[Elspode]

I choose to be Pagan for a couple of main reasons. Primarily, I am Pagan (Wiccan, yes) because it is a spiritual path of personal responsibility. No one else takes away my screwups. I can't act like a dick my whole life and then accept Jesus and be absolved. IMHO, that entire notion of salvation and lack of responsibility for one's actions, or doing all sorts of questionable things with some deity's blessing is responsible for an awful lot of evil in the world.

Secondly, I have a real hard time relating to a misogynistic, insecure, vengeful deity like Jehovah (I'm sorry, but the whole idea of "forget the Old Testament, I'm a kinder, gentler God now" holds no water for me). I was raised by some fairly free-thinking women who had never really bought into the whole "good Christian wife and mother" ethos, and I guess some of it carried over. Therefore, I follow a path that allows an equal balance between male and female, one that treats us as halves of the same whole.

It is what works for me. YMMV.