Has anyone read "Wicca: Satan's Little White Lie?" What were your thoughts on the book?

Question

I founded very frustrating or very comical as I went through because the book sounded more like it was written by someone who barely understood the topic at hand rather than someone who was a devout Wiccan and had passion for his believes. I felt that he spent more time writing about why Paganism is faulty and trying to disprove it than on his actual spiritual journey from the path of a Pagan to that of a Christian. I was hoping more for the experiences, events, and people on that might have helped him realize that the path was not for him and how he came to those conclusions...I was deeply dissapointed. What are your thoughts? Did this help anyone?

Answer 1

I did read it. (I got it through the Interlibrary Loan Program at my local public library because it looked like a badly written book when I saw it on Amazon.com, but I wanted to have a look at it anyway. Needless to say, I'm glad that I was able to send it back to where it came from when I was done.) It was very disappointing for me. Dispite the fact that it didn't look so good on Amazon's reviews that were done by people who read it, this book turned out to be a much poorer book in person. It is a book written by a bigot who was not really a Wiccan. And how he goes on about Wicca and other religions in the book itself proves that point. And it was not researched very well, either. The way it is organized makes no sense, but that is to be expected when you see that it is written by a fundamental christian lunatic.

I read Wicca:Satan's Little White Lie because I am a Witch and I am always looking out for stuff that Christians are using as propaganda against Contemporary Pagans. By the way, Mr. Shnoebelen was a Modern Pagan, not a Contemporary Pagan. He apparently gave up his Satanism over 20 years ago, which is no longer Contemporary because it is not taking place now or within the last ten years. I have been Pagan my entire life and active in the Pagan Community since 2004, and I have never met a real Wiccan who believes that Satan exists -- nobody Wiccan young or old accepts the existence of the Christian Satan (which many Christians seem to have deified and given powers to control people like a God). Now, I have met Goths and Satanists who worship the Christian Satan, but they acknowledge that it is a Christian concept, not a Pagan one.

This book was helpful to me only in broadening my understanding of the deeply rooted fear that Fundamental Christians have of Witches, Wiccans, Buddhists, and anybody who does not belong to the same church as they do. The author does not explain at all how he really got into his Devil Worshipping or how he got out of it. It is a very poorly written book. The author appears pooly educated both on what Wicca really is and in the general sense of anyone who uses his mind to learn about the world around him instead of preaching about something he clearly proves himself to have no valid experience of.
If he really knew about the way that Alexandrian Wicca and his other supposed religious traditions worked, he would have known better than to say he got accepted into a Coven in February 1972 and made a High Priest only a few months later. Real Alexandrian Covens do not operate that way. Bill Shnoebelen lied, lied, and lied some more when he wrote this book. It is a horrible failure to get his point across, as well as a disappointment to anybody who reads it.
I do not like this book and I would not recommend it to anyone.

Answer 2

Yes, that's a fun little volume, isn't it? I found it in a used bookstore and picked it up for a laugh. It's published by Chick Publications, those wonderful people who print those cute little cartoon tracts that the Fundies like to pass out on the street corner. The ones that say that Masons, Catholics, Homosexuals, and Evolutionists are all deceived by the Devil. I used to collect those. . . .

This book is tricky, because the author quotes a lot of legitimate Pagan and Occult authors, such as Crowley and the Farrars -- but he quotes them out of context, alongside authors who the majority of Wiccans do not consider legitimate sources (The Frosts, who really need to be held accountable for their book, _The Good Witches' Bible_, because it set the community back 15 years, and the Fundies just keep bringing it up). And he twists his "evidence" around the idea that Wicca is really all about drugs, sex orgies, and blood sacrifice. Now, I have been around the Pagan community for a lot of years -- since about 1992 -- and I have not once been invited to a sex orgy. What gives?!?!?

Seriously -- this book is a twisted fantasy in the mind of a sexually repressed Christian. Schnoebelen was never a Wiccan, any more than he was a Mason, or JW, or anything else he claimed to be for the purposes of slandering it. He begins with his misguided belief that Wicca is a Satanic Cult, and accuses Wiccans of having all kinds of fun -- sex and drugs, mixed in with blood rites (which NEVER occur in Wicca) -- and then he goes through all the Pagan and Occult literature he can find and quotes it selectively to "prove" his previously reached conclusion (when you do this with the Bible, it's called "proof texting")

This book is Christian propaganda. Very obvious, and very ridiculous propaganda. The scary thing is, there are people who will believe this book and won't be willing to listen to anything contrary.

PS Labgirl, you forgot he also claimed to be an ex-vampire

Answer 3

Absolutely not. Only God has that ability, and I'm grateful for that. I think that if Satan could read our minds, he'd be that much more able to corrupt us, and there wouldn't be as much good in the world. You have to remember, though, that Satan has been around a very, very long time. He's dedicated his entire existence to finding our flaws and weaknesses so he can exploit them and use them to steer us away from God, and while he cannot read our minds, he can often find those weaknesses simply by watching and listening to us. Satan is very good at what he does. Still, while we should guard our thoughts simply because thought leads to action, as least we can take comfort in the fact that only our Creator, who loves us more than we can comprehend, is the only one who knows what we're thinking. It's one more defense we have against Satan.

Answer 4

I skimmed it. I cannot bother reading a book that is all about disproving someone else's beliefs. Who would read a book desparaging Chritianity if it was written by a Pagan?
I am not sure who this book is geared towards. Why would a Christian need Wicca disproved? Why would a Wiccan believe a Christian's take on Wicca?
I thought is was a waste.

Answer 5

I wrote a review on this years back on Amazon.com. Yes, it's ridiculous. The line that really killed me was "Even if you are an atheist, you still worship Satan!"

I remember the author being on the 700 Club. First he was brought in as a guest claiming to be a practicioner of Wicca (which he pronounced "Witch - ah"). He explained what it was Wiccans believed and it seemed to go civil enough. Then he was brought back a few weeks later with his story on how he "repenteded" and was now a Christian, and of course had all new evil stories of Wicca to share. Obviously, it was a publicity set-up from day one.

These books all come down to personal anecdotes which, even if they happened, doesn't prove a thing. Wicca is too loosely organized to have "secret levels" where it's suddenly revealed "Oh, you're supposed to believe in this thing that completely contradicts everything you've learned up til now." What organization would be stupid enough to implement a switch like that in the first place?

Answer 6

I think the author was just another douchebag looking for attention. He wasn't getting enough attention in the Pagan community so he went off and joined the Christian one. He's probably not the first to do this, and he won't be the last. The more crazy and outlandish your claims about anything outside the Judeo-Christian world the more attention you'll get from the fundies.

Answer 7

Haven't read, or heard of, but anything that's written by someone that doesn't even stand in the shoes of the subject, forget it... There are too many like that over atheists too (I looked on Amazon), written by all the icky people who hate us and are determined to have their say that we're wrong...publicly, with a book... However, I think any subject such as Wiccans, atheists, etc have the first and foremost right to speak for ourselves, not have people who are not us trying to tell others who and what we are. *tisk*

Answer 8

Oh, my.

Oh, MY.

It sounds like a real train-wreck of a book. Thanks for sharing the title; I'll keep an eye out for it at my local library (although I'd hope they have good enough taste not to order it in the first place).

And Labgrrl, that link is priceless.

Answer 9

You should read this link:
http://www.masonicinfo.com/schnoebelen.htm

Apparently, he wasn't just a former Wiccan, but a former Mason, Mormon, UFO abductee, Jehovah's Witness and tons of other things you can't be at the same time for OTHER books.

He was clearly never any of them.

Answer 10

Sorry, on principal I will not support anything that uses Wicca & Satan in the same Sentence.

Even buying a copy to read it is supporting that Hate Mongering. The Zealots who spew that kind of crap will not listen to anything that will not support (or can not be twistered to support) their sick perverted POV.

Sorry.

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