Wicca is the fastest growing religion in the U.S.

[ttony21]

I always find it interesting when people convert to a pagan/neopagan religion like Wicca to an Abrahamic religion such as Christianity. I myself converted less than a year ago from Wicca. It took the the love of a very special girl to bring me to Christ; but it was Wicca that brought me to God in the first place. Pagan religions are actually a great stepping stone from atheism to begin to build a relationship with God. That said, it shouldn't be considered "alarming" that the religion is growing; especially considering they preach many of the same morals as Christianity. Of course it's evident from this thread that many Christians don't have a proper understanding of the religion. I blame the fact that there are many false (otherwise known as "fluffy") and young Wiccans who pervert a beautiful religion by focusing on the "magick" (love spells and the like). I'd rather Wicca be the third largest religion in America than Scientology. (to be fair, Scientologists have a strong belief in helping others, and many do this better than the majority of Christians.)

Besides, anyone who thinks Wicca is a legitimate threat to Christianity is being ridiculous. The real threats to Christianity are militant Christians like Fred Phelps and false Christians who have never read a word of the Bible or prayed.

[gringo300]

I always find it interesting when people convert to a pagan/neopagan religion like Wicca to an Abrahamic religion such as Christianity. I myself converted less than a year ago from Wicca. It took the the love of a very special girl to bring me to Christ; but it was Wicca that brought me to God in the first place. Pagan religions are actually a great stepping stone from atheism to begin to build a relationship with God. That said, it shouldn't be considered "alarming" that the religion is growing; especially considering they preach many of the same morals as Christianity. Of course it's evident from this thread that many Christians don't have a proper understanding of the religion. I blame the fact that there are many false (otherwise known as "fluffy") and young Wiccans who pervert a beautiful religion by focusing on the "magick" (love spells and the like). I'd rather Wicca be the third largest religion in America than Scientology. (to be fair, Scientologists have a strong belief in helping others, and many do this better than the majority of Christians.)

Besides, anyone who thinks Wicca is a legitimate threat to Christianity is being ridiculous. The real threats to Christianity are militant Christians like Fred Phelps and false Christians who have never read a word of the Bible or prayed.

I seriously doubt the creator of Scientology himself believed in the religion he created.

Of course, he CLAIMED he did.

If you create a religion and then tell the whole world, "I myself don't even believe in this.", how many converts are you going to get? If you got a single one, that person would not need to live on his or her own and would very seriously need to live in one of those group homes.

[X-Rez]

I was watching a program on tv that was speaking of these 3 teenagers that bound raped and killed 3, 8 yr old boys in memphis. I dint know the whole story, but i am not sure if it was some sort of ritual that lead to the murder. I do know that there was a full moon, the evening they did it. Ive actually met several online that are wiccans. I find that, most are not aware of how VISCIOUS and DANGEROUS Satan really is.

[Desperaux]

I always find it interesting when people convert to a pagan/neopagan religion like Wicca to an Abrahamic religion such as Christianity. I myself converted less than a year ago from Wicca. It took the the love of a very special girl to bring me to Christ; but it was Wicca that brought me to God in the first place. Pagan religions are actually a great stepping stone from atheism to begin to build a relationship with God. That said, it shouldn't be considered "alarming" that the religion is growing; especially considering they preach many of the same morals as Christianity. Of course it's evident from this thread that many Christians don't have a proper understanding of the religion. I blame the fact that there are many false (otherwise known as "fluffy") and young Wiccans who pervert a beautiful religion by focusing on the "magick" (love spells and the like). I'd rather Wicca be the third largest religion in America than Scientology. (to be fair, Scientologists have a strong belief in helping others, and many do this better than the majority of Christians.)

Besides, anyone who thinks Wicca is a legitimate threat to Christianity is being ridiculous. The real threats to Christianity are militant Christians like Fred Phelps and false Christians who have never read a word of the Bible or prayed.

Sorry, but paganism doesn't lead anyone to God. Instead, it provides a replacement for God in one's life. It is Holy Spirit Himself who leads people to God by revelation of Jesus Christ to an individual.

As far as Wicca as a threat, any idol is a threat to the proper relationship God wants with people!

You cannot downplay the effect of these pagan beliefs on people who claim to be Christians, for many are precariously nominal and can be led away so easily.

[gringo300]

I seriously doubt the creator of Scientology himself believed in the religion he created.

Of course, he CLAIMED he did.

If you create a religion and then tell the whole world, "I myself don't even believe in this.", how many converts are you going to get? If you got a single one, that person would not need to live on his or her own and would very seriously need to live in one of those group homes.

As I've said elsewhere, including in my blog, I no longer agree with what I said here.

I've done some more research on Scientology since I posted this, and I now lean more towards suspecting that L. Ron Hubbard DID believe in Scientology himself, or at least parts of it.

[the truth]

As I've said elsewhere, including in my blog, I no longer agree with what I said here.

I've done some more research on Scientology since I posted this, and I now lean more towards suspecting that L. Ron Hubbard DID believe in Scientology himself, or at least parts of it.

Do some searching on Hubbard and Aleister Crowley. Here are two links. I just found. I cannot endorse everything on the site as I am not familiar with them but it will give you a start. God bless. http://www.rickross.com/reference/sc.../scien467.html http://www.lermanet.com/scientology-and-occult/

[Free Indeed]

I am quite convinced that L. Ron Hubbard did not believe anything about Scientology.

The above poster mentioned the controversial English author and philosopher Aleister Crowley. It is perhaps worth mentioning in this regard that Crowley wrote a letter to his American student, Jack Parsons, warning Parsons to stay away from Hubbard, and describing Hubbard as a con artist. Parsons disregarded Crowley's warning, and Hubbard eventually left with Parsons' wife, boat, and money. Stupid is as stupid does.

[salesman]

Fear is nearly always the reaction to something we don't understand, and yet, there's danger in studying something like this for young or immature Christians. It doesn't help that movies and books make people on the "other side" appear to be so powerful and such. Then there's the truth that many of us don't know our own religion (the Bible) enough to debate it with non-believers, which is embarrassing, which usually leads to aggression.

To me this is where you hit the nail on the head! So many Christians do not have any training whatsoever in defending the faith that they believe will take them to heaven.

[Clavicula_Nox]

I am quite convinced that L. Ron Hubbard did not believe anything about Scientology.

The above poster mentioned the controversial English author and philosopher Aleister Crowley. It is perhaps worth mentioning in this regard that Crowley wrote a letter to his American student, Jack Parsons, warning Parsons to stay away from Hubbard, and describing Hubbard as a con artist. Parsons disregarded Crowley's warning, and Hubbard eventually left with Parsons' wife, boat, and money. Stupid is as stupid does.

And the guy was a mediocre science fiction author, to boot. Battlefield Earth? Garbage.

[Free Indeed]

And the guy was a mediocre science fiction author, to boot. Battlefield Earth? Garbage.

Yeah, the only thing worse than that book was the movie.

[gringo300]

Battlefield Earth (the book) and the Mission Earth book series are Scientology propaganda, plain and simple.

[Hannah]

I think that for some from a non-Christian background who are seeking a faith, this is a pretty natural direction to look to, particularly for women because of the reputation of witches as healers and people with some power.

If you have never felt any connection with Christianity, but you are aware of the history and traditions of where you live, then perhaps you look to the "original" religion, rather than Christianity. I suppose in the case of British people, or perhaps people anywhere with an Anglosaxon background, this would be Wicca. These religions are really practical and not very judgemental about peoples behaviour from what I know. It's not surprising that this appeals to people. There is an environmentalist aspect to it as well - preserve the balance of nature.

In the village were I went to school there was a site were Vikings used to carry out various rituals. A church had been built next to it as was the practice, but the church too had fallen into disuse and was literally a ruin. However, local people used to leave charms and flowers at the Viking site, just to pray about something or as a charm. Occassionally there was a candle there, or a little lantern. Not sure why.

Even though nobody in the village would have said they were pagans, I guess some related more to the Viking gods than to Christianity because they simply had not grown up as Christians but they had a lot of respect and knowledge of what the Vikings stood for, since it is taught in school more than Christianity.Viking faith is not so judgemental either, you don't have to believe anything that's hard to believe in order to be "saved" and the moral laws were not very tough either. It's the churchs mistake that they can't keep manage to keep people in church and tell them why it's not Ok from a Christian perspective to have anything to do with old faith. Or pick up seekers. Christianity at least in Europe has some rather horrid parts to its history and it's easy as a young person to think that the faith before Christianity is the real deal and must have been better, at least in those countries were people have a good idea what the pre-Christian faith actually was.

And anyway, I have read that the fastest growing religion is Islam, in the world, and Mormonism in the USA.
So I don't know how it could be Wicca. I have never met somebody who was Wiccan, only read an article about it in connection with summer solstice (Wiccans want access to Stonehenge and gather at other similar sites.)

[Bryan Durel]

I'm a bit shocked considering it encourages people to actively use 'magic'. As a Christian, I cannot encourage anyone practicing any form of it - whether it is white or black.

However, in Edison, we have a lot of Hindus and some Muslims. No Wiccans here in this part of New Jersey.

[jesse]

I love Wicca! Why you ask? Because it is based on even more flimsy stuff than Atheism!

"An it harm none, Do as ye wilt" is the core of Wicca.

Not to be confused with Alister Crowley's brand of Satanism "Do what thou wilt"

The whole idea of Wicca falls flat on its face because people historically have not had the intelligence or foresight to know what will harm someone. Did we know in the early days of Ford that the motorcar would cause pollution on such a large scale? Of course not. The whole religion is based on extreme near sightedness and sentiment.

[gringo300]

Alister Crowley's brand of Satanism

Thelema

It's one of the things Scientology is based on.