There have been times throughout history when practicing one’s religion has been a form of protest. In this enlightened day and age of American freedoms, however, one would think there would be few, if any instances when religious practices would so much as raise an eyebrow — but there are yet some frontiers left in American freedom of religion.

Last year in Washington, D.C. a group of people assembled on the lawn of the Jefferson Memorial to peacefully practice their religion — a right some fear may not be guaranteed them by the Bill of Rights. These people standing in a circle in front of a famous monument in memory of one of America’s founders cause some Americans a bit of trouble, for they are modern-day Witches.

These Witches, or Wiccans as many prefer to be called, see their practice as in no way better or worse than any other. In fact, once centuries of disinformation have been stripped away, the religion of the Witches can be seen as similar in essence to many other religions that are not facing the difficulties modern Witches must continually face. Witches pray, meditate and follow a code of ethics, and while their names for these things might be different, nothing they do, propaganda aside, is worth the discrimination most Witches live with or hide from every day.

"I never told my religion, nor scrutinized that of another," said Jefferson in one of his writings. "I never attempted to make a convert, nor wished to change another's creed. I have judged of others' religion by their lives, for it is from our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read." It is this philosophy that the Witches in front of his Monument are fighting for, and they refer to his words often. At the opening of the ceremony, the High Priestess said, "we ... ask only that: To have our religion judged by how we live our lives, and not by the words of those who know nothing of us and see only the reflection of their own fear" (Military Pagan Network 2).

Meanwhile, George W. Bush, Senator Strom Thurmond and others are calling for military chaplains to stop accommodating modern Witches, calling them "irreligious" and comparing their practices to Satanic rituals (Leaming 1). These men believe that Witchcraft is not a matter of religion at all.

The U.S. Army, arguably one of the most conservative organizations in America, recognizes that Wicca is a legitimate religion, and military chaplains of all services are taught about the precepts and practices. It is part of a military chaplain's job to support the religious practices of all service members, to see that they get their holy days off, have proper food available if they have dietary restrictions, are allowed to wear symbols of their faith, and can meet and practice their faith without restriction or ridicule. This is what Bush and Thurmond oppose.

In the case of military Witches, their needs are few. They have no dietary restrictions, their religious symbols can be worn under their uniforms, their beliefs and practices tend to be fairly flexible and they have fewer holy days than many other religions. In fact, Wicca is a very simple religion, with generally only one universally accepted law: central to the religion is the rede, or Golden Rule of Wicca, "An it harm none, do what thou wilt," which is compared in one Army document to the basic ethical teachings of Christianity and Judaism (U.S. Army section 7). This is an obvious departure from the Inquisition-inspired tales of Witches sacrificing infants and cursing their neighbors — yet this ancient stigma is still something modern Witches must work constantly to overcome.

Presidential candidate, and supporter of the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public buildings, George W. Bush has said that he doesn't believe that Witchcraft is a religion at all. Joining his voice are Senator Bob Barr of Georgia and Senator Thurmond, who want the Department of Defense to stop treating Wicca and Witchcraft like any other religion in its ranks, despite a 1984 federal ruling that Wicca/Witchcraft is in fact a religion and protected under the First Amendment (Leaming 1).

On a Halloween episode of the TV talk show "The View" recently, a group of modern-day Witches performed a ceremony of blessing, in part to help show the world that modern Witchcraft is, in fact, a religion and a benign one at that. While they were on stage the audience and hosts asked thoughtful and respectful questions, and the segment seemed to clearly teach the truth, that Witches are more than a Halloween prop, but are instead a peaceful and nature-centered religion, objectively no better or worse than any other. One of the hostesses, after the Witches had left the stage, however, stated, "that just looks evil to me" — effectively negating everything the segment was about. When Wiccan viewers contacted the program to complain, she remained unapologetic. She said that as a Christian, she believes that Witchcraft is of the Devil, and she feels it her obligation to say so. If she had made such a comment about Buddhists or Hindus or Jews who had come on the show to demonstrate some rituals of their religion, she would not have had a job the following day.

Books, movies and TV shows, even ones that depict Witches in a favorable light often make it harder on real Witches to be accepted as normal people pursuing a harmless religion. Bewitched, Witches, The Wizard of Oz and Hocus Pocus, to name a few, all depict Witches not only as people with special powers, but as a different race of people, a different species. They refer to the rest of humanity as "mortals." Their "powers" are inborn, and not the result of study and meditation. The popular Harry Potter books even coin a new, somewhat insulting term for the normal people: "Muggles." And what Halloween costume party would be complete without a Halloween Witch, complete with pointy nose, green skin and warts and a black cloak and hat? Just as a basic comparison, look at these references and replace "Witch" with "Jew" or "Catholic," and see how acceptable even a favorable but unrealistic image in popular media would be. Could you imagine dressing up as a Jew or Catholic for Halloween in this day and age? No reasonable person would even attempt it.

Modern Wicca, or Witchcraft, is a revival of old mostly European pagan traditions, traditions often viciously suppressed by the Christian Church. In an amazing coup of propaganda, the Church borrowed the common horned gods of the forest, such as the Greek Pan or the Celtic Cernunnos, and made of them the Devil himself. This allowed them to attack all practitioners of the indigenous religion as followers of Satan. This framing of the old deity as the new Devil wasn't the only mean trick played to gain converts — it was also common practice to desecrate holy sites and to build churches on them, so that the people of that area would have to come to church because it was soon the only game in town. To make matters worse, any practices common to the old religions were decried as evil, from a positive attitude toward sex to using herbs and song for healing or visions. This is also the time when the church began to actively attack homosexuality and transgendered activity, as this was a common practice for certain shamanic religious leaders and considered divine by the pagans.

Just as author Ronald Takaki describes race and class as a social constructions used by the majority to maintain power (25-44), the Church created a picture of the practitioners of the old religion based more on their desire to discredit them in the worst way possible than on any real facts. Originally, since Christianity spread first in the towns, the stereotype was that followers of the old ways were uncultured rubes — in fact, both "pagan" and "heathen" translate simply as "country dweller" and "dweller on the heath," respectively. Interestingly, this is similar to the English characterization of the Irish, the Indians and the Africans first as "primitive" and "savage" and possibly teachable, and then "dangerous" and beyond redemption, and finally commencing a program of what can only be called ethnic cleansing and genocide in both Great Britain and America (Takaki 41).

Very soon the idea that Witchcraft was a religion at all was forgotten, and the image of someone in league with the Devil was the only one that remained in the public eye. Sure enough, once this trend had gotten far enough it became acceptable to kill these practitioners of the old religions, now known as Witches — or sometimes warlocks, literally "oathbreakers," a word modern Witches don't like to use. The fact that followers of the old religion, whether they ever used the term "Witch" or not, didn't believe in the Christian Devil any more than they believed in the Christian God or saints didn't make a bit of difference to their persecutors.

Later media picked up this trend, and while history looks on the deaths of the witch hunts of Europe and the Colonies with regret, it also seems to chuckle a bit condescendingly at the naiveté of those who actually believed that there were Witches. In the modern age of science, there can obviously be no such thing as a Witch. Of course, in a sense this is true — there is no such thing, and there has never been any such thing, as the fictional evildoer the Witch hunts thought they were pursuing.

All this time there have been midwives and herbalists and country dwellers who feel close to the Earth and remember how to plant by the moon, people who are moved by the stories of the old gods and the old festivals, and choose to dance the Maypole rather than wear a suit and sit still indoors every Sunday.

So these modern Witches, balancing between the public image of the demonic follower of Satan and the naive Halloween image of a fairy tale being in a tall, pointed hat, go about their lives, worshipping peacefully and privately, and, in close parallel with minorities of sexuality, cannot admit their true nature or express it in any way in public. Churches call them evil, media depict them falsely, and they can lose their jobs, children and respect (Leaming 1) — it is a very close parallel, and it is with wry humor that some modern Witches speak of "coming out of the broom closet."

There is only the First Amendment to protect the Witches from persecution, but as the examples of Bush and Thurmond point out, even our government leaders are not all in agreement over whether Witchcraft "counts," and seem to be unable to look at the issue without applying the judgment of their own religious belief systems.

Every day a Witch can see an unflattering or unrealistic caricature of practitioners of her faith, be the butt of jokes, have her faith called "evil" and "Satanic." Even in America today a woman can have her children taken from her, a teacher can lose his job, a small, privately-owned bookstore can be picketed and vandalized, all because of their religion. There is hope, and public opinion is beginning to change, slowly, as it always does, but Rev. Pat Robertson of The 700 Club said, in response to the Jefferson Monument demonstration, "I'm not worried about a little coven of Witches...Rather than suppress us all, we might give them freedom"(M.P.N. 1).

Leaming, Jeremy. "Senate Republican joins call to end military accommodation of Wicca" for First Amendment Center. <http://www.freedomforum.org/religion/1999/6/29barrwicca.asp> 6/29/99.

Military Pagan Network. "M.P.N. Creates Awareness In the Nation's Capitol," M.P.N. Press release 7/1/99. <http://www.witchvox.com/military/bb_mpn_dc990628.html> Last update: 9/9/00.

Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror. New York. Little, Brown and Company 1993.

U.S. Army. "Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups: Wicca" in the online edition of A Handbook for Chaplains under Command and General Staff College, US Army/ "Chaplain's Corner: Resources for Military Chaplains." <http://www-cgsc.army.mil/chap/relpractice/other/wicca.htm> Last updated 3/2/00.

September 20, 2000

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