why do people hate Wicca so much?

Answer 1

Americans generally believe that their Constitution guarantees their freedom to worship as they please. That is a false belief. The USA Constitution recognizes that right: it is the citizen's duty (and obligation) to defend it. If this were Pangloss�s "best of all possible worlds" (Candide, by Voltaire), the United States government would defend that right against people who would deny other people that right. It does not.

Even as I write this, there is an appeal being filed in a child custody battle by a Fundamentalist Christian father that insists the child's mother (Isha Martin-Hammer) is "unfit" because she is Wiccan. That she is Wiccan has no bearing on her fitness as a parent: yet she has spent over US$50,000 defending herself. When I read part of the appeal, I was utterly appalled that the father's lawyers (Ledbetters & Associates) would write such a shameful, obscene document. In my opinion, the lawyers violated her Constitutionally- recognized right to worship as she pleases without harassment; it seems likely to me that if the mother had the financial resources to sue them, she could do so successfully. (A copy of that Appeal will be posted on this site eventually.) To explain how such an evil can happen in the United States, a excellent essay is available on this site: Understanding Fundamentalism.

Today in the United States Wiccans are submitted to an astonishing amount of abuse by people who object to their choice of worship (see "A Fundamentalist Christians Speaks Against Wiccans" for one person's "justification" for that abuse). The fact is that Wicca is eclectic and non-dogmatic and thus there is no danger in becomming another People's Temple or anything like it. And yet Wiccan clergy are still denied clerical privilages such as performing weddings, and even the USA Army at Fort Hood, Texas is drawing hate-filled angst at Wiccans exercising their right to worship as they please (see also my brief essay on the Fort Hood story.)

That intolerance and abuse often takes on a highly irrational, insane, shrill voice, as found in The Vile "File 18." The newsletter's author pays lip service to religious freedom at the top of his hate literature, all the while slandering Wiccan, neo-Pagan, and Earth-Centric religions and the people who follow / belong to those religions. He does this in the name of "protecting babies." He hides from his readers the fact that he is a Fundamentalist Christian with the desire to persecute non-Christians; he publishes his hate newsletter from the basement of his cult [see "cult" vs. "NRM"], while using a police department's mailing address.

And sometimes that intolerance makes some people deliberately confuse Satanism with Wicca. These intolerant, ignorant people first assume that Satanists are a threat to society (which is not supported by valid evidence), and then call Wiccans, neo-Pagans, and other members of Earth-centric religions "Satanists." They know that using the word "Satanism" gets people's interest and induces fear and concern in people. These intolerant, hate-filled people are emotionally manipulating their listeners and readers by calling non-Satanists "Satanists." A fine example is one hate magazine's list of "Satanic cults" of which only 0.56% of the churches and organizations listed are in fact Satanic. (The other 99.44% are Wiccan, neo-Pagan, Pagan, Druidic, ecological, Asatru, publishers, or progressives.) Such nonsense has even become a growth industry. The fact is that Wicca / Satanism are two seperate, distinct religions. A brief collection of Letters To Editor shows the ignorance of such people about Wicca: ignorance that ends up harming Wiccans. Wiccan students are even being denied the right to wear religious symbols in school (see discussion here) and a letter to the school board.

Answer 2

For all of you religious zealots, get over yourselves. If you can't even read the bible correctly, then don't be Christian. Wicca is by no means evil. You probably don't even know what evil is. You are just another person who believes in something because they are afraid of death if you are a zealot. Get out of Christian delusions of Wicca being wrong. It is not. Occult magic is not inherently wrong either, maybe if you took the time to research magic, you wouldn't type out such ignorant and stereotypical nonsense.

ALL cases in the bible of sorcery or magic or occult type things being evil is a mistranslation. Remember that the bible was not originally in english, so when it was translated, the closest word to a flase prophet in the ancient Hebrew dialect is a sorceror. That does not mean that a sorceror is evil, either. The true defintion of a sorceror is a specific type of magician who does not care for morality, but is not neccesarily evil, i.e. they do not strive to create evil. A magician is not evil either, in fact, most magicians are at least 10 times more knowledgable about life after death than the Pope is (no offense to the pope, but the facts in the bible are a bit misconstrued). The bible specifically warns of "false prophets." In the most technical sense, Christianity was originally not against magic at all. Then, the bible was falsely translated, and wiccans were burned. A false prophet in ancient times was one who foretold prophecies and the like but only personal gain, or not for God. Wicca is not even the only form of magic. There is Qabbalistic magic, elementil magic, Hermetic magic, Black Magic (this is the ONLY form of magic that uses dark forces, necromancy being a subcategory of this type. Most magicians of the world consider Black Magicians a joke, as the true path of a magician is ultamite spiritual growth), High Magic, Summoning magic (evocation and the like, one of the strongest reasons why magicians have more knowledge of the afterlife than any snigle religion does), and many more categories. To DATE, the only one which is inherently malicious or objectively considered truly wrong is Black Magic. Many magicians are Christian, many have no religion (they are not athiest, they just have their own truths).

To sum up the basic reason of why Christianity is against Wicca, it is because of an inherent translation error in the bible from ancient Hebrew through many different languages and finally into English (ever play a game called telephone? It is like that, except you name a word and give the closest definition inanother lanuage. Over time, the word naturally changes...)

I myself am a magician, and Christian as well. I have a thorough knowledge of the bible.

Answer 3

nebtet said it better than I could! And, just for further clarification, the question was about Wicca, not Witchcraft. They are not one and the same, and many Wiccans do not practice Witchcraft, just as not all Witches are Wiccan.

Either way, neither is evil in the slightest. The only evil in this world is in the heart of the evil doer. There are evil people in all religions and it will always be like that.

BB
)0(

Answer 4

Wicca is not always understood and if people do not understand or are afraid of something then they hate it or disregard it. Most stay away or say it is evil before they know what they are talking about. No-one wants to research or try to understand.Wicca and/or Wiccan is understood to be witches, the bible says that witches must die.
Exodus 22:18 says
18) Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

Answer 5

How can I hate that which glorifies nature? I respect that it is the religion Dao but people hate Wicca because they don't understand it is the practice of White magic They think of Wicca and perceive the horrible witch in Snow White

Answer 6

The Fundamentalists, especially, will vehemently deny any connection with Paganism and, yet, at Christmas they deck out the entire church in boughs of holly and sprigs of pine. I was in a Pentecostal church for some time, and every year they would hold a sermon explaining the "evils" of paganism, all the while, surrounding themselves with pagan decorations and imagery.

They can convert the derelict in the street who has no where to go, they can win over the wandering teen who has no direction in life, but they can never seem to win over a witch. Whenever they talk about paganism and witchcraft, it is excruciatingly obvious that they've not a single clue of what they're talking about.

There is a psychological form of manipulation called invalidation. It consists of making a person feel inferior for the purposes of controlling them. It’s contagious. Those that have been invalidated learn that behavior and go on to do it to others. Many try to use religion/difference of opinion as their form of control, especially if that’s what has been done to them. They may jump from one religion to another. And use the new one to attempt to do what the old one did to them.

Mankind tries to shove the universe into a wee tidy box so they can claim to understand it all, and from this mentality come all the cookie-cutter religions that say that they are the ONLY way.

In all the universe, there is no evidence of anything being absolute, therefore how can there be an all-inclusive, absolute way for everyone?

The one-size-fits-all mentality of religions who demand that everyone think and feel alike, in spite of our own individual needs, they deny their own humanity and try to call it holiness. They try to get everyone else to deny theirs using shame and fear. It denies individualism and teaches a fear of soul-searching honesty. Where is the love in that??? Where is truth??

Answer 7

people dont hate wicca, some of the most 'outgoing' and prominent members shall we say - can tend to give a negative impression of the religion as a whole, pagan wicca is very complicated and dates back 1000s of years - lots of other areas are being incorporated into 'wicca'

when you say you are 'wiccan' perhaps you had best clarify which branch you stand for, it also attracts some people that are damaged that use it as a basis to promote their 'agenda' if they were for instance abused as a child perhaps - these people can give a negative image and impression of the religion as a whole

Answer 8

well, as you can see by some of the responses given some folks are simply convinced that Wicca is evil and satanic. their ignorance breeds their fears and there's really not much one can do to change the minds of such people, no amount of testimony or facts contrary to their preconceived ideas about Wicca and other neoPagan spiritual paths will matter. their ignorance breeds their fears and their fear breeds their hostility and their hostility feeds their sense of self righteousness which then confirms to them that they are special in the eyes of God. it's tedious line of emotional dominoes flipped into effect by religious bigotry.

Answer 9

I like the idea of wicca and how wiccans view nature in a spiritual sense. I may not agree with everything in it but I respect it.

Answer 10

Charmed, The Craft and their ilk have done more to warp people's perception of Wicca than anything else.