Why do Pagans think that they are entitled to other people’s religions?

Not all religions are “open”, and there are certainly places in the world where the lines between cultural and religious traditions can be incredibly blurred and even overlap.

I really despise the phrase, “religion doesn’t belong to a single ethnicity” because in many cases, yes, yes it absolutely does. This is especially true if we are talking about Indigenous religions and ethnic spiritualities.

This is an idea held largely by Western Christians because in your religion, you accept converts. The religions you are most familiar with accept converts.

Most of the world’s religions don’t accept converts, and even fewer proselytize.

The notion that you can just opt out of the belief system into which you were born and subsequently shop around for a new faith seems to exist in the global Northwest.

And, let’s face it, if you were born Christian in the US, Europe, or Canada, especially if you were born White and Christian, you will always be culturally Christian whether you realize it or not because there is, to an extent, a culture that surrounds religious belief systems. Christian sects are not immune to it.

Organized religion and cultural ritual can never truly be divorced from one another, which is why many people from “minority” religions are avidly against people not born into their faith attempting to “convert” to it. At a certain point, in order truly “convert”, you will have to take on cultural traditions that are not yours and were never meant for you.

It is absolutely possible to become spiritually enlightened by reading various religious texts without going on to appropriate specific rituals and customs. You can live your life having internalized the ideas from a particular faith without bastardizing the cultural elements of it. You can internalize a religious philosophy in a way that is deeply respectful and meaningful without having to engage in performative aspects of the religion itself.

Personally speaking, the Bhagavad Gita was probably the most spiritually enriching religious texts I have ever read. It had an immense influence on my worldview, but that does not mean I should suddenly begin collecting Krishna icons and practicing bakhti yoga because that is a cultural tradition, and is not mine for the taking.

Closed faiths need to be respected as such. If a particular religion has no history of accepting converts then it is not up to you to decide whether or not their sacred rituals are meant to be shared.

Not all things on this earth exist purely for you. You need to rid yourself of that imperial mindset.