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Paganism, witchcraft on rise in UK
MSNBC ^
| 06/19/03
| Reuters
Posted on 06/19/2003 7:23:10 AM PDT by 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 summers 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 churchs 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 summers 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 natures power as magic.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: catholiclist; paganism; sofingwhat; witchcraft
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To: nmh
All I need to know about evil is written in the Bible and witchcraft is definitely evil as this articles states.What an astounding coincidence!
All I need to know about crashing, one-track bores is written in the bible!
61
posted on
06/19/2003 2:11:40 PM PDT
by
Pahuanui
(when A Foolish Man Hears The tao, He Laughs Out Loud.)
To: Dead Corpse
Your wasting your time.....these types are close-minded to everything but their own dogma.
Congrats to you and your wife on your daughter!
To: FeliciaCat
Thanks. She ain't here yet. September. She's at the point now where she's using my beautiful wifes innards for punching bags. She can just about kick a quarter off her bellybutton.
Amazing stuff. This is our first so it's all a bit awe inspiring...
63
posted on
06/19/2003 2:18:05 PM PDT
by
Dead Corpse
(For an Evil Super Genius, you aren't too bright are you?)
To: nmh
ALl I need to know about evil is written in the Bible and witchcraft is definitely evil as this articles states.Ummm...yeah...backing away slowly. Hey, I have an idea! Why don't you pick up something called concordance and do a little research. Yes, the bible does say "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus) as well as commenting negatively regarding sorcerers and so on. The fundamental problem, however, is that it generally does not define what witchcraft, sorcery, and enchantment, and so on are. This can become problematic fairly quickly. For example, by old testament standards a doctor who prescribes prescription drugs and the pharmicist who prepares them are practicing sorcery and witchcraft (because in those days doctors tended to be bamboozling hacks and a "pharmacist" was likely as not to poison someone).
So if you want to figure out what the heck they were talking about in those days and do some study, the bad stuff boils down to this:
(1) Summoning up spirits.
(2) Casting curses.
(3) Attempting to control someone with magic (enchantment)
(4) Making and dispensing poisons.
(5) Attempting to predict the future (via various froms of divination.)
Anyone who is a bible scholar, please add to my list. My point is that it is pretty important to know what we are going to call "witchcraft" in the biblical sense, and to know if what "witches" today practice is the same. My observation is that some of it is (most of it), and some of it isn't. I think way too many people who actually do get involved with magick think that it is just okay, and "do you harm none" there is no problem with it. I disagree, for a variety of reasons. I think a large percentage of it ranges from problematic to outright wrong. But some of it will probably eventually be classified as science (in some disciple or disciplines not yet named) and doesn't violate the biblical injunctions.
64
posted on
06/19/2003 3:01:37 PM PDT
by
dark_lord
(The Statue of Liberty now holds a baseball bat and she's yelling 'You want a piece of me?')
To: bedolido
"....performing an invocation on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland in an attempt to summon the Loch Ness Monster...." Think he was surprised when it didn't work?
65
posted on
06/19/2003 4:35:28 PM PDT
by
El Sordo
To: bedolido
Too bad it's drudic paganism.
I'm still hoping for an Olympian gods pagan revival.
HAIL ZEUS!
66
posted on
06/19/2003 6:53:08 PM PDT
by
TheAngryClam
(Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum/quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur)
To: what's up
It's pretty big, and it's pretty sad.
Potter at least is a fantasy story, as opposed to the left behind series, which is like trashy romance novels for the Christians- wish fulfillment.
67
posted on
06/19/2003 6:56:39 PM PDT
by
TheAngryClam
(Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum/quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur)
To: N3WBI3
I had a talk with a friend reently who is a pegan but called herself a christian because 'Jesus had some good ideas'. She does not even believe he is the son of God. She thinks having faith in something is enough and hate the idea that God not us has everything to do with salvation. I actually encountered a person on the Christianity Online message boards who described himself as a "Gay Christian Witch".
UNbelievable.
68
posted on
06/19/2003 6:59:54 PM PDT
by
Jorge
To: Dead Corpse
Actually, since Libertarians tend to be considered vaguely "right" in American politics, I think that real pagans actually tend to lean fairly in that direction.
Gary Copeland, the Libertarian candidate for governor here in Calfornia in 2002, was a druid, for example.
But get ready for the endless list of "you're going to burn in hell" posts. Interestingly, you can't be a heathen- you've heard of Jesus. The way it works is heathen = never heard of Jesus, going to hell. Infidel and/or Apostate = heard of Jesus, not Christian, going to hell. And then there's the heretics.
To: Billy_bob_bob
smells kind of like... jihad, Christian style.
To: ASA Vet
Well, it depends. Certainly, recognizeable today Hinduism is not nearly as old as the continuous tradition that has developed into the modern religion.
The Vedic texts, however, likely date back to at least the second millenium B.C.E.
To: CatoRenasci
roughly 630 B.C.E. to the conquest of Persia by Islamic armies to the seventh century C.E. - about a thousand years, give or take.
To: ASA Vet
You could be like the Romans... they dated their calendar "Ab urbe condita" - from the founding of the city. We're in the year MMDCCLVII AVC.
Or we could date from the founding of the United States- we'd be in the year 227 then.
To: TheAngryClam
Interestingly, you can't be a heathen- you've heard of Jesus. Depends on whose definitions you are using. Like M-W's for instance...
Main Entry: 2heathen
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural heathens or heathen
Date: before 12th century
1 : an unconverted member of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of the Bible
2 : an uncivilized or irreligious person
- hea·then·dom
Another anachronistic meaning was simply "people of the heath". Either way, you are talking about that REALLY Old Time Religion.
Some say Zeus, I say Odin. They say JHVH, someone else may say Ahura Mazdha.
Who can say any of us are wrong, and prove it?
74
posted on
06/19/2003 8:36:22 PM PDT
by
Dead Corpse
(For an Evil Super Genius, you aren't too bright are you?)
To: dark_lord
I don't need to "back away" from the obvious. Witchcraft is unacceptable to Christians for entertainment. What you need to do is spend some time with the Greek and Hebrew to see how strongly God condemns it. I recommend either Vines or the Strong Concordance. All you did was mock and highlight your Biblical ignorance.
75
posted on
06/19/2003 9:19:03 PM PDT
by
nmh
To: Pahuanui
"All I need to know about crashing, one-track bores is written in the bible!"
Care to elaborate on that? Chapter and verse? Or do you prefer to remain unhumorous commedian?
76
posted on
06/19/2003 9:24:58 PM PDT
by
nmh
To: TheAngryClam
My nephew, when 5, was enthusiastically gobbling up every book he could find, including those on Greek mythology (my own children weren't as intrigued by Greek myths). Anyhow, on a play date at a deeply evangelical home, he informed the child - "I don't believe in Jesus anymore, or his miracles - I have a new god, and his name is Zeus." Rather than dealing with it appropriately, his parents wigged out, and called my sister in law to get the child, and that he wasn't welcome any more.
I thought it was pretty funny.
To: Dead Corpse
"Don't you people even bother to read the whole damn book?"
Actually I was wondering that very question about you. Anyone that writes a reply like this:
"So, according to the Bible, will you burn me, stone me, or just slit my throat then defecate in my mouth? I've got a baby daughter coming, will you dash her brains out on the rocks? Or wait until she is of age then allow her to be raped to death?"
clearly doesn't read with comprehension or for that matter really read what is written. What you wrote is disgusting.
78
posted on
06/19/2003 9:27:31 PM PDT
by
nmh
To: bedolido
GO AHEAD CLICK 'EM BOTH
a u t o r e s p o n d e r
79
posted on
06/19/2003 9:58:26 PM PDT
by
autoresponder
(. . . . SOME CAN*T HANDLE THE TRUTH . . . THE NYT ESPECIALLY!)
To: Dead Corpse
I was breaking out the still-current Catholic definitions.
Fun stuff to read the parts that they don't like talking about.
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