The Learning Curve - Are You On It?

As I was perusing the blogs I normally check on in the A.M. while drinking my coffee, I noticed something that pops up often. The idea, or opinion, or meme perhaps, that people who identify themselves as pagan - non-christian - are all Gaia-worshipping veggie collectivists bent on forcing AGW policy upon everyone. And they smell like patchouli, too!
What is the matter with you folks?
How would you feel if I lumped all christians into the same bucket as Jim Jones, or Jimmy Swaggart? Would you take issue with that? Oh, and don't forget the guy who murdered the abortion doc, right? He was on a mission from your god - so he thought.
"Politics makes strange bedfellows." Don't it just? Why do some conservatives believe that only people who follow the Path of the carpenter from Nazarene, understand and appreciate what the Constitution means?
Let me give you a little background on me. A conservative pagan.
The son of an engineer/Airborne Ranger/blackjack player. Not a college grad, but a student, while in college, of physical sciences and math; several fields of geology being my favorites, with study of physics - quantum mechanics, especially - being one of my ongoing passions. I love understanding how things work, and the pursuit of knowledge.
Being the inquisitive sort, I was not content to remain silent in the church of my parents, instead choosing to ask questions. That never went off very well. Eventually I settled on a non-christian Path - having been introduced to it as a teenager.I didn't fall right in, hook, line and sinker; As I said, I am an asker of questions, and I choose not to be blind. I've read various authors of philosophy, both left-wingers and right-wingers. My take on things in general, at least regarding people and the things they believe, is that there are always three sides to the story.
Yes, I love the planet. My home.
I try to live in a way that reduces my impact: I recycle the oil from my Jeep, the wife's car, and my bike instead of pouring it on the dirt or down the storm drain. I recycle metal, paper, plastics and glass. I don't take my yard waste or used appliances off the road to dump - I take the yard waste to a landfill and the used appliances go to Goodwill. When I trim my trees I till the small stuff back into the yard and use the larger stuff for my patio pot bellied chimney or campfires.
I love to hunt. . For meat, antlers, and skin, where and when I can. I eat what I kill, and I avoid wasting anything that can be used. I know how to find my way in the wilderness. I know how to live in the wilderness. I also see the wilderness as a Cathedral unmatched by anything humans have ever made. I perceive my God and Goddess in all of nature.
Do I hug trees? I've been known to lean against them, to quiet my spirit and consider/feel the long, slow life of them. I've also been known to use them for firewood, which I still do. Does that mean I don't care about them? Hardly. Why would that be? I'm a desert rat. I've lived in the northern part of the Sonoran Desert most of my life, and my adventures have taken me into the Mohave, and the Painted Desert as well.
I'll tell you why: live in a place where trees are fewer and farther between, and you gain an appreciation for a forest, whether it be redwoods in northern Cal, oaks in southeast Missouri or the pine forests on the Mogollon Rim. Hearing the wind whispering in them at night, watching them dance in an afternoon storm... sweet.
Yeah, I love trees. Look over the aftermath of a forest fire and see if you don't feel grief of sorts for what you likely won't see again for many decades, if at all.
Is it possible for you to relate to me yet?
Unlike some, I do not separate humankind from the earth. I know that everything we do can have local effects; refer back to the oil recycling I do. I think of myself as a responsible steward, in my own small way, of what the earth offers me. I want my three sons and their children to be able to see some of what I've seen, go the places I've gone and more - and not find them overrun and trashed, like the Buenos Aires Wildlife Conservation Area down by Arivaca, AZ. The effects of illegal immigration at its finest. You don't hear too many of the self-professed Gaians raising hell about that, do ya?
So back, in a roundabout way, to where this began: the perception, on the part of many, that if you declare yourself a pagan, you must be a tree-hugging patchouli-wearing anti-meat-eating AGW-believing... dear me. There are a lot of us who are, simply put, common-sense oriented. That means we tend to lean towards policies and practices that you usually don't see put forward by some wild-eyed fanatic - no matter what kind of fanatic they might be.
I cherish what the Founders put forward, what they began so many years ago. I value the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as they are written. I do NOT consider them 'living documents', the meaning of which can be re-interpreted every other decade according to the whims of the Congress or the Supreme Court. I despise what our current congress is trying to do to us - but what I despise equally is the apathy many of my fellow citizens have shown in not participating in their future, and indeed the future of this nation. Because, ladies & gents, nothing else has brought us to this place. We've allowed the servants to try to be the rulers. It is time to change that.
But it'll be damned hard to do if you try to define us by our spiritual Paths. If you believe that only christians are conservatives, you're no better off than the folks on the left side of things who spew their hatred of people who don't share their ideologies. Narrow-minded losers.
Expand your mind a little and embrace the idea that I, and people like me, are very much like you in many ways. If you alienate us because of our beliefs, what do you gain?

I knew a pretty lady, a long time ago, who wore patchouli. Any time I get a whiff of it I think of her and smile. She smelled good... I've loved that smell ever since.

Does that make me less of a Patriot in your eyes?