The New Christian Pundit Fad, Calling Nones "Pagans"

I've seen it now at least a few times, a Christian or Jew referring to non believers as "Pagans." The narrative then goes on to describe what "Pagans" believe.  A prominent Rabi published an article recently in The Atlantic ridiculing all those who have Pagan views. At least one person who self identifies as a Pagan took issue with how the Rabi portrayed the beliefs of modern Pagans. The exchange reminded me of exchanges on the discussion page of this blog. I often refer in a general way to "Christians." Readers who are Christians chastise me because their particular brand believes something different than other brands. Why has this practice of referring to "nones" (not affiliated with any religious group) as Pagans become popular?

One has to imagine how the field of competition looks to a Christian pundit. Six out of eight children born to Christian parents leave the faith by age twenty. Some blame needs to be named. Someone or something has to be a villain. It cannot be that the faith is so faulty and so out of date people have lost interest. No, people are leaving because some conspiritual force has moved in and is stealing Christians. The Christian pundit would further reason that the force taking Christians away from where they are supposed to be, believing in the faith, cannot be too specific. Any specific named person or group would allow a direct challenge and the villain may be judged not guilty. The enemy stealing Christians needs to be quite vague and unidentifiable. 

What better villain than "Pagans." No one can really find Pagans. They are small groups that gather mostly without much fanfare. Villains that cannot be located or questioned directly are best. Nones are known to have any number of reasons for calling themselves unaffiliated. But if the give a reason for leaving Christianity is uncomplimentary to a church or denomination, better not to blame the faith or any of the people in it.

I can't tell you the number of times I have heard an atheist describe why he/she left Christianity, "It just didn't make sense anymore." This is an unacceptable reason for Christian operatives. They need to blame something and the other gods in paganism are better reasons than a faulty Christianity.

The good part of all of this is that calling nones "Pagans" will not hurt actual Pagans. They don't care. It merely a trick being played by Christian leadership on its followers. As PT Barnum is claimed to have said, "A sucker is born every minute."