Dear tootles (is that really your name?),

Most people who "practice" Wiccie are peaceful, because they don't really believe any of it. It is far too stupid for anyone to actually believe in.

I certainly hope that someone has spilled blood in the name of Christianity. There are situations that call for it.

You are freaking insane!!! Yes Wicca (as well as ALL organized religion) may have began as one thing but if you look at the basis for current Wiccan studies you will find that those who practice Wicca are very peaceful. Do you seriously think that noone has ever spilled blood in the name of Christianity! Blah!

Yawn, Laura, you are really tedious. Since most of your little screed is nothing more than emotional yapping, I am only going to point out one little thing:

You mention that people should "respect life itself" so that we would not need "all fo this religious mumbo jumbo." Of course, you realize that without the guidance of the Holy Catholic Church, there would be almost no voice for the respect of life itself, don't you?

St. Louis the King understood how you people should be debated. He was right.

Logic? There is no logic in anything you say.

Have you read the history of your religion? If you think it is lilly white and innocent you obviously have not.

If more people respected themselves, others, and life itself we would not need all of this religious mumbo jumbo.

It would be nice to see all religious people hold themselves responsible for their accomplishments and failings.

Sad, you are so judgemental when your own religion tells you that is a sin...but like all self-righteous religious people, you live by that double standard and defend it until the end.

It is no wonder this world is so full of hate and what you call "evil".

Sorry, I don't do apologetics, Publius. But you seem to have several problems in your thinking. First and foremost is your disdain for interpretation. You should know that the Catholic position is that Scripture and Sacred Tradition (interpretation) have equal footing. Canonical sources are simply that: sources. Without the guidance of the Church you have nothing.

Second, logic and faith are neither at odds nor occupy different realms.

Beyond this, I will not go in this forum. You can find plenty of apologists who will go on with glee. I am not one of them. I probably should be, but arguing against a million self-declared popes is not my cup of tea. Your little pop-psychology bit does nothing to better your cause, by the way. It is tedious, unfounded, and little more than cliche.

What amazes me about the OP is his insistence upon the use of logic to sift through available information; and from the employment of said data and rationale would come to the conclusion that it is from the Catholic Church that truth stems.
Religion by definition requires faith which is devoid of logic.
Moreover, the primary data source from which the Catholic Church is based is the Bible in it's countless iterations (Strange that "truth" would flow from a multitude of differently interpreted texts, many of which can be regarded as official canonical sources for the Catholic sect of Christianity.) which does not differ too greatly from the same superstitious models represented by tarot or D&D or Wicca or whatever other faiths one takes on to relieve the burden of the human condition.
To believe the Bible as truth is no more valid than to believe in leprechauns or unicorns.
The Bible is a trove of fantastical events, creatures and places, there are/is : sorcerers, fortune tellers, soothsayers, monsters, mystical lands, contradictions, magical spells, horned demons, lakes of fire, giant worms, resurrections, flying, animal charming, goat herding, fairies, whale spelunkers, polymorphoses, prancing maidens etc.
One could always argue that these (fairy) tales are not to be taken literally but instead serve as parables from which to glean wisdom and/or "God's word", but doesn't that then necessitate interpretation?
How does truth flow from a text requiring interpretation?
Who's interpretation is the truth?
Couldn't I then interpret the maxim "Harm none." as identical to "Turn the other cheek."?
Relativism has its faults, I agree, but nothing has been more destructive to logic, reason, compassion and morality than zealotry.
You have faith in the Catholic Church, that's swell, but you show yourself a neophyte to logic by attempting to justify your faith with its use.
Why not just say: I believe in Catholicism because
I believe there is truth to its message that inspires within me a faith beyond that which reason can explain.
Generally, I have found that the more tenaciously one defends the "truth" of their beliefs and berates others for differing, the more tenuous the grasp they have upon their own faith. Sometimes this occurs instead of, or in concert with, a tragic and predatory need to belittle others as a temporary means of keeping insecurities at bay.

Wow, this comment might win the award for general idiocy. Congratulations!

Whoever writes this blog is so ignorant it makes me want to cry.

The author is right.

Wicca is the religion of the Satan and the grandmother is planning to kill, cook and devour the child to be born (remember Hans and Gretel?)

I should know

with brotherly greetings

The Horned One, Father of Lies

Oh boy, another day, another dingaling.

You seem to have no problem with her advising that Wicca is a wonderful thing. And by your vitriol that anyone would dare to criticise the received wisdom of acceptance, you are the one suffering from excess pathos.

Why don't you people who write these idiotic comments just start with a little basic logic and grammar, so that you have the tools to start thinking about and correctly expressing your "thoughts"?

So, let me get this straight. You want a Jewish woman to tell the the writer that she needs to stand by the Catholic faith? Sure. No problem.

You are another pathetic example of how religion poisons everything.

Jess,

In other words, what you mean is "whatever is fashionable." You really are quite credulous if you believe all the crap you read (and, yes, I have read all that garbage, too, but use critical thinking to see it as what it is: fantasy and delayed adolescence). You need to filter all of that "information" to see that Wicca is not some ancient wisdom, but a strange amalgamation of mythologies, ripped from their original contexts and stitched together into a bizarre spoof of real religion.

Let me ask you something: You seem to have all sorts of ideas about various gods and godesses. How was this stuff revealed to you? Or to your authorities (which you must recognize, seeing as how you regard books and articles, etc. about Wicca)?

"Harm none" is a fine thing, for instance, to tell a five year old. However, the world is much more complex than that. Are there Wiccan philosophers who have outlined, as an example, the concept of double effect? Does it harm no one to believe that fantasy is truth?

What you think is a daring repudiation of the forces of intolerance is nothing more than a wholesale assimilation of very mainstream Liberal dogmas of tolerance, which tend to be fundamentalist, not-thought-out, irrational, and, paradoxically, intolerant . Your little rebellion against the establishment is so frightfully petit-bourgeois that it could fit right into a comedy of manners of early 21st century life.

By "information," I mean websites, books, articles, etc. published about Wicca. You appear to know very little about it.

Wicca is nature based. In fact, one of the basic principles of Wicca is "harm none."

But the truly upsetting part is not how little you know about this religion, it is how brutally you attack anyone who does not follow your own faith.

Lack of religous tolerance has led to horrible outcomes throughout history, and will continue to do so until there is change. How do wars, massacres, and decades of rivalry fit into your God's plan?

With love, tolerance, and peace...

Jess

Jess,

You tell me what you mean by "information". I suspect that all you mean is "whatever is fashionable". You really might want to consider starting with basic logic, because all the "pure information" in the world is useless without the tools to rationally use it.

Honestly, the fact that there are still people in the world as closeminded as you scares me.

I would tell you to become more informed on your subject before you go on a rant like that, but I think it would no good. Someone like you probably has all the access in the world to pure information, and yet refuses to believe it.

I support you in your Catholic beliefs, but the way you attack others for theirs is disgusting.

Blessed be,

Jess

Uninformed? Due dilligence? These coming from a Pagan. Har har har.

I ask you, first, what the Hell religion yours is anyway? Not wiccan? Pagan? Many gods? No gods? Goddesses? Horned things?

And, now: how do you know about your gods? How was your "knowledge" of them acquired? Did the tarot deck reveal them to you? Is it memories of old D and D games?

And what do you mean by "personal responsibility"? My guess is that you really don't have much idea at all what you believe in. You have glommed onto a few soundbite things that basically absolve you of any difficulty. Whoopeee. Join the club of idiots.

What do I believe in? You mentioned due dilligence. I don't exactly hide things on the blog.

Wow...I am not wiccan, but I am a pagan...it's a shame you are so uniformed. Maybe you should do your due-dilligence before you just bash another person's faith. And I don't mean just turning to the bible...a book written by men. Men with their own agendas. Personally, I don't need a ficticious "devil" to scare me into doing the right thing. Personal responsibilbity...that's what I believe in. What do you believe in?

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another idiotic comment saying the standard Wiccie cant of "our religion is nothing about Satan because that is from Christianity."

This argument would work if all religions were preposterous role playing games, as is Wicca. Instead, we deal in Truth, and recognize that the father of lies might well be identified as The Goddess or her horned consort by his worshippers, who deny his right name.

Satisfied, grow up. Wicca is silly, silly shit.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dear anonymous, I deleted your ill-informed emotional comment. What you need is apologetics, which is not what I do, here or elsewhere. Go to Mark Shea who does that sort of stuff.

Worshipping statues. Yawn. Entry level stuff. You really need to get down to some basic logic: figure out that A and Not A cannot be simultaneously true, and you will be on to something. Otherwise I will have to write you off as another Boomer Irish ex-Catholic with a particularly uninteresting ax to grind.

What if the grandmother had converted to Judaism? Or another non-Christian mainstream religion? Would you be as quick to condemn her?

There are no valid reasons for leaving the Catholic Church. Period. What there are are reasons which are more or less understandable, depending on circumstances. To convert to a non-Christian religion is never acceptible and never makes sense. The first example you give, Judaism, is probably the most seemingly reasonable, because it generally comes with marriage. However, one who would abandon the fullness of Truth for anything is daft.

Wicca is not even a faith. It is, at best, a child's plaything: a role-playing game writ large. At worst it is a sign of severe demon-possession. Either way it is entirely of Satan, a placebo-like mockery of religion for confused teenagers (of all ages) or it is the direct consort with false gods and demons.

When Granny became a Wiccan, she basically has hung a sign on her door saying that she has lost all reason. She should certainly never be alone with the children, and probably should never have contact with them. She is, in one manner or another, evil.

Honestly, you are giving Christians everywhere a bad name.

Only by your standards. Now, who has decided that tolerance, indifference, and acceptance are the golden standard? Can something be simultaneously true and false? I am guessing that you have not really done much thinking in your life. A lot of feeling, no doubt, but not much thinking. I would start with Plato, if I were you.

Now people will think you're all bigoted narrow-minded far right nut jobs.

Interesting. Your logic is that because one person writes a condemnatory piece "people" will think that we are "all" bigoted narrow-minded far right nut jobs. I am fairly narrow-minded, in that I try to exclude the patently nonsensical from my thinking in all cases. I am certainly far right. I am probably a bit of a bigot, especially when it concerns the English or the Anglicans. Nut job? If you mean that I don't march in lock step with what the media tells me, well, guilty as charged. However, perhaps it is just because I am so narrow-minded, I would think that someone who paints a sweeping generalization of a faith based on one short entry on a blog of one writer (never mind that this person seems to have very little education herself) is a bit of a bigot. Probably more of a bigot than me. Congratulations. I will have to talk with you to see how I can increase my bigotry.

Congratulations, you've just done a fine PR job for your faith.

If people are looking for a Church that does not guard the Sacred Deposit of the Faith, one that does not contain the Whole Truth, and want a watered-down New Age, I'm OK/You're OK sort of thing, they should consider the Anglitics.

The Catholic Church stands for Truth, and that applies to advertising (would that many of our bishops understand this) as well.

Thank you for commenting.

Are you insane? What if the grandmother had converted to Judaism? Or another non-Christian mainstream religion? Would you be as quick to condemn her?

Honestly, you are giving Christians everywhere a bad name. Now people will think you're all bigoted narrow-minded far right nut jobs. Congratulations, you've just done a fine PR job for your faith.

Ah, Ann Landers's daughter. That person who told people how to get along better with their families, and yet did not speak with her own twin sister for decades? I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the deadwood.

Margo Howard is the daughter of Eppie Lederer aka Ann Landers . . . doen't that tell you what you need to know? If you want happy-happy, milquetoast advice, she's your girl. If you want serious advice, well, Miss Manners, or perhaps Cdl Arinze or someone, would be far better.