They should buy these kids the Malleus Maleficarum
Posted on 11/02/2001 9:55:30 AM PST by Chuckmorse
Freeptard!
by James Clement Taylor
I am a Christian and not a Wiccan. A Christian is one who has been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Both of these things are true of me. I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, a member of St. Mary's Eastern Orthodox Church, Calhan, Colorado. In this paper, I am not speaking as agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility, speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are supposed to do.
A Situation of Strife and Shame:
There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell. Any decent person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people from this fate as possible. But is this belief correct? Jesus Christ, having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan, proclaimed:
"Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12)
If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will contain many who are! Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to judge others:
"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2)
"But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13)
"Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be for- given." (Luke 6:36-38)
Is it not clear? Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself a Christian save him? Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being un-baptized condemn him? Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) In addition to these words from the Gospel, let us look at the words of Micah the Prophet, centuries earlier, who wrote:
He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:6-8)
Where, in any of this, does it say what doctrines one is to believe, or whose teachings concerning reality one must accept? All these things speak on how one ACTS, how one lives one's life, the kind of person one's actions gradually bring into being.
Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which alone can save us. But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either. The faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor faith that we have the right theology and / or belong to the right church. Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy:
"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy." (Romans 9:16)
But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God. Yet by their own theology, they certainly do. Those who call them "Satan worshippers" are entirely wrong. They do not worship Satan, or even believe that Satan exists. Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity. Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it should: In the Bible we find the following:
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, 'Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form of a Goddess and a God. Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!
For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John has given us the method for doing this. You have only to attend any public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see "whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).
You will find that, while you may perceive the power manifested there as less than what you have experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly the power of God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been terribly slandered by us. They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which they do not. We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)
Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins.
If you're not wearing a tin foil hat check out the Metallica one about three quarters of the way down for a good laugh.
As to the article which started the thread, as I pointed out in another forum (not on FR) recently, there is a strain of protestant piety which fails to recognize the human capacity for imagination as part of our creation in the image of God, the Creator. The original poster should read Tolkien and Lewis's apologias for writing fantasy novels, and indeed the story of Lewis' conversion from mere theism to Christianity, and then consider the fact he overlooks about the Harry Potter stories: they are set in a world like unto our own, but where a particular class of peculiar people have access to actual, effective magic. Wicca posits that all people have access to actual, effective magic, though their "spells" are more like prayers than the spells of fantasy literature or the fervid imagination of witch-hunting puritans or animists. Unless one is deluded into believing one is an incipient wizard (in which case, why haven't you been hauled off to the North American equivalent of Hogwarts?) Harry Potter books are no more of an invitation to attempt sorcery than are the writings of the Inklings.
The article at hand, though, is interesting to me because as an Orthodox Christian, I have great compassion for those who have strayed from the Christian Truth as a result of (quite sensibly) rejecting the Augustinian distortion of the Gospel prevalent in Western Christian confessions. Most Wiccans grew up protestant or Roman Catholic, and have fled from the "God" who threatens capital punishment for arbitrary transgressions, and then to top it off punished children and great, great,...., great grandchildren for their ancestors trangressions; who demands adherence to a seemingly arbitary collection of propositions as the price for letting one off from infinite punishment for something one did not even do.
As an Orthodox, who sees God's warning to Adam and Eve (and all the negative "thou shalt not..." moral commandments since) as analogous to warning labels on bottles of poison, and who knows that Christ saves us be uniting human nature to the divine nature, and destroying death (not appeasing the infinite wrath of the Father by a barbarous blood sacrifice), that faith in Christ consists not in assent to some collection of dogma, but in following Him and His commandments to lay hold of His uniting of our nature to God's and His conquest of death, and that salvation is not being let off from punishment, but being united to God, being indeed deified, I have great sympathy for both Wiccans and freethinkers who hate the false vision of God and Christ presented by Western confessions which regard Augustine as the Father of all Church Fathers (many of which don't even know that is what they do). It is perhaps the greatest triumph the Evil One has wrough in his rear-guard action against his defeat wrought on Golgotha, that he has convinced so many that Christianity is this false vision, and not the True Gospel as preserved and taught down the ages by the Holy Orthodox Church.
where he learns how to use witchcraft equipment, work with demon spirits, and use words such as “Azkaban,” “Circe,” “Draco,” “Erised,” “Hermes,” and “Slytherin.” These are Wicca names for devils and demons. The arch villain “Voldemort,” is described as “He who must not be named,” the same description Wicca uses for their seventh of seven satanic princes, who represents Christianity.
Errrm.
Look, I've been a practicing Wiccan for 9 years and I don't recognise a single thing posted in that article.
Not one.
There are no 'seven satanic princes', no 'devil and demon names'. These things are not part of Wicca.
This article is, quite simply put, a slanderous, despicable lie.
Sound of Satanic maniac laughing
Cheers Tony
What I really can't stand about these fundamentalists is that they're always telling me what I believe (seven satanic princes, names of demons for crying out loud) and never, ever listen when told that they're talking rubbish. Their usual reaction is 'well, you would say that'.
And, like many of her school friends, Ashley was captivated enough by the strange occult doings at the Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry to pursue the Left-Hand Path, determined to become as adept at the black arts as Harry and his pals.
"I used to believe in what they taught us at Sunday School," said Ashley, conjuring up an ancient spell to summon Cerebus, the three-headed hound of hell. "But the Harry Potter books showed me that magic is real, something I can learn and use right now, and that the Bible is nothing but boring lies."
Ashley is hardly the only child rejecting God these days. Weeks after the release of Goblet, the fourth book in J.K. Rowling's blockbuster kid-lit series, interest in witchcraft continues to skyrocket among children. Across America, Satanic temples are filling to the rafters with youngsters clamoring for instruction in summoning and conjuring.
Over protests from Christian Right leaders, who oppose the books for containing magic—and, by extension, Satanic religious beliefs—millions of children are willing their bodies and souls to Lucifer in unholy blood covenants. In 1995, it was estimated that some 100,000 Americans, mostly adults, were involved in devil-worship groups. Today, more than 14 million children alone belong to the Church of Satan, thanks largely to the unassuming boy wizard from 4 Privet Drive.
"The Harry Potter books are cool, 'cause they teach you all about magic and how you can use it to control people and get revenge on your enemies," said Hartland, WI, 10-year-old Craig Nowell, a recent convert to the New Satanic Order Of The Black Circle. "I want to learn the Cruciatus Curse, to make my muggle science teacher suffer for giving me a D."
"Hermione is my favorite, because she's smart and has a kitty," said 6-year-old Jessica Lehman of Easley, SC. "Jesus died because He was weak and stupid."
But as wild as children are about Harry, no one is happier about the phenomenon than old-school Satanists, who were struggling to recruit new members prior to the publication of the first Potter book in 1997.
"Harry is an absolute godsend to our cause," said High Priest Egan of the First Church Of Satan in Salem, MA. "An organization like ours thrives on new blood—no pun intended—and we've had more applicants than we can handle lately. And, of course, practically all of them are virgins, which is gravy."
With membership in Satanic temples reaching critical mass in some areas, many children have been forced to start their own organizations to worship the Lord Of Lies. Houston 11-year-old Bradley Winters, who purchased Goblet Of Fire with his own allowance money at the stroke of midnight on July 8, organized his own club, Potterites To Destroy Jesus, with his neighborhood pals. An admission fee of $6.66 grants membership to any applicant willing to curse the name of God and have a lightning bolt carved into his or her forehead with an iron dagger.
"The Harry Potter books are awesome!" Winters said. "When I grow up, I'm going to learn Necromancy and summon greater demons to Earth."
It's more than just the kiddie set and Satanists, however, who are rejoicing over Harry's success. Educators nationwide are praising the books for getting children excited about reading.
"It's almost impossible to find a book that can compete with those PlayStation games, but Harry Potter has done it," said Gulfport (MS) Middle School principal Frank Grieg. "I have this one student in the fifth grade who'd never read a book before in his life. Now he's read Sorcerer's Stone, Prisoner Of Azkaban, Chamber Of Secrets, Goblet Of Fire, The Seven Scrolls Of The Black Rose, The Necronomicon, The Satanic Bible, The Origin Of Species—you name it."
Less pleased are Christian leaders, who see Pottermania as a serious threat to their way of life.
"Children are very impressionable," said Dr. Andrea Collins of Focus On Faith, a Denver-based Christian think-tank and advocacy group. "These books do not merely depict one or two uses of magic spells or crystal balls. We're talking about hundreds of occult invocations. The natural, intuitive leap from reading a Harry Potter book to turning against God and worshipping Satan is very easy for a child to make, as the numbers have shown."
But such protests are falling on largely deaf ears, especially in the case of Harry's creator.
"I think it's absolute rubbish to protest children's books on the grounds that they are luring children to Satan," Rowling told a London Times reporter in a July 17 interview. "People should be praising them for that! These books guide children to an understanding that the weak, idiotic Son Of God is a living hoax who will be humiliated when the rain of fire comes, and will suck the greasy cock of the Dark Lord while we, his faithful servants, laugh and cavort in victory."
They should buy these kids the Malleus Maleficarum
Good thing Hitlery can't read...uh.....oh
Snigger I think it is one of there best yet, its good to inject little humour into the debate.
Tony
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