Posted on 05/04/2002 7:45:25 PM PDT by Tomalak
America was founded by Christian Puritans, who had a deep aversion to idolatry, popery, and magic. The hardships and dangers of their predicament made them cling to their religion as the one thing that justified the perilous pilgrimage to the New World. And from time to time they would tremble before the thought that paganism lay not only around them, but within, where it was all the more dangerous because hidden from view. So began the trials of suspected witches and the vigilant denunciations of neighbors that tore the New England communities apart.
Constant immigration has diversified the religious inheritance of the United States. Nevertheless the country remained until recently predominantly Christian, with a continuing aversion to pagan cults and superstitions, and a trust in the Bible as the common inheritance of the Judeo-Christian faiths. Indeed the United States has been held together more effectively by its Bible culture than by its Constitution: for the Bible has shaped the language, the morality, and the aspirations of ordinary Americans and provided them with a common frame of reference. American patriotism is scarcely thinkable without the Judeo-Christian God as its Almighty Guardian, and it is hardly surprising to find that the outlying communities in America-many of them suspicious of the Constitution as a weapon used against them by urban liberals-cling to the Bible as their most trusted guide. Debates over school prayer, over creationism and the curriculum, over abortion and sex education, are not, in America, the halfhearted affairs they are in Europe. On the contrary, they are at the center of politics since they affect the deep-down loyalty of many Americans to the settlement under which they live.
Strange things are now happening to this religious inheritance. The Christian churches have clung to their congregations, but often at the cost of dividing and subdividing into ever more marginal sects, each striving to accommodate the eccentricities of some obstinate community of believers. Almost none of the old denominations retains any centralized authority that can control the doctrine, liturgy, or membership of its peripheral congregations, while new cults and new services spring up everywhere, as dormant religious passions ignite like forest fires. In Europe we observe the slow, steady decline in faith, and the gradual disappearance of human hopes behind a cloud of skepticism. In America, however, every loss of faith is met by a gain, as new religious practices rise in the places vacated by the old. That this should be happening now, in the age of scientific inquiry, is testimony to the strength of American society, which finds new sources of hope beneath the never-ending stream of disappointment. Nevertheless, these sources of hope make less and less reference to the Bible and the Judeo-Christian tradition and are more and more pagan in tone. That which the Pilgrim fathers found most horrendous- witchcraft-is the latest, and one of the most successful, among the pagan cults now colonizing America.
Of course the witches-devotees of "Wicca," as they like to say-strenuously argue that their faith has been traduced in the past, that it is older and deeper and more spiritual than Christianity, and that it was branded as evil only because it was seen as a threat to the "patriarchal" culture. And by way of proving the point they have cobbled together a very up-to- date and user-friendly version of goddess-worship, which answers so well to the spiritual hunger of modern Americans as to cast serious doubt on its antiquity. Their basic principle-"Harm none and do what you will"-is the gospel of liberalism dressed up as law, rather than the lack of it; their "covens" are in many cases vamped-up feminist circles, devoted to boosting the confidence of women downtrodden by men, or at any rate by their own image of men; their symbols-the pentagram, the altar, the nine- inch daggers or "athames," the long robes, and the leaping over flames-may have ancient precedents, but they come to the Wiccans from 19th-century charlatans like Eliphas Levi and Aleister Crowley, men who cannily judged the spiritual hunger of the new middle classes and thereby notched up women by the score. Indeed, as Philip G. Davis has shown (Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neo-pagan Feminist Spirituality), the Wiccan theology is derived not from the old forms of goddess-worship, but from the writings of 19th-century commentators like Johann Jacob Bachofen, who invented the notion of a lost matriarchal past in a work that is now entirely discredited.
Feeding a hunger
Still, religion will survive any amount of skeptical scholarship, and the Wiccans are no exception. They offer the commodity for which modern Americans are hungry-the conversion experience, the transition from dark to light, lost to found, outsider to insider. In comparison with this redemptive gift, other things are of no account. The covens have been spreading through the suburbs; even the military now recognizes the Wiccans as a "minority religion," with the right to hold rituals and classes for serving personnel. Weak though their doctrines may be from any intellectual or historical perspective, they are a triumph of applied anthropology. Feminism, environmentalism, and liberalism all come together in a religion that recognizes the goddess as the object of worship, the priestess as her representative, and the earth and its seasons as the source of sacred rites.
It is tempting to regard the Wiccans in the same light as the other cults that have recently sprung up in America-the Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, the Moonies, the church of the notorious Rev. Jim Jones. There are, however, two important features that distinguish them. There is no leader or founder of the Wiccan cult; and there is no sacred text. Witchcraft is a religion without any structure of command and without any written law. True, there is an attempt to compensate in the use of antique and fustian language-"yclad," "mote," "hallowmas." But the religion recognizes no objective authority to which the worshipper must submit. On the contrary, it is a religion of "empowerment," to use the feminist word. Spells and brews, chants and talismans are all weapons in the hands of the individual Wiccan, who gains power over self and others through the manipulation of things. True, the Wiccan draws on mysterious cosmic forces; but the purpose of the spell and ritual is to join these forces to yourself-to amplify your own power and so achieve a kind of here-and-now redemption.
THE WICCAN'S POWERS
In this, at least, the Wiccans are close to the witches as they were once imagined. The witch was anathema to the Christian believer because she had arrogated to herself the powers that belong to the Almighty. Her spells were the antithesis of the sacred text-indeed, it was often thought that they consisted in reciting Biblical or liturgical texts backwards. For they were expressions of the individual will, rather than admonitions and counsels of a higher power. All the discipline of religion-which consists in obedience to the divine command and a day-to-day study of its meaning- was negated in the Puritan image of the witch, which is why witches were so greatly feared. They were the archetype of the liberated human being- the human being who had stepped free from the chains of morality and seized the world and its glories for herself.
For this very reason, however, witchcraft has a singular appeal to modern Americans, increasing numbers of whom are brought up without any knowledge of a sacred text and without the language and the concepts of the Judeo- Christian tradition. The idea that religion might be a matter of obedience and example strikes them as weird; the idea that it is a matter of the self and its empowerment connects immediately with the surrounding secular culture.
But why isn't feminism enough? Why the need for a Wiccan religion? What is added by religion that is absent from the politics of the group?
The answer is enchantment. Science has disenchanted the universe and deprived us of our place at its center. Human beings cannot live with this demoralized world. They need to see their environment as their tribal forebears saw it: as an enchanted place, which mysteriously returns our glance. The spell answers directly to this need, since it enables the witch to reanimate her universe. It gives supernatural power to a human being, and so rescues her from nature.
Rituals, spells, and incantations are deliberate defiances of reason. They place nonsense in the center of people's lives and ask them to unite in believing it. People on their own are nothing-victims of the natural world, and at the mercy of their own skepticism. People in a group, however, have a power that is more than the sum of their individual efforts. And the spell symbolizes this power. Alone you could not possibly believe in it, since alone you have only reason as your guide. Together, however, you can believe anything. In short, the Wiccans have rediscovered the phenomenon observed by the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep-the rite of passage, which purges the individual of his isolation and grants him membership in the tribe. The rite of passage works by summoning occult powers, by standing outside nature and against it, and by reassuring the individual that, absorbed into the community, he cannot be harmed.
And that is what is missing from modern life, and especially from life in the American city. The most important rite of passage in recent Western societies was marriage-the consecration before the community of a lifelong commitment. The collapse of marriage is not the result of feminism, but the cause of it. Without lasting marriages, women have no real guarantee of security, and no reason for trusting men. If men cannot be trusted, then women have to set up on their own. Feminism turns on the masculine realm and deconstructs it, representing it as a realm of lies, manipulation, and the brutal misuse of power. It thereby reassures women that they don't need men in any case. But it relies on rational arguments, sociological theories, and objective policies-so leaving the heart unconsoled. What is needed is a new form of membership, a new rite of passage, and a new lifelong commitment-hence a new form of nonsense. In other words, what is needed is witchcraft. This is surely why the Wiccans are expanding, even though they have neither a leader, nor a doctrine, nor a text.
On the other hand, a cult that spreads so quickly, and that has so little substance when it comes to answering the great metaphysical questions, is ripe for takeover by the real witches. Strong personalities like Aleister Crowley preyed on the vulnerable loners who had lost their religion but not their religious need, and who wanted to throw themselves beneath the juggernaut of some crushing ego. Modern America has seen the emergence of these leaders-Koresh and Jones being symptomatic. And it has discovered that their promise of a new life is also a death threat. For the moment, the Wiccans speak only of peace and love and finding oneself. But without a doctrine or a text to protect them, they may soon find themselves opening the door to the Devil. Those old Puritans were wrong about many things; but they were not entirely wrong about witchcraft.
Morality is completely independant of religion.
I offer, as example, Islam.
Oh, they mean those things. But since you are ignorant of history, and of the One True God who stands above history, you simply can't recognize where your line of thinking ultimately will lead you.
Until you answer the Lord's knock on your door, you won't understand either.
I'm going to bed now, but I'll pray for you, and for all my other FReeper friends here who haven't met him yet. Good night.
Then I take it that the above statement was made as both hyperbole and a visceral dislike for a person that appears to have done some research that neglected to get the facts from your friends?
Sorta like eating the chocolate cake, but not letting ya "lick the spoon"?? ;-)
BTW, IMO "outsiders" must respect who were the one and original founders of the ideal of America and it's Constitution, and thus its heritage -- for the most part, English Christians. Who's treated massive immigration better in the history of mankind?
What does this mean?
BTW, IMO "outsiders" must respect who were the one and original founders of the ideal of America and it's Constitution, and thus its heritage -- for the most part, English Christians. Who's treated massive immigration better in the history of mankind?
Well, to be fair, massive immigration was necessary to make the country function from the outset. It was empty after all. And the same English Christians who were very pro-immigration when we were nearly empty seem to be Pat Buchanan-ing on us now that we are pretty full.
If you genuinely believe that, then you must be a dualist (which I doubt you are) because, by logical extension, all bad things must flow from somewhere else, which would make Old Scratch co-equal with God. It's an interesting theological point to argue, but essentially irrelevant.
Societies that deny free speech and property rights, on the other hand, have long, indeed inevitable, records of despotism, decay and disintegration. Such is the demonstrable result of denying liberty. God makes a pleasant neighbor, but property rights make the neighborhood in the first place.
Wicca, or Druidism, is a religion which has practised human sacrifice in any society in which it has held power (the last one being Pictish Scotland). The reason people are leaving Christianity for Wicca is the same reason people are leaving Christianity for Scientology. which is generally that, like most people in the elite levels of society, they have no more knowledge of Christianity than you do, which is, as you have demonstrated, precious little.
Adams, Madison, Webster, a huge majority of the signees of the Declaration of Independence, and other "genuine" Christian forefathers seem to be conveniently ignored.
Nonetheless, while they all envisioned a nation of citizens respecting the faith of others, I can't imagine they imagined any Wiccan governors or town Elders. Ever.
As I said before, tough. The country was founded because of religious freedom.
Having it great isn't good enough, Utopia preferred of course...
"The same English Christians who were very pro-immigration when we were nearly empty seem to be Pat Buchanan-ing on us now that we are nearly full."
Yeah, yeah I know -- Pat Buchanan is a neo-Nazi as are all who "think" like him...Anyway your position apparently is to open the borders and invite every culturally and morally backwards, Third World immigrant who unilaterally decides settling in America is his God-given right?
Naaah -- don't think so.
Whether things are presently good for American Jews or not is not the point. I am pointing out that intolerance for (IMO) oddball religions such as Wicca or Paganism or even Islam means the door is open for intolerance for more and more religions, and history shows us that Judaism is eventually always in the crosshairs. That is my point, not the manufactured point that "Judaism is presently not tolerated."
Yeah, yeah I know -- Pat Buchanan is a neo-Nazi as are all who "think" like him...Anyway your position apparently is to open the borders and invite every culturally and morally backwards, Third World immigrant who unilaterally decides settling in America is his God-given right?
No. You are putting words in my mouth and I believe that is unsanitary.
Again, you are missing my point. You said that it was Christianity that made people tolerant of immigration. I refuted by saying it was a nearly empty country that made people tolerant of immigration, and if you look at modern-day Christians, such as yourself or Messr. Buchanan, you will see that many Christians no longer hold a pro-immigration view.
Thusly, I believe I have effectively refuted the assertion that religious persuasion played a role in tolerance of immigration.
Yeah, and who were these "founders" creating this "religious freedom"? Muslims? Wiccans? Buddhists? Jews?
You can't change history. Too bad...
It does not matter what they were. They were leaving for a higher purpose than the establishment of one particular religion. They were leaving for religious freedom, which is much more noble than leaving for one particular religion.
And I, for one, thank them for their noble purpose. I can practice my Judaism unmolested and freely, with no fear.
Why, they felt so strongly about religious freedom, that they wrote "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"
Too bad for you, that you can't change history.
Of course Wicca is a silly pseudo-religion, but it accords with feminism that has shaped American life over the last three decades. It may even pick up devotees. Western monotheisms have been getting a bad press lately, what with Middle Eastern terrorism and sex scandals at home.
This is a good example of morality being completely dependant on religion. A good religion leads to a state capable of civic virtue. An evil religion, which is what the Islamists have, has lead to all of the violence, cruelty, and corruption, not to mention lack of liberty, so pervasive in virtually all Islamic countries save Turkey, which has a secular state, and has suppressed the evil nature of the religious leaders.
Like Wicca, Islam seems to be based, in its mainline form, on sensuality, which is why they promise their 'heroes' virgins to be deflowered in paradise.
Closing lines of Men Without Chests:
Here and there you have one who seems positively proud to have not been reached, as if having eluded some debilitating disease. And while you offer to them charitable counter-argument, you are lacking Lewis' insights and counsel.
From Lewis' Miracles:
I wonder how many of these fools would think they're more brilliant than Isaac Newton, who in half self deprecation, half modesty, but all confidence, explained "If I have perhaps seen further than other men, it's because I've stood on the shoulders of giants." Some in our generation and the next see no need to be modest nor any need for self-skepticism. Sadly, not only ignoramuses are so easily misled.
As always, general, I commend your efforts. I wish I could imbue more useful knowledge at the snap of my figures. Alas, that must be incorporated, thru labor, by the one feeling the need to respond. "...but can't make him drink."
Peace.
Av
Some truths are self-evident.
If you genuinely believe that, then you must be a dualist (which I doubt you are) because, by logical extension, all bad things must flow from somewhere else, which would make Old Scratch co-equal with God. It's an interesting theological point to argue, but essentially irrelevant.
In this you are correct; I am no dualist. I'm not quite sure what the rest of your statement means. Perhaps I am slow of mind at 3 am, or perhaps you are being obtuse. I will leave that for others to judge.
Societies that deny free speech and property rights, on the other hand, have long, indeed inevitable, records of despotism, decay and disintegration. Such is the demonstrable result of denying liberty. God makes a pleasant neighbor, but property rights make the neighborhood in the first place.
Again, it is my contention that you are putting the cart before the horse. True freedom flows when the True God is trusted and relied upon. Those who willfully deny Him, and thrust him away, at the same moment thrust away all of His blessings...one of the first of which is freedom.
I will post one bit of scripture to back up this contention...a passage I believe to be utterly correct, and explanatory of much of the misery caused by unbelieving men, particularly in the past century:
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
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