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An episode of "A Haunting" that slams Wicca
Now, please keep in mind that I have not seen the episode myself -- I saw it mentioned in a question in the Yahoo!Answers Religion & Spirituality section and did a bit of digging from there.
Here's a "proclaimation" that describes its content:
Proclaimed by: Eternal Harvest Tradition of Wicca
Proclaimed from: New Bern, North Carolina
Proclaimation...
Today, Sept. 28, at 2:00 EDT, we watched "A Haunting" on the Discovery Channel.
in our view, this episode presented a shockingly biased view of Wicca. It concerns a Texas woman who decides to practice Wicca. Her teenage son doesn’t like it but after graduation, joins the Air Force and leaves. He becomes a Christian and after 7 years, reunites with his mother, who has continued to practice Wicca happily with good results and apparently no problems. When he returns he is shocked at her altar implements, her dressing in black, etc. The son is angry and disturbed and scared. That night he sees lights and a female figure pointing a knife or athame at him He freaks out. Mother assures him it isn’t her. She then tries a self-dedication rite to Isis and “demons” attack her. She smashes her statue and altar items and disavows Wicca. The son then becomes a Christian minister helping others get out of the occult and their relationship is now great.
The whole thing plays out like a Jack Chick tract or a bad 1970s TV movie. While there are technically no lies about Wicca, only their stories are presented. Beautiful statues, Goddess items, and altar implements are shot in ways to make them look sinister and there is no questioning of ideas presented, such as the son’s disturbance at his mother’s wearing black. The story is framed to make it appear that Wicca may look benign but watch out, the Devil and some demons will get you.
The son thinks the mother was deluded into thinking she was doing good. The mother is not sure what happened. No balancing point of view from experienced and trained Wicca practitioners, or other occultists, is presented. No one points out that the baneful manifestations began to occur when the son returns, and no one suggests that perhaps they are projections of his fear and anger and also her fears and hurt at his rejection of her. The Christian minister son and his inexperienced mother’s ideas are left unchallenged.
If this woman and her son had a bad experience, that’s fine to present, but they also need to present an independent expert’s assessment and comments and some balance to this very one-sided portrayal of our faith. There are many explanations that could be assigned to this other than “demons.”
“A Haunting” is a popular show. This is unwarranted and potentially quite damaging. I called the Viewer Relations department for the Discovery Channel and expressed my concerns to a representative named Jennifer. I want the Discovery Channel to run a program on Wicca that presents balance in a non-sensationalistic way and that also helps explain why this woman and her son experienced what they did OR to edit this show to provide the counterbalancing points of view. I urge you to do the same!
There are some lively discussions going on over on the Discovery Channel message boards, specifically at:
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/6351978529/p/1
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/2751917629
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/3311954039
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/8111970629/p/1
And more topics can be found here on the main "A Haunting" board:
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/4971983318/p/1
What do you think? Have you seen the episode? Is it a tempest in a teapot, or is this something to be concerned about?
Here's a "proclaimation" that describes its content:
Proclaimed by: Eternal Harvest Tradition of Wicca
Proclaimed from: New Bern, North Carolina
Proclaimation...
Today, Sept. 28, at 2:00 EDT, we watched "A Haunting" on the Discovery Channel.
in our view, this episode presented a shockingly biased view of Wicca. It concerns a Texas woman who decides to practice Wicca. Her teenage son doesn’t like it but after graduation, joins the Air Force and leaves. He becomes a Christian and after 7 years, reunites with his mother, who has continued to practice Wicca happily with good results and apparently no problems. When he returns he is shocked at her altar implements, her dressing in black, etc. The son is angry and disturbed and scared. That night he sees lights and a female figure pointing a knife or athame at him He freaks out. Mother assures him it isn’t her. She then tries a self-dedication rite to Isis and “demons” attack her. She smashes her statue and altar items and disavows Wicca. The son then becomes a Christian minister helping others get out of the occult and their relationship is now great.
The whole thing plays out like a Jack Chick tract or a bad 1970s TV movie. While there are technically no lies about Wicca, only their stories are presented. Beautiful statues, Goddess items, and altar implements are shot in ways to make them look sinister and there is no questioning of ideas presented, such as the son’s disturbance at his mother’s wearing black. The story is framed to make it appear that Wicca may look benign but watch out, the Devil and some demons will get you.
The son thinks the mother was deluded into thinking she was doing good. The mother is not sure what happened. No balancing point of view from experienced and trained Wicca practitioners, or other occultists, is presented. No one points out that the baneful manifestations began to occur when the son returns, and no one suggests that perhaps they are projections of his fear and anger and also her fears and hurt at his rejection of her. The Christian minister son and his inexperienced mother’s ideas are left unchallenged.
If this woman and her son had a bad experience, that’s fine to present, but they also need to present an independent expert’s assessment and comments and some balance to this very one-sided portrayal of our faith. There are many explanations that could be assigned to this other than “demons.”
“A Haunting” is a popular show. This is unwarranted and potentially quite damaging. I called the Viewer Relations department for the Discovery Channel and expressed my concerns to a representative named Jennifer. I want the Discovery Channel to run a program on Wicca that presents balance in a non-sensationalistic way and that also helps explain why this woman and her son experienced what they did OR to edit this show to provide the counterbalancing points of view. I urge you to do the same!
There are some lively discussions going on over on the Discovery Channel message boards, specifically at:
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/6351978529/p/1
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/2751917629
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/3311954039
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4971983318/m/8111970629/p/1
And more topics can be found here on the main "A Haunting" board:
http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/4971983318/p/1
What do you think? Have you seen the episode? Is it a tempest in a teapot, or is this something to be concerned about?