Religious Tolerance Day
The religion that will be the focus of this video is Wicca. Wiccans are a very misunderstood group in America, and many other places as well. Many Christians think, falsely, that Wiccans worship the Devil. They do not, they do not even believe The Devil exists. Wicca Is “A “religion influenced by pre-Christian beliefs and practices of western Europe that affirms the existence of supernatural power (as magic) and of both male and female deities who are inherent in nature, and that emphasizes a ritual observance of seasonal and life cycles.” cited from blessedbe.sugarbane.com/wicca. Wicca can be Monotheistic, Duothestic, polytheistic or atheistic.
I found many Wiccans on Youtube as part of my research into Wicca. Most of them had problems with Christian trolls accusing them of being Satan Worshipers and harassing them. Because of this one of them even blocked me the second I subscribed to them because the assumption was that I was going to be trolling her, since I was a Christian. This harassment and fear exists in their real life as well. There is even a phrase many of them use, “out of the broom closet”. Because of fear of a negative reaction many of them keep their wiccanism secret. One told of having getting along well with a man and then he noticed a wiccan symbol she was wearing and wanted nothing more to do with her.
I will now clarify several common misconceptions about Wiccans. They do not offer blood sacrifices, though there are some very obscure traditions that sacrifice animals. They do not practice orgies, though there are some very obscure traditions that practice nudity in their ceremonies. It is extremely rare for a Wiccan to cast a spell to intentionally harm another as it is believed that the spell would come back to them three fold. That number might change depending on which tradition of Wicca, as there are many different branches of Wicca, like how there are many denominations of Christianity.
The misconceptions I just told you about were found on a Christian apologetics website. After taking down the information, I noticed a couple of things on the bottom of the page. They said that Wiccans do not think they are doing evil. However it also said that they, the writers of the webpage, disagreed and believed that what wiccans do is evil, and assumed all Christians agreed. It also became apparent as I read down the paragraph the purpose of listing these misconceptions was not so much for spreading tolerance of Wicca, but for the purpose of helping Christians convert Wiccans. In their defense it was saying that aggressively trying to convert Wiccans was not the way to go. That Christians should try to be calm and understanding with the Wiccans while trying to convert them. The way they describe converting a Wiccan it sounds like the process would have to go on for a long time, and implies forming a bond or friendship with the Wiccan(s). While they do encourage converting nicely, for some reason I don’t like the idea of befriending somebody while conspiring to change the what they believe in. But maybe that’s just me, feel free to let me know what you think of this in either the comments section here or in the comments section of the Youtube video if that would be easier for you.
It should be noted that there are Christians out there who do not act this way towards Wiccans or believe what they do is evil. Granted, other than myself I have not met any. Though I have not actually met anyone who thought the Wiccans were themselves evil either. The Christians I know seem to believe that the Wiccans are unintentionally and unknowingly practicing evil. I believe that there is nothing in what they do that is evil.
