Is the term Heathen derogatory?

Question

Pagan comes from a Roman word meaning someone of the countryside. Heathen comes from a Saxon word meaning someone of the heath. It was used by Christians for a person that was a non-believer or a worshipper of nature. I personally never found it to be offensive when used to describe me. Why would anybody else find it so?

Answer 1

We all have different upbringings, view points and so different ideas and beliefs.
No word is derogatory in itself.
But we all have feelings about words.
Our view point and the beliefs we have formed through our life experience determine how we feel when we hear a word.

Answer 2

I don't find it offensive, but then it's not a word used often today.
I think it does have connotations of being derogatory from how it was used in the past, as it was associated with the uneducated and unenlightened. We know that it was hogswash but, when christianity was trying to get a hold on the people it would persecute and belittle those who did not conform!
I don't live on a Heath, but as a Pagan would not be offended to be called Heathen!

Answer 3

Any term can be derogatory if it's meant to be by the user.
I am happy to call myself a Heathen in the Roman Catholic sense of the word where they defined a Pagan as a person who had never heard "The Word of God" so could not be held responible for not beliving in the "Good News". On the other hand they taught me a Heathen had heard about and chose to reject Chrisianity and so would burn in hell.
Just in case they are right I have made it clear I want to be buried with a giant size bag of marshmallows and a toasting fork.

Answer 4

It depends on the use. Originally, since it was a Saxon word, the Norman's probably did consider it derogatory.

And when they were burning heathens at the stake, it definately was.

Today, there are scholarly uses, but since people are less religiously centered (and no longer actually burning people at the stake) It's probably only derogatory when it's used by someone who injects venom into it. Maybe those people who find it derogatory asre listening to the inflection of the user. :)

All hail the heathens!

Answer 5

Heathen is not a derogatory term, in and of itself.

Christians have long used the term in a derogatory sense. When christians were burning people for not believing as they did, there were negative connotations .. it was illegal (or at best, anti-social) to practice non-christian beliefs, so the term took on a fairly derogatory slant.

I don't find it offensive at all.

Answer 6

Heathen, with a capital "H," is a term used as a self-descriptor through many Germanic reconstructionists. those are human beings working to reconstruct the indigenous pre-Christian ideals and practices of the different Germanic tribes, which includes the Anglo-Saxons, Norse, Franks, Normans and others. the main important communities are probable Asatruar (Norse/Icelandic) and Theodish (Anglo-Saxon). This term is used to tell apart them from neo-Pagan faiths which includes Wicca that are no longer occupied with the revival of the classic historic practices yet quite seek for to honour the old gods in new techniques. of direction, no longer all such reconstructionists choose for to apply the term "Heathen," yet maximum folk do.

Answer 7

It is derogatory because it was used to dismiss people whose beliefs were not the same as a particular writer's. In the same way, primitive is a word that's avoided with reference to peoples such as American Indians. The words imply that these peoples are inferior to the person using them.
An extension of this contempt is called racism. Don't allow people to call you heathen, because you don't seem like an abusive person yourself.

Answer 8

The same reason a women's basketball team would be offended by being called "nappy-headed hoes" in a joke by a radio host. People are overly sensitive, and don't know when to quit. Though heathen has become somewhat of a term to describe a bad person on rare occasion.

Answer 9

Its not derogatory if used in the correct context. Over time people have used it describe people in a derogatory way and the association has became stronger than the real meaning.

Answer 10

I think it depends on the context of it when it's used. If you called someone a Godless heathen, then it would surely be an insult but in bygone days it was not a slur, just a statement of where your from.