Wicca IS a Religion

In Huston, Arizona, it is tradition to open the city council meetings with a solemn prayer. This brought about criticism from the Wisconsin’s Freedom of Religion Foundation in 2012, which caused them to try involving more faiths. It seems the freedom of religion does not include Wicca, however. When it was announced that Reverend Blake Kirk would be opening the meeting with an invocation, he was then approached about his beliefs and then told he was no longer invited to give the invocation. Kirk had given the same invocation just 6 months ago, opening the prayer with “O gentle Goddess and Loving God” and he then proceeded to give a very solemn invocation, which did not seem to raise any brows. The only difference between the two times Kirk was asked to perform the invocation is that he was announced as “Reverend Blake Kirk, Priest of the Oak, Ash and Thorn Tradition of Wicca," the second time, instead of “leader in earth-based spiritual communities.” It would seem as though the only thing that anyone has a problem with is the fact that they mention his religion being Wicca. According to the city attorney, Peter Joffrion, the idea was to “Educate” the people and then “Reintroduce him more gently later” but my question to that is, why do you need to? I find it to be not only insulting, but ridiculous that Wicca is constantly being looked down upon by others, and I feel as though it was not only wrong doing toward Reverend Blake Kirk, but toward everyone practicing and representing the modern Wiccan religion.

Wicca is a religion:

Wicca is in fact a religion just like any other. Religion is defined as “the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods” and so since gods are worshiped in Wicca, that alone is enough proof that it is a religion, and one that deserves just as much respect as any other. The “Golden Rule” that is constantly being taught in Catholic schools is “Treat your neighbor as you would have him treat you”. I highly doubt that was supposed to be directed toward any single person or group in particular, so tell me how it is right that people treat us so differently and wrongly? Why is Wicca the quintessential “kid in the corner”? Maybe there is still some kind of misunderstanding about it. You see, Wicca does not sacrifice babies, humans, or animals, or summon monsters to kill people. We most certainly do not worship Satan and in fact, most Wiccans don’t even believe in Satan. I am personally fed up with the discrimination against the Wiccan religion and all it stands for. In the old ways of Wicca, people had to hide from the rest of society so as not to be stoned or burned. In recent days, people still stone us, but it just happens to be hypothetical now.

John 8:7 “When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

So put your stones down and look at us as people instead of us as different. I personally would feel quite honored if I were to be asked to lead a group in a Wiccan prayer, and I would be very unhappy if I were then rejected because no one is able to handle my religion.

"It seems to be necessary to preface every discussion of Witchcraft with an explanation that, no, Neo-Pagan Witches aren't Satanists". -- Otter and Morning Glory Zell

"We are not evil. We don't harm or seduce people. We are not dangerous. We are ordinary people like you. We have families, jobs, hopes, and dreams. We are not a cult. This religion is not a joke. We are not what you think we are from looking at T.V. We are real. We laugh, we cry. We are serious. We have a sense of humor. You don't have to be afraid of us. We don't want to convert you. And please don't try to convert us. Just give us the same right we give you--to live in peace. We are much more similar to you than you think." -- Margot Adler

This is the sad truth about how people see the Wiccan religion. It is pretty much taught since birth that a Witch is evil, conjuring evil demons and raising the dead, killing animals, and dancing in the nude.

"If you take [a copy of] the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind and the rain." -- Herbalist Carol McGrath as told to her by an unidentified Native-American woman.

Now, I know from the start this may raise some eyebrows, because it involves destruction of a bible, but I hope you at least take the symbolism for what it is. I am not, nor was Carol McGrath, talking about destroying a sacred book as if it were meaningless. I accept that many of the readings in the bible are very insightful, not only to Christianity, but to anyone of any culture or religion. This quotation is meant to show that we listen attentively to the earth and the elements. We take into consideration something that has been scientifically proven, which is the fact that energy flows through everything and makes up everything.

I think maybe it’s time to bring Wicca into the schools, teach it as a religion and not an evil cultist group, or not teach anything about it at all. The theological ignorance behind what Wicca is has obviously caused a great deal of prejudice and this simply needs to end. Wicca is making a comeback, however, as it is estimated that there are now over 750 thousand Wiccans in the United States, causing Wicca to stand as the fifth largest religion in the United States, and that’s before you take into consideration the fact that many Wiccans are still “in hiding” because of society constantly persecuting them, which is because no one understands Wicca! I think if the beliefs of Wicca could be introduced into schools, then maybe people would learn to accept Wiccans as people. I think I have already covered some things in two of my other posts, but I will bring up some of those points again. Wicca is not Satanism and Wicca is not evil, we believe in gods and goddesses, we believe in energies and spirits, we believe that helping and preserving the earth is a necessity, and we believe that helping people rather than dwelling on how they differ from us should be a top priority. Social rights are trampled over for the sake of religion, and religious rights are trampled for the sake of society. A prime example, as I mentioned in another one of my previous posts, is Hobby Lobby using Christianity to get out of paying for Birth control for women, which people aren't too happy about that, myself included.

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Drake~