Why in a country that has freedom of religion do so many people think that Wicca is evil?

Question

Wicca is a polytheistic religion that believes in God and Goddess and working with nature not against it.

Answer 1

A lack of education...or too much of the wrong education.

Answer 2

Freedom of religion is one issue.

Viewing Wicca as evil is another.

I feel that at least where I live the majority of society is run by Christians (my children had no school on Good Friday - why is that?) and because I am not and my religion is Wicca they view it as different. They don't understand it. They watch too much TV and read too much "junk" they think it's evil. If they were to read books that actually explain the foundation of Wicca I would hope that they would think differently. But who knows.

Religious freedom is toted but really if you aren't Christian then I feel that they repress you. They cater to most Christian notions but balk at pagan ones. Go figure.

Answer 3

Because Wiccanism is easily confused with Satanism, unfortunately. Our symbol is of the pentagram...facing UP, with only one point on top. The Satanic symbol is that of a pentagram facing down, with two points facing up. Also, the media hasn't help our case. The media hasn't read into our religion, they believe that we are witches, in the most sterotypical sense. It wouldn't surprise me if they spread rumors saying that we rode broomsticks. But friend, you can find many Wiccans out there. We are free to do as we like, as long as it harms no one :). Our problem is that we just have to be a little quiet about it. I suppose you don't see Christians bringing bibles to school, so why would we bring our Book of Shadows?

Answer 4

As Wicca grew to alter into extra advantageous favourite and mainstream interior the late 80s and 90s e book publishers desperate it was maximum advantageous in the event that they made Wicca seem handy and all encompassing. after all, once you assert "this e book is merely for persons who sense X, Y and Z" then an entire lot of persons won't purchase it. Books popping out on the 2d additionally over-at a loss for words customization. repeatedly even authors I in many circumstances like like Cunningham could say "that is merely one way of doing it. Be particular to discover the suitable way that works for you." Which in a lot of circumstances is a properly message: we ought to continuously not be mindlessly repeating rituals, working example. besides the undeniable fact that it could be pronounced so quite often that the impact was that applied to _everything_ from rituals to basic ideals. So what could have began out as "hit upon a variety that speaks to you" grew to alter into "gods? eh, they're optionally attainable." there is likewise a faux impact of the theory of "tolerance." a super form of Pagans and Wiccans sense that it order to be tolerant you ought to sense each and every person is optimal. properly, if each and every person is optimal, then you definitely will must be able to do what and get in touch with it Wicca, perfect? the hardship is it quite is not what being tolerant way.

Answer 5

Your question includes its answer: "freedom of religion." The question of good and evil is a philosophical and religious question. We have freedom of religion, and what you believe is evil by the standards of various religions. Conversely, some of what we believe is evil in yours.

Freedom of religion presupposes that the state doesn't coerce people into taking a religious stance if it can help it. It doesn't mandate a universal acceptance, just tolerance, and as long as it's in place, people have the freedom to consider it evil.

Answer 6

A combination of fear of something that's different from what they themselves believe (the majority of people in the US have an Abrahamic tradition).

Misinformation that labels wiccans (and neopagans of all sorts) as devil worshippers combined with a lot of young teenagers who promote wicca this way to get a 'rise' out of their parents.

Answer 7

Most likely because it gets put out all over the tv and radio in that way.
This is especially so when people [some purposely] "mistake" Wicca for Satanism or NeoSatanism.

Answer 8

The vast majority of non-Wiccans have no idea what Wicca is, which makes the number hating it very very slim.

Polytheism is ALWAYS a threat to monotheism (according to monotheists) because unlike atheists who deny the existance of deity, polytheists deny the SUPREMITY of the monotheistic deity. (Or freely point out that deity's flaws)

*That* scares them.

Answer 9

Most people know the difference between Wicca and Satanism. They few that don't know probably make the assumption because Wiccans insist on calling themselves "witches" and their religion "witchcraft"...and then having the unmigated gall to call anyone who thinks of them as Satanists as being "bigots".

German: hexenmiester "a master of hexing" an evil sorcerer

Pre-Christian
Ancient Roman (Latin): veneficus "an evil sorcerer, poisoner"

Chinese (Cantonese) wul hag; shrew; evil sorceress

Greek magissa evil sorcerer, spell caster

Japanese kijo witch; ogress; she-devil

Indonesian penyihir perempuan evil sorceress

Vietnamese phu thuy evil sorceress

Spanish brujare Evil sorceress.Can mean worse than "witch" depending on how it’s used.

Hebrew kawshaf evil sorcerer, literally means: "someone who whispers a spell",

African Bilis witch, an evil sorcerer who ruins crops

Wicca evolution is quite interesting. In 1897 Godfrey Leland wrote "Aradia Gospel of The Witches". The book was plagiarized from two of his other books, Etruscan Remains and Gypsie Sorcery. Leland claimed he was given an ancient manuscript, which is the same story he used about one of his other books. This is the same era when Joseph Smith Jr., was finding “gold plates”, so maybe it sounded possible. The manuscript was never produced for examination, like Smith’s plates. Even though the book doesn't mention "wicca", it was the inspiration of what was to come. "Aradia" deals with Diana and her brother Lucifer, a being "banished from paradise for his pride" and was obviously the Christian devil. Diana and Lucifer have a daughter named Aradia, who was supposedly a witch avatar who lived in Sicily in the 14th century. No witch cult like Leland's was never found, and the document is obviously fake.

Next came Margaret Murray. A quack anthropologist, Murray hatched her own witch theory inspired by Leland's hoax. Murray invented the idea that witches of medieval witch-hunts were actual part of a Pagan cult that survived into 1600's or so. Murray wasn't above lying as her writings about Joan of Arc bear out. If she had actually read the trial transcripts from St. Joan's trial as she claimed, there are no way she could have drawn the conclusions she did about the devout Catholic Joan being a witch. Murray tests the limits of the reader's patience with ideas like an poor accused witch being tortured crying "Queen of Heaven help me!" as an incantation to a Pagan goddess, rather than the obvious St. Mary. But Murray's books inspired (and continues to inspire) others.

Wicca was started by Gerald Gardner in New Forrest England circa 1939-1950. He was a nudist & masochist and basically created Wicca as a sex cult. Followers nowadays like to forget that part, and instead fantasize they have magical powers. Many American Wiccans deny Gardner's sexual fetishes, but they're commonly accepted as fact in the U.K. Gardner was a member of Crowley’s O.T.O. and plagiarized his writings for his Book of Shadows.

Adian Kelly wrote a book on the history of Wicca called "Crafting The Art of Magic" in the 1980's. Wiccans had a fit when it was published, and pressured Llewellyn to take it out of print. It was supposed to be the first in a series of books. I think Adian Kelly probably summed it up best when he said this about the Gardnerian "Book of Shadows", the closest thing Wicca has to a sacred book:

" [M]any of the Book of Shadows rituals did not exist in 1954 (when Witchcraft Today was published) but instead were still being written. [T]he major sources from which the rituals had been constructed included: (a) Mather's edition of the Greater Key of Solomon; (b) Aleister Crowley's Magic in Theory and Practice; (c) Leland's Aradia (d) some Masonic rituals akin to those described by Duncan and those of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (aside from those transmitted by Crowley; and (e) Margaret Murray's The Witch Cult in Western Europe. There were also bits and pieces from other works by Leland, Jane E. Harrison, Gilbert Murray, James Frazier, and other great classicists from the 19th century. That accounted for EVERYTHING in the rituals! There was nothing left that differed in any important way from what you can find in those sources- - but that is NOT at all what Gardner had claimed!"

Answer 10

To put is simply: Man fears that which he does not understand. And why would they want to understand us when they are told by their religious leaders that we will lead them from their path.

I try not to worry about what others think, I just keep an eye open for those that would do harm to others.

Blessed Be )O(

Answer 11

ignorance, and the fact that there are so many "fluffy bunnies" in wicca (the wannabe wiccan teenagers looking for shock value and tv/movie theatrics)