Many question whether Wicca is even a religion. The various traditions of Wicca are allegedly part of the neopagan group of earth-based religions. This is quite a contrast to those who believe in the only person to rise from the dead. In fact, it’s the only religion where the followers actually admit that even though they won’t believe Christianity, they cannot disprove the historical reports.
The origins of Wicca come from Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant. It is widely believed than Wicca theology started around the 1920’s. It seems as though Wicca is a variety of witchcraft founded on religious and magical concepts.
The word Wica referred to adherents of the tradition of witchcraft. The word seems to be based on the Old English word Wicca. Wicca and its feminine form wice, are predecessors of the modern English witch.
In general, Wicca’s are ambiguous about an afterlife, believe in the possibility of reincarnation, reject heaven and hell, in monotheism or polytheism, that any deity is largely unknowable, the ability to cast magic and spells, and have personal rituals for themselves or their coven to recognize any ‘life’ passage or any combination thereof.
But benign is not a good description of Wicca. Their attacks on any form of Christianity seem to be a must. They insist on the equality of men and women and accept any sexual orientation, and possibly species variation. It’s amazing how gender equality has always been a mainstay of any Christianity, but Wicca plays up perceived differences. A Wicca can allegedly cast any ‘love’ spell at will.
They insist that all Christianity is male dominated. It’s interesting in Christianity the most powerful saint is a woman—the Virgin Mary. They believe Christianity has a negative and restrictive view of sexual behavior. Maybe they forgot God telling all the peoples to “Go out and be fruitful”.
They seem to view time as cyclical, but do not seem to conceive the concept of a ‘begotten’ God, while time is only a linear dimension for humans. Wicca seems to be an oral tradition, and rejects the Bible as a guide. They seem to be close to nature but have forgotten where nature comes from.
They think anyone can discover God on their own. One can do this by themselves, but how are they going to know what ‘interpretation’ is correct? Everyone knows that humans (by themselves) develop multiple interpretations of anything.
God is good, but He allows suffering because He allows a free will. They believe that the Bible is a loose translation of ancient myths, but almost every historic account verifies that Jesus existed and rose from the dead. And no Christian religion ever advocated slavery and the subjugation of women. You’ll have to look to Islam for that.
From Mark Shea/Jeff Cavins (Words of Encouragement): “Christianity is ultimately a religion of cosmic hope, even though it is necessarily bound by the nature of this fallen world to be a religion of soberness and anti-utopianism. Neopaganism is the eternal attempt to find ultimate hope and meaning in this world. It has a few short-term benefits immediate sensual gratification and so forth, but is, in the long term, a worldview afflicted by cosmic sadness since nobody gets out of here alive. Christianity, beyond the thin scrim of its crosses, fasts, and vigils, says that the basic nature of reality is ecstasy and that we are meant to eat, breathe, drink, sleep, live and bathe in it for all eternity.”
In this community, there seems to be a large number of Wicca’s present. We definitely need to pray for their souls. And whether they believe it or not, their souls are integral to the makeup of any Wicca.
Kevin Roeten can be reached at roetenks@charter.net or kevin@kevinroeten.us.