I’m So Snide

Oh Catherine Sanders. How far we have traveled you and I. First I was skeptical of your book “Wicca’s Charm”, so you fairly challenged me to review it, I dug right in and did just that, I waited for your response, but then you never called! You never wrote! Soon people were talking about our split, and now I hear you have been saying things about me to your friends!

Lopez: Have you gotten any Wiccan reaction to your book? Any curses put on you?

Sanders: No curses that I know of! Several Wiccans have said that I did a good job describing Wicca, but that because I was not a Wiccan, I could never fully understand it, which is fair. One recommended my book be required reading for clergies and seminaries! Several Wiccans and pagans simply attacked me on various blogs when it was evident to me as the author they had not read the book, which was irritating and somewhat mean-spirited, I thought. One blogger made several snide comments without having read it either so I asked him to read the book before commenting on it. He reviewed it and disagrees with my beliefs as a Christian, but I was glad he and other Wiccans have read it.

Catherine, you got it all wrong, I don’t disagree with your beliefs as a Christian, I disagree with your shoddy historical work and veiled triumphalism. But don’t let your anger at me, make you portray Wiccans as supporters of Osama Bin Laden to your conservative friends.

“I did quite a few of my interviews with Wiccans right after 9/11 and was surprised when several told me we had no right to condemn Osama Bin Laden for his and Al Qaeda’s beliefs and actions. When I asked them what they would have done after 9/11 if they had been president, they shrugged and said that well they weren’t, so it wasn’t their problem. So, I didn’t meet many aspiring to the job. If they did run for president, I don’t think most Americans would go for it. But since Wicca was indeed declared a religion [by a U.S. court] in 1986, you never know!”

Do those “quite a few” represent us as a whole (how many is quite a few)? Does Pat Robertson and his ilk represent the mainstream of Christianity? I would say that most of the Pagans, Heathens, and Wiccans on my blogroll think Osama Bin Laden is a pretty bad guy and that America should go after him. Heck a decent proportion of my Pagan blogroll are military, former military, or consider themselves conservative in one fashion or another. I can’t see them being so ambivalent about Osama. Ending the interview like that was cheap, and shows again that the dialogue you crave comes at the expense of selling your product.

Tags: Neopaganism