Paganism, witchcraft on rise in UK

MSNBC ^ | 06/19/03 | Reuters

[bedolido]

TV shows, Internet, Harry Potter boost membership

LONDON, June 19 — Paganism and the ancient art of witchcraft are on the rise in Britain, experts said on Thursday as the summer’s most celebrated Pagan festival approached.

TELEVISION, THE INTERNET, environmentalism and even feminism have all played a role in the resurgence, they say.

Soaring Pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like “Harry Potter,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”

Record attendance is expected at dawn on Saturday morning at the mystical megaliths of Stonehenge, where Pagans have celebrated the summer solstice for thousands of years.

The trend has worried some of the Protestant church’s more traditional elements. “The rise of interest in Paganism is damaging because it normalizes spiritual evil by presenting it as mere fantasy and fiction,” said Reverend Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance, a grouping of some one million UK Christians.

Who's going to die in Harry Potter? “The Evangelical Alliance calls on government and TV regulatory bodies to monitor programs which promote or glamorize Pagan issues,” he told Reuters.

Thirty thousand are expected to dance in the sunrise on summer’s longest day at Stonehenge, says English Heritage, which manages the site — nearly four times the number in 1990, when it re-opened to the public after many years.

Scholars believe the ring of 20-ton stones was built between 3,000 and 1,600 BC as a sacred temple. Many of the revelers will be there just to party, but among them will be druids, who believe in spiritual enlightenment through nature, and witches who practice Wicca — harnessing nature’s power as magic.

[LanPB01]

Yeah, the free trade and capitalism Rand promotes leads to anarchy.

[what's up]

Dickens helped to bring about compassion for the poor. I wonder what Harry Potter will help bring about in society? There will always be cheap novels; the problem is that good literature currently is sadly lacking, particularly for the sensitive younger mind. Too bad something other than witchcraft isn't the current rage.

don't expect HP to disapear anytime soon.

I don't. Unfortunately

[Consort]

[f.Christian]

Leave out the atheism -- statist evolution (( anarchy )) part ?

Different means (( individual // socialism )) but the same results ... just another flavor --- more sweetener // packaging !

Main Entry: sweet·en
Pronunciation: 'swE-t&n
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): sweet·ened; sweet·en·ing /'swEt-ni[ng], 'swE-t&n-i[ng]/
Date: circa 1552
transitive senses
1 : to make sweet
2 : to soften the mood or attitude of
3 : to make less painful or trying
4 : to free from a harmful or undesirable quality or substance; especially : to remove sulfur compounds from < sweeten natural gas >
5 : to make more valuable or attractive: as a : to increase (a pot not won on the previous deal) by anteing prior to another deal b : to place additional securities as collateral for (a loan)
intransitive senses : to become sweet
- sweet·en·er /'swEt-n&r, 'swE-t&n-&r/ noun

[Oztrich Boy]

Harry Potter vs Left Behind

Britain's cultural lead over the US seems to be safe.

[what's up]

Really? Is Left Behind as big a phenomena in the US as Potter is in Britain (and America)?

Not sure the 2 compare.

[sheik yerbouty]

Wait until their paganism meets Islam!

[Dead Corpse]

Don't count on the fluffy headed pagan types to fight off Islam. For that you'd need good old fashioned Norse heathen types like me.

Bring back the bear skins and longships. Send the Islamofascists packing...

[ASA Vet]

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

[CatoRenasci]

Yes, but with a state supported established religion, you keep the shell of the religion alive long after its substance dies because of the state support.

With a religion that relies solely on its members for support, when the members die off and aren't replaced, there's less of a shell left, and it withers away more quickly.

[RightOnline]

"It is even more sad when you realize that paganism is rising because these people do not see anything of value in the churches there.

Christianity in the West is the new 'Sick Man of Europe' and in the process of being replaced by Islam."

.......just because you said it so well, and it needs to be repeated.

[sheik yerbouty]

The jihadists might get culture shock.

[ASA Vet]

I agree

[ASA Vet]

Do you have any idea what the longest run has been for any particular supernaturalist belief system?

[Dead Corpse]

That'll happen when your disembodied head is hanging from the prow of a warship. ;-)

[ASA Vet]

hanging from the prow of a warship.

I don't believe our warships have a prow in the classical meaning,
but I'm sure our sailors could rig one up if asked.

[Dead Corpse]

We could dangle them off the fantail I suppose. Better to have them up front so that the next target can see what is heading their way...

[alnick]

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

LOL! Thous shalt not make an ass of thyself, unless thou art a liberal, in which case thou art unable to do otherwise. ;-)

[Billy_bob_bob]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Christianity is failing in the West because Christianity has failed the West. There was a time that Christianity was a sword and a shield for Europe and Europeans, but as of now the sword has been pressed against our necks and the shield is being used to beat us over the head.

Once upon a time the rallying cry was "onward Christian soldiers", now the preachers welcome unlimited numbers of invaders with open arms, and tell their followers that they must not think bad things about the invaders or else they are committing the sin of "racism", which of course is the worst sin of all according to the modern "state approved" litany.

As long as the biggest virtues being preached by the Christian churches is "tolerance" and "diversity", the people will continue to turn away from Christianity and towards something, anything else that will preserve their culture and their nation. A task that Christianity has failed at.

[Xenalyte]

He is an enchanter. Some call him . . . Tim.