Religious conflicts - Wicca/Witchcraft
Part 1 of 2: Wiccans & military preparedness:
An analysis of a historical fundamentalist
Christian attack on Wicca.
Overview Circa the year 2000, Lt. Col. Robert L. Maginnis (U.S. Army, Ret.) wrote a
paper for the fundamentalist Christian group, the Family Research Council (FRC). 1,2 He is the director of their Military Readiness Project.
The paper seems to have been triggered by a boycott of
some conservative Christian groups against the U.S. Army. The FRC was initially organized by Focus on the Family, another
fundamentalist Christian organization, under the leadership of Gary Bauer, who was an unsuccessful
candidate for the presidency of the U.S. in the year 2000. The
paper concluded that the "Pentagon should withdraw recognition
of
Wicca for readiness reasons." Maginnis feels that certain religious rights of
Wiccans in the army should be terminated, because he views Wiccans as a threat to unit
cohesion, morale, and efficiency in the Army. The following is our interpretation of Maginnis' paper. Unfortunately, FRC has deleted it from their web site, so you can no longer read its entire text and get the full flavor of his
objections. 1 However, The Sacred Well Congregation also wrote a rebuttal to Maginnis' paper, which contains many direct quotations from his paper. Maginnis raised the following
points: Wicca is a valid religion:He recognizes that Wicca has been formally recognized as a valid
religion by the Army since 1996. He mentioned that many Wiccan groups have
been given tax exempt status. Unfortunately he did not mention that:
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The Army actually recognized Wicca much earlier. Since 1978,
various editions of its
chaplains' guide which deals with minority religions, have included a section on Wicca.
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Various U.S. courts have also recognized Wicca as a valid
religion (e.g. a 1988 decision by a U.S. district
court). |
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Wicca is a fringe religion receiving special benefits:He is concerned that, because of the recognition of Wicca, that
"any fringe religion will now have to be granted special
benefits by DOD." This statement appears to contain a number of errors:
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Wicca is not a fringe religion. Wiccans been active in the
U.S. for about 5 decades. Wiccans have taken part in many inter-faith
conferences, such as the World's Parliament of Religions. They have
hundreds of thousands of members in the U.S.
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Each religion that asks to be recognized by the US military
is not automatically accepted. Religions are considered on their own merits, and must meet military requirements. For
example, the Wiccans at Ft. Hood TX had to agree to requirements governing
ritual clothing and restrictions on the use of their ritual athames before they were accepted by
the DOD.
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Wiccans and other minority religions have not been "granted
special benefits." They have merely been allowed to use base
facilities for their rituals. It is the larger religions which have been
granted special privileges. For example, the military hires chaplains,
provides office support, and usually provides an on-base religious meeting
place for its Christian, Jewish and often Muslim soldiers. |
Even if the DOD spent the hundreds of thousands of dollars
necessary to hire Wiccan priests and priestesses to act as
army chaplains, the Army would not be giving special privileges to Wiccans; they
would only be giving the standard privileges that Christians, Jews and Muslims
have enjoyed for years. Concern over military readiness:He is concerned that if the Army allows Wiccans to hold their
services on-base, then non-Wiccan soldiers' "readiness factors such as
military values, adherence to norms, willingness to kill, and recruitment
and retention..." will be undermined. This is because he believes that most soldiers
regard "witchcraft as an abomination." |
Diversity: It is quite possible to maintain an army
that is totally male, totally white, totally heterosexual and totally
monotheistic. However, in its wisdom, the U.S. army became integrated decades ago:
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They have allowed women into an
increasing range of assignments.
- At the time that this essay was originally written, they did not reject gay and lesbian service members who
stayed "in the closet." Since then, they have repealed their "Don't ask, don't tell" policy and have allowed members of the LGBT community to be open with their sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Finally, they are now formally recognizing small
minority religions.
At each step of the way, doomsayers raised the specter
of damaged military preparedness. History has shown their concerns to be
without merit. Armies are sometimes directed at peace
keeping. A force that is racially, sexually and religiously diverse sends a
powerful message to the people being helped.
| | Monotheism: Maginnis apparently wants to add a new religious requirement for joining the U.S. army:
the belief in monotheism. This would exclude Agnostics, Atheists,
Buddhists, Ethical Culturalists, Hindus, Humanists, Wiccans and other Neo-pagan faith groups, and followers of Native American spirituality from serving. Of all of the large religions
in America:
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Muslims and Jews are the only large religions in U.S.
society that believe in a God who is a single entity, indivisible.
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Christians are generally Trinitarian. They follow a
type of monotheism that is quite different from that found in Islam and Judaism: they
believe in a single God formed of three separate persons: a
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some even have a pantheons of supernatural
entities to whom their members pray, including the Trinity, the Virgin
Mary, and
hundreds of saints.
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Wiccans hold a belief that is very similar to that of
Christianity. They are generally Binitarian - many follow a form of
monotheism: they believe in a single deity who has two aspects: a female
Goddess and a male God. |
| | Religious intolerance: He implies that religious
intolerance by Christians and Jews towards Wiccans is a valid reason for
eliminating Wiccans from the armed forces.
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There remains even today in the armed forces some racial
bigotry. But the DOD chooses to fight this by teaching and requiring
tolerance, rather than allowing discrimination against minority races.
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Some degree of sexism remains. Again, the DOD teaches tolerance
rather than expel female soldiers.
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There will always be religious bigotry intolerance, and
hatred. But the DOD is teaching acceptance and cooperation. Their only other option is
to expel, or limit
the religious rights, of followers of minority religions. And this is
clearly unconstitutional. |
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Confusing Wicca and Witchcraft:
He implies that Wicca
is not only un-Christian and un-Judaic, but is a "direct affront"
to those religions. He links Wicca in America with biblical texts that condemn
"Witchcraft" and "Sorcery." | Even if modern-day Wicca were similar to the practices
translated as "Witchcraft" and "Sorcery"
in some English translations of the Bible, the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that the government and
its agencies not discriminate against religious groups.
| | Although various English translations of the Bible do
condemn Witchcraft, these references clearly have nothing to
do with Wicca:
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The term "Wiccan"
is well defined. It refers to a follower of a NeoPagan religion, who is specifically required to follow the Wiccan Rede 3 and
do no harm to others. The terms "Witch"
and "Witchcraft"
in English are hopelessly ambiguous. They have so many mutually conflicting meanings that they should never be
used in essays, reports -- and particularly in English translations
of the Bible.
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In order to understand what the Exodus 22:18 and Deuteronomy 18:10-11 really mean, it is necessary to
consult the original Hebrew. The passages condemn the activities of "m'khaseph." They were
evil female sorcerers who used spoken spells to harm
others. Wiccans are specifically prohibited from hurting others by their
Wiccan Rede.
Similarly Galatians 5:19 is often translated as
condemning sorcery and/or witchcraft. The original Greek word here is pharmakia from which the English
word "pharmacy" is derived. It refers to the practice of
preparing poisonous potions to harm or kill others. Again, Wiccans
are prohibited from following this or any other practices that harms
people. The Bible clearly condemns evil sorcerers, not benign
Wiccans. |
| | Maginnis writes that "Witchcraft, also known as Wicca, the craft, or the
craft of the wise,
is a religion." He is correct in stating that Wicca is often called
"the craft," and "the craft of the wise."
But "Witchcraft" is in no way a synonym for
"Wicca." The terms "Witch" and "Witchcraft"
have been used to refer to African native healers; evil sorcerers;
Satanists; very beautiful women; very ugly women; a person who searches
for water; a follower of syncretistic Caribbean religions such as Santeria, Vodun; a male magician; a wife who is not
submissive to her husband; and a person who is an expert in their field. Many Wiccans
avoid associating the term "Witchcraft" with their religion because of the mass
confusion that it causes. Others wish to retain the term because to
abandon it would be disrespectful for the innocent people slaughtered by
the Christian church centuries ago during the Burning Times. We feel that writers should
avoid the term, unless they wish to project hatred, misunderstanding
and intolerance.
| | The phrase: "A witch holds pagan beliefs, but not all pagans
are witches." is, by itself, meaningless. That is because the term
"witch" has so many mutually contradictory meanings.
The statement "A Wiccan holds Neopagan beliefs, but not all
Neopagans are Wiccans" is valid.
| | Maginnis makes the common Christian error of equating
Wicca with Druidism and other Neopagan religions. The term
"Neopagan" describes a class of religions; it is similar to
the term "Eastern religions." Within Neopaganism is a number
of different religions, including Asatru, Druidism,
and Wicca. Within Wicca are a number of
traditions, which resemble the denominations of Christianity. |
 Background of Wicca
Maginnis correctly describes the origin and some of the basic beliefs of
Wiccans. Wiccans do stress the importance of the feminine in society. Most
are accepting of persons of all sexual orientations. Many feminists have
indeed been attracted to Wicca because it lacks the patriarchal beliefs of
most monotheistic religions.
He quotes Probe Ministries, a counter-cult
group which is opposed to new or small religious movements which differ from
historical Christianity. They state:
"The rise of the goddess is a
direct assault on the patriarchal foundation of Christianity."
Probe
Ministries seems to confuse religions which are un-Christian with
religions that are anti-Christian. Most Wiccans view women and men as
equals. This is unlike the status of women as described
in much of the Bible. However, Wicca is no more of an "assault
on...Christianity" than are liberal and mainline Protestant Christians, who also
have non-sexist policies and beliefs. References used:
The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.
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R. L. Maginnis, "Brewing up trouble: Wicca and the
U.S. Military," Family Research Council, at: http://www.frc.org/ The article is no longer available on their web site.
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David L. Oringderff,"Wiccans and the Military: Often caught in the middle," Sacred Well Congregation, 2000, at: http://www.sacredwell.org/
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The term "Wiccan Rede" is sometimes used to refer to the short
phrase which defines Wicca's main rule of behavior. Other times it is used to
refer to a poem which includes the behavior rule and the Threefold Law.
Copyright © 1996 to 2015 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2015-JUL-29
Author: B.A. Robinson
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