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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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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.
1
posted on
06/19/2003 7:23:10 AM PDT
by
bedolido
To: bedolido
Britain has such a fantastic cultural legacy.
Too bad that currently Britains #1 cultural contribution is a witchcraft novel for kids.
2
posted on
06/19/2003 7:26:47 AM PDT
by
what's up
To: bedolido
Paganism has been rising in the UK since the 1950s, Hutton said. Its 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.
3
posted on
06/19/2003 7:27:13 AM PDT
by
wimpycat
(Another great tagline coming soon! Brought to you by Acme Builders....)
Comment #4 Removed by Moderator
To: rglencheek
Well, irrelevance is eventually what happens with any state religion.
5
posted on
06/19/2003 7:59:02 AM PDT
by
CatoRenasci
(Ceterum Censeo [Gallia][Germania][Arabia] Esse Delendam --- Select One or More as needed)
Comment #6 Removed by Moderator
To: bedolido
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. "
7
posted on
06/19/2003 8:09:53 AM PDT
by
Oztrich Boy
("We've got important work here. A lot of filing, giving things names.")
To: N3WBI3
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.
8
posted on
06/19/2003 8:11:17 AM PDT
by
what's up
To: what's up
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.
9
posted on
06/19/2003 8:13:22 AM PDT
by
js1138
To: bedolido
SITREP
To: bedolido
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.
11
posted on
06/19/2003 8:22:37 AM PDT
by
nmh
To: nmh
...In fact they routinely visciously defend reading such dark trash.Agree... so sad.
12
posted on
06/19/2003 8:24:25 AM PDT
by
bedolido
(please let my post be on an even number... small even/odd phobia here)
To: nmh
To fight evil one must recognize it. Think of it as paladin educational services.
13
posted on
06/19/2003 8:30:37 AM PDT
by
dark_lord
(The Statue of Liberty now holds a baseball bat and she's yelling 'You want a piece of me?')
To: nmh
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.
14
posted on
06/19/2003 8:34:32 AM PDT
by
LanPB01
To: js1138
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.
To: LanPB01
work hard and do their best to overcome obstacles By chanting spells? LOL. Yeah, that's much better.
To: what's up
They go to school and learn how to use those spells. They train. These books are not a problem.
17
posted on
06/19/2003 8:42:06 AM PDT
by
LanPB01
To: LanPB01
Conservative writers I enjoy include Ayn Rand, No wonder you like witchcraft -- anarchy !
18
posted on
06/19/2003 8:47:14 AM PDT
by
f.Christian
(( I'm going to rechristen evolution, in honor of f.Christian, "shlockology"... HumanaeVitae ))
To: LanPB01
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.
To: what's up
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.
20
posted on
06/19/2003 8:49:39 AM PDT
by
js1138
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