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.

[TheAngryClam]

That's pretty good.

And good for him.

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[TheAngryClam]

So you can read biblical Greek and Hebrew then?

Just wondering, there seem to be only a handful of Freepers who really know Latin like I do, and even fewer who know even Biblical, let alone Classical or Homeric, Greek.

[I_dmc]

Paganism as it is now known was founded in the 19th century and has nothing in common with the Druids. Wicca was founded in the 1900's by Gerald Gardner. Druid history dates back to the migration of the Indo-European speaking people in the 2nd millennium B.C. The reference to Stonehenge in this case in a misnomer. Several meanings are offered for the word Druid including: "a servant of truth" "all knowing or wise man" "an oak" or "equal in honor." Generally a Druid is considered one with gnosis or spiritual awareness. So, the builders of Stonehenge were gnostics, not pagans.

[I_dmc]

Most reference books list Hinduism as the oldest world religion. This is probably because Hinduism has the oldest recorded roots, which lie in Dravidianism. Dravidianism is estimated to have been practiced around 6,000 to 3,000 BCE and as such predates the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian cultures.

[Dajjal]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/videonation/leanne_makinson.shtml

		Film maker: Leanne Makinson Length: 3min 20.8secs Date: 6th May 2003 Subject: Wicca

Video 56k
You will need RealPlayer to view the videos
(The BBC is not responsible for the control of external websites)

Title: Wicca
Leanne, from Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent, is a Wiccan. But she insists it's not simply a teenage fad. Wicca is a power for good, she says, in much the same way as Buddhism and some other religions.

For more information on Wicca, click here

[bets]

85 - "Most reference books list Hinduism as the oldest world religion. This is probably because Hinduism has the oldest recorded roots, which lie in Dravidianism. Dravidianism is estimated to have been practiced around 6,000 to 3,000 BCE and as such predates the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian cultures."

Please identify this as a quote or reference - it was quoted directly from the following web site:
The Agnostice Witch
http://www.agnosticwitch.catcara.com/oldest-religion.htm

[tm22721]

Religion is just another form of politics especially the church which is just another socialist construct.

BUMP

[I_dmc]

My appologies. I was working and a little rushed.

[Dead Corpse]

clearly doesn't read with comprehension or for that matter really read what is written. What you wrote is disgusting.

What I wrote were things the good Christians should be doing to non-believers, pagans, witches, and those peoples whose lands are captured by God fearing Christian armies. Look it up for yourself...

[Dead Corpse]

Here are some starting points...

2 Kings 15:16
Hosea 13:16
Hosea 9:16 Genesis 19:24-25
Psalms 137:9
Deuteronomy 21:18-21
Exodus 21:17

There are MANY more instances...

[CatoRenasci]

I'm not really sure how old the real wicca religion lasted, and I would not count the alleged lated medieval and modern survivals as real survival. I've read Murray's The Witch Cult in Western Europe and The God of the Witches, and much later stuff, including Gerald Gardiner's stuff and a fair sampling of the modern wiccan literature, and I think scholarly opinion from folks whose scholarship I know from other areas (e.g. Norman Cohn) has now pretty firmly discredited Murray. I think the best guess is that the "old religion" lasted maybe 2000 years or so, which is reasonably long-lived. One has to question, however, how fully developed it was and how long it was really dominant. I just don't know. Interesting. My scholarly interests have moved into other directions these days. Cheers!

[ASA Vet]

So it appears the life expectancy of major supernaturalist belief systems is 2000-3500 years?

[CatoRenasci]

so it would seem from the historical record. unless, of course, one posits the truth of one over another. and there is the special case of Judism, still going with no sign of abating among at least a significant group of faithful.

[Domestic Church]

"Witches unhex Republicans":

http://www.wweek.com/flatfiles/News4031.lasso

[dark_lord]

Looks like you didn't bother to read what I posted beyond the 1st sentence.

[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?

Certainly, glad to.

The people who cite it ad nauseum with predictable frequently, who nevertheless cling to denotation and never bother to recognize connotation, have led me to review the texts they cite and come to said conclusion.

Good that I could clear this up for you.

[nmh]

"The people who cite it ad nauseum with predictable frequently, who nevertheless cling to denotation and never bother to recognize connotation, have led me to review the texts they cite and come to said conclusion."

Perfection says it best. Sorry He offends you. You ought totake His word to heart so that you wouldn't be such a malcontent. Christians receive comfort and peace from His word. Funny how it brings out the worst in you.

"Good that I could clear this up for you."

Couldn't be any plainer that you need Him in your wretched life. Hope you look into it soon.

[Pahuanui]

Perfection says it best. Sorry He offends you. You ought totake His word to heart so that you wouldn't be such a malcontent. Christians receive comfort and peace from His word. Funny how it brings out the worst in you.

You poor, dear little thing. You seem to have misread what I wrote. It's the people who cite the bible in the manner I described who are the crashing bores, not an individual mentioned in the bible. No one specifically in the bible has ever really bored me.

"Good that I could clear this up for you."

Couldn't be any plainer that you need Him in your wretched life. Hope you look into it soon.

I know what I need to know, friend. You, on the other hand, seem desperately to need Jesus and the peace he can bring a crashing bore like yourself.

Ask him into your life, friend. He might even make you interesting.

[Antoninus]

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.

Too little, too late. The churches in Britain are so weak and so decadent that they have 0 moral authority. They better gird up their loins and prepare for persecution. It's coming.

And we're not far behind. Lord, give us strength.