Wiccans Offer Alternative to Boy Scouts

CNSNews.com ^ | October 31, 2002 | Michael L. Betsch

[H8DEMS]

(CNSNews.com) - Frustrated by an unsuccessful campaign to achieve religious recognition from the Boy Scouts of America, a Seattle-based Wicca church has launched its own youth program, which is based on tolerance for different beliefs, including differences in sexual orientation.

SpiralScouts founder Pete 'Pathfinder' Davis believes that many of the things the Boy Scouts are doing are "socially inappropriate." He said he created to the SpiralScouts to "fill the void left by prejudicial treatment of other established children's programs."

Davis, who serves as the Archpriest of the Wiccan Aquarian Tabernacle Church, said his main argument with the BSA is that the group has refused to recognize Wicca as an acceptable form of worship, but at the same time, the BSA incorporates the symbols of myriad Christian denominations into its Religious Emblems program.

He said the Scouts rejected a Wicca badge that was designed and submitted by a well-known Wiccan priestess.

In 1999, Davis created the SpiralScouts as the Aquarian Tabernacle Church's "answer" to the Boy Scouts and other youth organizations that subscribe only to "traditional" faiths. Today, the SpiralScouts welcomes children of all ages (four and up) and backgrounds, including Wiccans, pagans, atheists and homosexuals.

Davis said practicing Wicca is not a mandatory activity for the 50 SpiralScout units currently operating across the U.S., Canada and Switzerland. Beyond fostering a respect for nature, it is up to each SpiralScout unit leader to decide whether they will teach children the principles and philosophy of the Wiccan religion.

The vast majority of the SpiralScout units are operated by Wiccan groups and churches, he said.

"When we started to formalize the program, we designed it in a fashion that it's oriented towards earth religion, but so is Scouting, whether they realize it or not," Davis said. Unlike the "pervasive" use of Christianity contained within the BSA, the SpiralScouts was created to accommodate the spiritual beliefs of any minority religious group, he said.

SpiralScouts describes itself as a work in progress. It says it offers children the opportunity to develop interpersonal and life skills and a pagan world view, in addition to learning "the usual handicrafts of scouting and woodland lore."

Boy Scouts dismiss rejection

According to BSA spokesman Gregg Shields, religious emblems are the property of approved religious scouting organizations and are awarded at their own discretion. For example, he said the National Catholic Council on Scouting and the National Jewish Committee on Scouting each have their own unique religious emblem.

"There is no national Wiccan organization," Shields said. "So, that's why there is no religious award for Wiccans."

He encouraged any Wiccan group that would like to charter a troop in their community to submit an application to their local BSA council for consideration.

Focus on tolerance

According to the SpiralScouts membership requirements, it is imperative that parents and leaders promote religious and cultural tolerance so their children may learn to co-exist with society as a whole. Specifically, the group encourages children to accept the "differing roles of male and female throughout nature and culture."

Contrary to the Boy Scout policy of excluding homosexuals - a policy upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court - the SpiralScouts welcomes homosexuals within its ranks. Davis explained that the Wiccan religion accommodates homosexuals because its philosophy is focused on the "balance of polarities" of that exist in nature.

For example, Davis said the SpiralScouts mandates that leaders of individual units should include both a male and a female. However, he said the rules are flexible because some adults, such as homosexuals, "believe themselves to be embodying masculine or feminine characteristics."

Davis believes that such a male/female balance of leadership ensures a SpiralScout's positive integration into the real world. "Children are not born with prejudices," he noted. "They have to learn prejudice and intolerance from others."

Defiance of 'extreme right'

According to the group's handbook, "SpiralScouts is something new, something perhaps of historic proportions for modern Paganism. It certainly will have an unmistakable impact on Pagan children growing up in this era of Christian extreme-right domination of our culture."

According to the SpiralScouts' interpretation of the pagan philosophy, children participating in the program will learn to honor "both the maleness and femaleness we all harbor within us," as the handbook put it. "Perhaps, if we are lucky, even a few parents who may need some brushing up on these same skills may reap benefits just from being there with the children while the kids learn these things."

[Hunble]

.......and sacrificing virgins.....

Nice idea, but my wife is bigger and meaner than I am.

[Vermont Lt]

Have you tried to find a virgin lately? Its next to impossible.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Spiral Scouts are a "wonderful idea"?

I guess it depends on who's spiral one is focusing the "good idea" ....


http://www.strangecosmos.com/view.asp?PicID=6666

[American in Israel]

I was a wicca, even had it on my dogtags. I now understand things a bit better and have given my heart to Christ. The two are mutualy exclusive. What you say is amazing. Stupid too.

Got in a lot of fights with satanists. Spent a lot of time around a candle. Ended up being more of a witch than a wicca in the long run till I saw the light. If you are white, sure as $#!+ you are going to end up fighting the dark. Frolicing around bonfires may be nice but the spirits you play with are demonic. As long as they can keep you where you are at, it is worth your soul to them. Your clock like all of us is running out. Where you are at on that day is pretty important.

blessed be the Lord Yeshua HaMachiach. As He wills, so mote it be my friend, not us. Will yourself a million bucks. Make a flower. We all serve one of two masters. If you fail to serve the Creator, you serve the destroyer by default.

[OPS4]

I know the existence is one but the testaments for the sake of guiding one to the Old and New have been outlined as such.

Amongst us Christians who understand the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are one, and know our way around the readings, does not mean that others may not, so I outlined Old and New as God had appeared in them.

Ops4 God Bless America!

[Hunble]

I do not know how to respond to that.

This is not the religion that I have known for the last 30 years.

[OPS4]

God Bless You my Brother in Jesus Christ.
I have sent you a personal message and I am praying and working for all of you in Israel to be safe in God's care.

Ops4 God Bless America!

[Hunble]

Remember kind Sir,

I am also Christian. I have been very strict with my two daughters in their religious education and they are VERY Christian.

Wicca is not a religion that you choose. It is something you are born with and have no choice about.

When I have a student ask me to teach them, I will spend about 6 months trying to scare them away.

Wicca is darn hard work and not fun!

[Dead Corpse]

Others under Golden Dawn teachings have drawn wiccan believers into the cult by using celtic beliefs as their front end.

Utter Bravo Sierra. High Magic and paganism are two completely different systems. A little like comparing trees and hedgehogs.

As for Satanism, Anton wouldn't have had the trappings to wrap his philosophy in if Christians had created the figure of Satan in the first place.

Of course you would KNOW all this if had actually done any study on it outside of Jack Chick's website.

[OPS4]

reread post from AmericaninIsrael
125. Nuff said.

Ops4 God Bless America!

[OPS4]

The Egyptian underworld refers to the Dark one, the taker of souls, Pagans have followed the underbelly since the snake that satan is has been crawling on its belly.

The Chrsitian warns against this non-sense, you apparently have not headed Gods Warnings.

Primitive Man worshipped in pagan rituals and even sacrificed and ate each others children, call it what you will, its all Satanic to me and Christians did not invent those unacceptable human acts.
Ops4 God Bless America!

[Hunble]

JimRob has asked me not to talk about my religion.

Sorry if I have crossed any lines today, as it was not intended.

However, you have been able to talk to 3 actual Wiccans today and we were willing to answer questions.

As long time Freepers, we share the same ideas, even if we have different views about our God.

This is what religion is all about, since it is a very personal experience between you and your God.

[OPS4]

God Bless all three of you, and have a great day!
Ops4 God Bless America!

[Hunble]

Thanks kind Sir, it was enjoyable.

Now I need to get ready for a Minnesota rally in support of Norm Coleman.

[biblewonk]

You remind me of the guy that does my tattoos.

[Alex Murphy]

Wicca has nothing to do with satanism, and anybody that thinks it does really needs to crawl out of their cave and do some reading.

Perhaps true, but inasmuch as I understand it, Wicca is more about the belief that nature, and various entities/personalities that inhabit them, can be successfully manipulated by humans into granting said humans some favor.

In short, all of creation is humankind's personal vending machine, and the whole Wiccan thing is just about learning how to use exact change.

Christianity isn't a religion of nature manipulation - it's a religion of ethics. Our relationship with God is based on our ethical standing before Him. No amount of relics, or icons, or potions, or incantations can change that. God is not some impersonal force that we can manipulate if we're skilled enough. The Wiccan's beef with Christianity, as I understand it, is that it places humankind permanently subservient to a single diety, instead of allowing them to pick and choose their leaders (and allegiances), as if they were simply voting for their next senator.

[American in Israel]

You do realize that the whole "suffer not a witch to live" stuff is a translation error don't you? Original word meant "poisoner". Since "witches" made potions, and weren't exactly favorites of early Church fathers, they got pinned with it.

Now you got me curious, I once even heard that from some of my Southern Baptist family the suffer not a witch to live thing. So for kicks and grins I decided to look it up. The actual word is Kashaph (kuf shin pay-sophit) in hebrew, it means "To whisper a spell, i.e. to inchant or practise magic:- sorcerer, (use) witch(-craft) from magic:-sorcery, witchcraft.

So the actual translation in Exodus (the book of the story of departure of the nation of Israel from Egypt) is at EX 22:18 is well over 1000 years BC, or before Christ, LONG before there were any Church fathers.

Now my pagan friend, do you practice magic, enchant, whisper spells? It says nothing in hebrew about poisons or potions. -grin-

Anyway thanks for bringing it up, it was fun looking it up.

The reason that the comandment was given is that the use of demons, (which yes, I know is not wiccan), or their effects (which is the power behind it all, trust me), is against the Creator because THEY Chose to be against the Creator. Those who do not stand with God, fall without Him. He commanded that the practice of trucking with the enemy stop within the people he chose to be his representatives on earth.

It is a lot like outlawing heroin. The inclusion of it tends to corrupt society. So it is made illegal. Now if a man refuses to stop truckin with the enemy in a time of war he is called a traitor and is hung. Given the choice between the death penalty and cutting off contact with Oslama Bin Laudin, would you trust your neighbor if he refused to stop calling him on the telephone and wore America sucks t-shirts?

Same thing...

By the way, I personnaly think that wicca is not that far from discovering Christ and the Creator, I know one Wiccan that ended up doing it that I rather like. And your statement of the history of LaVey shows you do know what you are talking about. LeVay is a jerk as you say, kinda like saying Madonna is a Christian cause of her name and the crucifix she wears.

Your "Christian" training is a bit weak though. -grin-

[American in Israel]

Correct me if I'm wrong but it's my understanding that members of Wicca are homosexual anyway.

Your wrong. It has a lot more to do with trying to manipulate nature using the forces of nature directly in a tree hugging kinda way. The demons love it. Lots of fun mind games with the silly humans.