Paganism, witchcraft on rise in UK

MSNBC ^ | 06/19/03 | Reuters

[bedolido]

White witch Kevin Carlyon is seen performing an invocation on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland in an attempt to summon the Loch Ness Monster, on June 13.

[what's up]

Britain has such a fantastic cultural legacy.

Too bad that currently Britains #1 cultural contribution is a witchcraft novel for kids.

[wimpycat]

Paganism has been rising in the UK since the 1950s, Hutton said. “It’s a religion that meets modern needs,” he added. “Traditional religions have so many prohibitions: Thou shalt not do this or that. But Paganism has a message of liberation combined with good citizenship.”

Thou shalt not do this or that, huh? How confining and repressive! /sarcasm

Thou shalt not make an ass of thyself. You've broken that commandment, sure enough.

[CatoRenasci]

Well, irrelevance is eventually what happens with any state religion.

[Oztrich Boy]

Evangelical Alliance: thought I recognised the name. They were the nutters behind the SATANIC CHILD ABUSE HYSTERIA of a decade ago.

"Our culture does, in fact, include Evangelical Christians who can get into positions of power, and abuse children by taking them away from loving homes on quite ridiculous grounds. "

[what's up]

Exactly...eternal life is what's really important...this time here is just a breath. Too bad this message is not out there too much in the Church.

[js1138]

Too bad that currently Britains #1 cultural contribution is a witchcraft novel for kids.

Yes, let's get back to the classics like Once and Future King. Merlin always was a better wizard than Dumbledore.

[LiteKeeper]

SITREP

[nmh]

Hmmm, why am I not surprised when it leads the pack in witchcraft books and Harry Potter. Worse yet the writer of Harry Potter was in tears about how DARK her latest book has gotten and a death in it that she now feels "ashamed" about. It matters not to Hary Potter fans though. They see "no harm" in reading Harry Potter. In fact they routinely visciously defend reading such dark trash.

[bedolido]

...In fact they routinely visciously defend reading such dark trash.

Agree... so sad.

[dark_lord]

To fight evil one must recognize it. Think of it as paladin educational services.

[LanPB01]

Yeah, right. I guess a story that encourages children to work hard and do their best to overcome obstacles can't compete with a book featuring happy tales of worldwide flooding, testing people by encouraging them to kill their own kids, and wholesale slaughter.

[what's up]

Britain has such a rich history of literature; sure you have pointed out one book which has paganism as a backdrop. However, even the Merlin story is embedded in a rich legacy of England's past, the time of the fall of the Roman empire in England and the beginning of the angle/saxon invasion. Good history.

A cheap children's novel which shows modern kids steeped in paganism in a wizard's school is a far cry from good literature IMO.

[what's up]

work hard and do their best to overcome obstacles

By chanting spells? LOL. Yeah, that's much better.

[LanPB01]

They go to school and learn how to use those spells. They train. These books are not a problem.

[f.Christian]

Conservative writers I enjoy include Ayn Rand,

No wonder you like witchcraft -- anarchy !

[what's up]

Airy-fairy stuff. The three R's are better training than witchcraft.

A fairy story here and there is OK, but when it's the main cultural event in Britain, look out. Better to teach substance than spells.

[js1138]

Dickens was a cheap novelist, a pot boiler, in his time. Respected writers, whose names I can't seem to recall, wouldn't give him the time of day. Do you realize that the first four HP novels are still near the top ten on amazon?

If the HP books were written in current teenage slang, with references to current events or current culture, I would expect them to fall by the wayside, but they aren't. They are written in standard English and carefully avoid topical references.

Your definition of great literature may be correct by university standards, but Gone With the Wind still outsells most literature. So does Agatha Christi. So don't expect HP to disapear anytime soon.