Mohammedanism. The term is also used as the equivalent of Polytheism. It is derived from the Latin pagus, whence pagani (i.e. those who live in the country), a name given to the country folk who remained heathen after the cities had become Christian.
Catholic Encyclopedia https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11388a.htm
So the term itself dates from the period when Christianity began expanding outside of Palestine. Can we, need we, rid ourselves of anything even remotely connected with pagans? What constitutes a meaningful or significant connection? Much of the culture of the whole world has been shaped by pagans in one way or another. In many Western countries, the days of the week and months of the year are named for pagan deities. Money may have symbols on it first used by pagans. Even practices like shaking hands and wearing wedding rings originated among pagans. In a similar vein, an item such as a statue of Buddha, for example may be viewed by some as art but worshiped by others. Do these things constitute a danger to Christians? If so, what is it?
To answer that question, I went in search of indications as to how early Christians handled that issue. Their world, especially outside Palestine, was thoroughly pagan. According to A History of Pagan Europe, pagans hold three characteristics in common:
They believe that in multiple divine beings or gods. They believe that there is both a male and female divine principle; both God and Goddess.
They believe that all nature is a theophany or manifestation of divinity; that all things, living and nonliving, are divine within themselves, not by virtue of having been created by a divine being. With this in mind, I began to think less in terms of things being Christian or pagan, and more about the beliefs and behavior of people; in particular how and what they worshiped, what they did and why, especially things done to please or appease their gods. Pagan worship took many forms, including the ritual sacrifice of animals or humans, performing various types of sexual acts, or eating and drinking to excess.
Most pagans did not have a specific moral code such as the one in the Jewish law. In the ancient pagan world, immoral behavior (from a Judeo-Christian perspective) was common. Not only
were there few sanctions against it, there was often not even a sense among the general pagan populace that doing such things would in any way affect their standing with their gods. In pagan
myths, their gods themselves did the same kinds of things. According to one historian, “In heathen times, a man would have been regarded as of exceptional goodness if he practiced
those homely duties which an ordinary Christian gentleman would now count himself disgraced if he failed in. When Pliny [a first century Roman] set himself to inquire what was the sacramentum [oath, sacraments or sacred rites] administered to Christians at their meetings before daylight, [he learned] that the disciples then pledged themselves to what seems to us very elementary morality, that is, that they were not to rob or steal, not to commit adultery, not to break their word, and if the money of others were entrusted to them, not to appropriate it themselves.”
From very ancient times, Jews were rightly proud of the high moral standards taught in their Law. Their prophets, from Moses on, spoke out against worship of idols (very often connected
to such things as child sacrifice), sexual immorality, murder and such things. Christianity had an even higher standard, for the love taught by Jesus demands that we put the interests of others
ahead of our own, even if we suffer inconvenience or loss as a result. That is what comes into focus when Paul considers the issue of contamination by paganism.
One way in which first century Romans worshiped their gods was to bring an animal such as a goat or bull to the temple of a particular god, dedicate it to that deity, then kill and eat it.
According to Albert Barnes, “When those sacrifices were made to pagan gods, a part of the animal was given to the priest that officiated, a part was consumed on the altar, and a part (probably the principal part) was the property of him who offered it. This part was either eaten by him at home, as food which had been in some sense consecrated or blessed by having been offered to an idol; or it was partaken of at a feast in honor of the idol; or it was in some instances exposed for sale in the market in the same way as other meat.” —Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament for 1 Cor 10:27-33
Was there a possibility that a Christian could purchase and eat such meat without contamination? Yes, Paul says, for in itself, the mere act of eating meat is not out of harmony with God’s revealed will nor does it require disobedience to any of God’s direct commands. That was not the issue Paul raises. Instead it was an issue rarely considered by either Jews or pagans—putting others’ rights ahead of our own. Paul does not tell the Corinthians to avoid being contaminated by contact with an object directly involved in pagan worship or even performing some act also performed by pagans. Instead, he focuses on a Christian’s responsibility to avoid wounding the conscience of another.
How could this happen? To a person who considers an idol to be nothing, the meat was in reality not contaminated at all. If an idol or a false god is nothing, meat cannot by either purified or influenced by it. But if someone had often eaten meat consecrated in that very way, the person might still consider eating such meat to be an act of worship to a pagan god. Paul showed that we ought to consider the consciences of others. But he left the decision about eating to the conscience of each individual.
“Everything is permissible”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible” —but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat
whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake — the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. … So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. —1 Corinthians 10:23-31
What is the point here? A person does not become a sharer in paganism either through contact with items used in pagan worship nor by performing some act also performed by
pagans (even if the pagans regard that act to be worship), as long as the activity itself is not in violation of God’s expressed will in regard to the conduct of his servants. What really distinguishes
the Christian from the unbeliever is the willingness to put the needs of others ahead of his or her own. Jesus’ teachings ought to have such an influence on us that, not only do we avoid
conduct that violates the rights of others (1 Thess 4:1-7), but our attitude changes so much that we take a positive stance, actively looking out for the good of others and putting their needs
ahead of our own. (Phil 2:3, 4) The importance of unselfish interest in others, even at great cost to ourselves, is one of the basic lessons of Jesus’ entire life, death and resurrection.
So separation from the world does not mean avoiding any act that “worldly” people do. It means practicing a new kind of behavior, seeking to imitate the unselfishness of our Lord and
Master, Jesus Christ. God’s Spirit at work in us produces fruits that are appropriate under all circumstances (Gal 5:22, 23). Our whole focus changes from “ourselves” to “others” as a result
of our belief in Jesus Christ. That change, lived out in our lives, makes us very different from the world of ungodly people in which we live.
I once believed that the command to “come out” of Babylon the Great in the Revelation given at the very end of the first century meant avoiding all connections with any “false religion.” But,
as explained above, I learned that early Christians did not view “religion” in that way. So what did Babylon represent, and how could we get out of her? The command was addressed to
Christians, most of whom were either Jews or closely associated with Jews. They did not interpret Babylon to be a “world empire of false religion.” Nor did they view Judaism as a false religion which they had to abandon when they became Christians, or Jews who still had not accepted Jesus as false worshipers (Rom 3:1, 2). Early Christians understood Babylon to mean Rome; not just the city, but the empire, which included religious, political and commercial
elements. It represented “the world” of which Jesus’ kingdom was no part (Jn 18:36). Jesus’ true followers abandon worldly conduct and attitudes, as Paul explains: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”—Rom 12:2