"Wicca fastest-growing religion" ? - Natl. Cath. Register

[Dolores49]

Give me some proof! I found this brief note in National Catholic Register. 9/28/08 issue. Page 2.

Wicca Growing

“Wicca could become one of the largest religions in the U.S. in less than five years, the Christian Post reported.”

Article: ‘Wicca experts encourage Christians to engage America’s “fastest growing” religion.’ christianpost.com/article/20080921/wicca-experts-encourage-christians-to-engage-america-s-fastest-growing-religion.htm

Excerpt:

“Certain parts of the country, such as the Pacific Northwest, the mountain states (New Mexico and Colorado) and areas near Salem, Mass., are the strongest in the U.S.,” he says. “However, I live in Tennessee and have found pockets of Wiccans in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia to interview. I didn’t have to travel far or even outside of the so-called Bible belt to find Wiccans.”

First, I’m very suspicious about the accuracy of this claim because there are no studies cited. Second, I have to ask this Catholic paper why it references a non-Catholic publication - no offense if you’re a regular reader of CP. Third, I also notice that the NCRegister’s news feed is CNS. CNS is not recommended by CatholicCulture.org in its review: catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=1931

Not that I’m naive about the existence of witches. I just finished reading Donna Steichen’s riveting historical research, “Ungodly Rage: the hidden face of Catholic Feminism.” (If you Google the title, Google Books has excerpts.)

I just want proof that Wicca is as big as this article and the book mentioned therein makes it. I’m very skeptical.

 

[a_cermak]

With a small base, it doesn’t have to increase in numbers very much to have astronomical growth. For instance, if you start with 100 members, and in a decade have 1000 members, then you’ve grown by an extraordinary percentage. Now, if the religion is growing while others are losing members, then you’re doing even better. I seriously doubt the claim that it could become one of the largest religions in the US, but that was a could claim. No one doubts the claim that Wicca is growing quickly, for if you look at 1970 numbers you’ll see very low membership and if you look at neo-paganism (which includes more than just wicca, like druidism, Gaia-ism etc) it’s at 1 million adherents <adherents.com>.

So that is pretty darned good growth. On a track to be the next great world religion? Only if you dumbly take the growth stat they had since 1970 (say 1 person to 1 million) and then extrapolate willy nilly.

 

[rpp]

Do not confuse the National Catholic Register, which is a pretty good and faithful newspaper, with the National Catholic Reporter, which often is a sounding board for dissidents. As for what Catholic Culture as to say, criticizing CNS, which has no part in this story, is a real reach. Catholic Culture seems to like the National Catholic Register, giving their website a Green rating.

catholicculture.org/culture/reviews/view.cfm?recnum=2393&repos=2&subrepos=0&searchid=313213

As a fellow resident of Oregon, I am sure you can see the effect and influence of Wicca here in the Northwest. I certainly do. That it may someday exceed the growth of Christianity would not surprise me.

Anti-Christian sentiment is very high in the Northwest. It was either C. S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton who said “When people stop believing in God, they will believe in anything.” We see that right here in Oregon today.

 

[Dale_M]

So that is pretty darned good growth. On a track to be the next great world religion? Only if you dumbly take the growth stat they had since 1970 (say 1 person to 1 million) and then extrapolate willy nilly.

The Christian Post article quotes someone that the number of Wicca adherents is doubling every 30 months. But that person just published a book on Wicca and she might have an interest in exaggerating, especially while discussing the book with a Christian audience.

 

[juliasmith]

“First, I’m very suspicious about the accuracy of this claim because there are no studies cited.”

I tend to believe there may be some validity to the claim. In Chattanooga alone there are approximately 500 members of the Chattanooga Pagan group. Those are just the ones willing to publicly profess affiliation with Goddess worship. Neo-pagans are notoriously secretive and it is difficult to know for certain what their numbers are. The southeast (the buckle of the Bible belt) is seeing more and more of them openly professing the Goddess spirituality and New Age. I used to be very active among them, teaching and leading ritual myself.
As to getting an actual study of them, good luck. It has been attempted by their own kind and response was dismal at best. They simply will not discuss it openly usually. They do not answer to any council or leadership other than the local ‘coven’ they may or may not belong to. They often are simply loners that practice privately without ever having any group involvement.
There seems to be a continuing fear of persecution and witch-hunts even in this day and age.
Oddly enough, my own personal observation of students seeking instruction in ‘the craft’ was that they are in their late teens and early twenties. And yes, those numbers were high. The last year I was active in the community, I performed four marriages (would have been a fifth, but they were a same sex couple), and had nine students.
Keep in mind, while these numbers seem miniscule, those are only the ones I dealt with. I knew at least six other ‘priestesses’ who also performed these services.
It is a growing religion…but there is no real accurate way of measuring their numbers. All I know is I run across them all the time.

 

[Pius_IX]

I am not sure I buy it. Most of the ‘Wiccans’ I have ever known of don’t really practice or do anything. They use it more as a boilerplate for bragging rights(I am a witch!), or dress the part (hippie-ish).

It’s pretty much a fad, and one so plainly and utterly false that most ‘Wiccans’ just lose interest after a while. When I looked into it, other than the ‘sabbaths’, it was basically make it up as you go along.

 

[ibkc]

I tend to believe there may be some validity to the claim. In Chattanooga alone there are approximately 500 members of the Chattanooga Pagan group. Those are just the ones willing to publicly profess affiliation with Goddess worship. Neo-pagans are notoriously secretive and it is difficult to know for certain what their numbers are. The southeast (the buckle of the Bible belt) is seeing more and more of them openly professing the Goddess spirituality and New Age. I used to be very active among them, teaching and leading ritual myself.
As to getting an actual study of them, good luck. It has been attempted by their own kind and response was dismal at best. They simply will not discuss it openly usually. They do not answer to any council or leadership other than the local ‘coven’ they may or may not belong to. They often are simply loners that practice privately without ever having any group involvement.
… ]
It is a growing religion…but there is no real accurate way of measuring their numbers. All I know is I run across them all the time.

As a former pagan living in the south as well, I agree with all of this. There are more wiccans and other pagans around than many Christians would guess, but - yeah, nailing down anywhere close to an exact number would be next to impossible, for the reasons cited above. The pagan population is also fairly fluid, with a lot of people in it for relatively short periods of time just to explore or test it out. In the eight or nine years I was active, I ran into quite a few people like that, who got involved, stayed interested for a year or two then disappeared. Sometimes I never heard from them again, but in several cases that I recall, we heard later the folks had returned to Christianity.

 

[Pius_IX]

As a former pagan living in the south as well, I agree with all of this. There are more wiccans and other pagans around than many Christians would guess, but - yeah, nailing down anywhere close to an exact number would be next to impossible, for the reasons cited above. The pagan population is also fairly fluid, with a lot of people in it for relatively short periods of time just to explore or test it out. In the eight or nine years I was active, I ran into quite a few people like that, who got involved, stayed interested for a year or two then disappeared. Sometimes I never heard from them again, but in several cases that I recall, we heard later the folks had returned to Christianity.

Yes, but how many really practiced it? Off the top of my head, I think I can remember ONE person who seriously practiced it.

Most of the ones I have encountered are ex-Christian of some sort that couldnt quite go the atheist route. And many have ‘green’ beliefs, so they just convert their environmentalism into a worship of Gaia-like idol-gods. Granted, I realize the situation may be different down in the South, but my experience in the San Francisco area with them led me to believe that it was a fad, and for some, a bridge to atheism.

 

[ibkc]

Yes, but how many really practiced it? Off the top of my head, I think I can remember ONE person who seriously practiced it.

Well, I guess that depends on how you define “serious practice.” I was pretty deeply involved in the pagan community and while I did see my fair share of fluffy bunnies and party pagans, the majority of the people I knew really did believe and practice.

Most of the ones I have encountered are ex-Christian of some sort that couldnt quite go the atheist route.

Hmmm … no, that’s not common here at all. Here, pagans tend to take their theism very seriously, be it polytheism, pantheism, duotheism or whatever. I’d say southern pagans tend to be quite superstitious, in fact.

And many have ‘green’ beliefs, so they just convert their environmentalism into a worship of Gaia-like idol-gods.

I have known plenty of those types - but they were more hippies than true pagans. In fact, I have a cousin like this. He’s a sort of “all religions are true except the ones I don’t like” kind of guy.

Granted, I realize the situation may be different down in the South, but my experience in the San Francisco area with them led me to believe that it was a fad, and for some, a bridge to atheism.

It could definitely be a regional thing, for sure.

 

[cyberwolf001]

Well Pius you can just search this web forum and see how many threads on Paganism have started up to give you an idea.

Many want to dismiss the Neo-Paganism as Atheism. I’ve known many Christians who call anyone that doesn’t believe in the Christian God an Atheist so this one always shall we say leaves me peeved.

Fad is also used a lot. Many times I’ve seen Christian parents dismiss there child’s conversion to another religion or denomination as a passing phase kind of like how my Aunt feels about my being Catholic.

This whole attitude of ‘well it only appears to be growing fast because there such small numbers thing’ is a line that really gets my goat. For some reason the people holding this view can’t seem to comprehend this is constant growth at more or less the same rate.

Honestly I think it all boils down to many people on this forum and else where being unable to comprehend why someone would leave Jesus and follow those other religions in particular the Neo-Pagan ones.

 

[Biblioassistant]

I know some people who practice wicca and are VERY serious about it. I also know some who used to when they were in high school, but later gave it up.

There’s no doubt that wicca is growing - it has the cachet of “I’m spiritual but not religious” that is so popular now.