Results.
Posted on 10/12/2018 7:21:03 PM PDT by Morgana
October 11, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Recent decades have seen a dramatic rise in paganism and the number of Americans identifying as witches while Christian denominations have been losing members, according to a new report.
Last week, Quartz published a piece reviewing religion survey data from Connecticut’s Trinity College covering 1990 to 2008, and from Pew Research Center covering 2014 to the present. They report that the United States’ Wiccan population skyrocketed from 8,000 in 1990 to 340,000 in 2008, a year that also found roughly 340,000 self-described Pagans.
“The best source of data on the number of witches in the US comes from assessments of the Wicca population,” Quartz’s Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz and Dan Kopf explain. “Not all people who practice witchcraft consider themselves Wicca, but the religion makes up a significant subset.”
Pew currently puts the percentage of self-identified Wiccans or Pagans at 0.3 percent, and those who self-identify as atheist, agnostic, or otherwise unaffiliated at 22.8 percent.
Singh-Kurz and Kopf suggest witchcraft’s popularity is due to a combination of factors, from the longtime allure of witches in media and literature to contemporary rebranding of witchcraft as having more to do with nature and individuality than demons and the occult.
“As [Quartz’s Alden] Wicker noted, witchcraft is the perfect religion for liberal millennials who are already involved in yoga and meditation, mindfulness, and new-age spirituality,” they write. “With that foundation, they might show up for pagan holidays or new moon gatherings, or begin to explore the more serious spiritual concepts at the root of these practices.”
Wiccan websites such as The Celtic Connection and the Church and School of Wicca promote this impression, with the former claiming that witchcraft “fosters the free thought and will of the individual, encourages learning and an understanding of the earth and nature,” and the latter invoking “self-empowerment through knowledge.”
The truth is far darker however, Christians say. The Catholic Church teaches that “all forms of divination are to be rejected,” and any efforts to “tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others” are “gravely contrary to the virtue of religion.”
“When it comes to what ultimately counts, witchcraft and Christianity (but not witches and Christians) are mortal foes,” Richard Howe of the Christian Research Institute explains. “Without the sacrifice of Christ to wash away our sins and reconcile us to our Maker, there is no hope in the world to come. Witchcraft teaches that our destiny is to return again to this world through reincarnation.”
More than 70 percent of Americans still identify as Christian, but religious affiliation has been on the decline for years. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released in May found that self-identification with Protestant denominations dropped eight percent over the previous 15 years (Catholicism held constant). The share of Americans with no religious affiliation almost tripled from 1990 to 2017.
“It makes sense that witchcraft and the occult would rise as society becomes increasingly postmodern. The rejection of Christianity has left a void that people, as inherently spiritual beings, will seek to fill,” author Julie Roys told the Christian Post. “It’s tragic, and a reminder of how badly we need spiritual revival in this country, and also that ‘our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world.’”
“The Church needs to wake up to the reality of this realm and begin to approach it from a Kingdom perspective which understands its place and purpose,” Wanda Alger of Intercessors for America and Winchester, Virginia’s Crossroads Community Church argues. “The sad thing is that these millennials who are exploring the dark side of the supernatural have more faith and belief than most Christians. Because they are open and spiritually hungry, the spirit realm responds. The biggest hindrance to understanding the realities of the Spirit realm is unbelief.”
Another element in the rise of witchcraft is its use by the anti-Trump movement. There is a movement of at least 13,000 people who promise to cast “binding spells” against President Trump, an effort that has been celebrated by the liberal media. The rituals this movement practices invoke the assistance of “demons of the infernal realms” and other spirits.
In 2017, iconic fashion magazine Vogue encouraged women frustrated at the current political climate to recite a feminist spell and join the “witchy renaissance.” On Wednesday, Vox published an article promoting “magic as self-care after Kavanaugh,” encouraging those upset at the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of the newest Supreme Court justice to turn to witchcraft as a feminist coping mechanism.
The majority of Churches have gone so far to the left they drove everyone away. Half of them are mostly pagan than Christian anyway. I’m talking the ones that support abortion and the homo agenda.
Yep. I am a lifelong conservative. I was groomed for seminary from age sixteen. I attended pastoral conferences by special invitation from age nineteen.
I do not have a home church right now. I live in an urban leftist locale, and I cannot find a church that does not significantly embrace leftist causes.
I believe that abortion was the evil camel’s nose under the tent. I opposed it from the beginning of my youth ministry back in the early 1980s, and faced opposition and resentment from man and women - at a supposedly conservative, orthodox congregation.
Once American Christians started making exceptions for rape or the mother’s health, there was no stopping its insidious effect on sanctification. If you can embrace the sophistry that permits murdering some infants for special cases, then you can ultimately justify just about anything.
“Paganism worldwide is only .007%- Yep- they’re ‘taking over’-”
The projection of paganism through Hollywood, the print, and other media makes it seem 2 most uninitiated Meat Puppets that yes, indeed paganism seems to be on the rise. Just like homosexuality is rampant and everywhere, when the reality is it’s all manufactured, it’s an agenda, and the large percentage of the American population is being programmed and manipulated to believe other than the reality of the situation.
the collateral damage is the minds of the Next Generation. It is our children and grandchildren who are really going to feel the prompt of this satanic manipulation.
You are right in that the article tries to equate Christians with church attendance. Not the same thing.
As soon as Halloween passes, this story will disappear.
The Crusades were not fun for the Christian participants - most of whom were slaughtered or died of disease or starvation while being humiliated by superior muslim forces ...
Only the First Crusade and the taking of Jerusalem was a success, but it too was soon beaten back.
“... we had our fun with the Crusades.” More like the other way around historically - the Cusade had fun with the Christians.
Results.
Mostly ugly-a$$ lesbos with a mustache.
It has the same attraction as the “environmentalist religion” - it gives a sense of purpose to people who have nothing to live for and nothing to die for. Many people who spurned God and families decades ago now try to give purpose to their lives by tending animals (adopting four-legged ones, putting out birdfeeders, etc.); their peers are dealing with grandchildren now while they have nothing going on.
Salem around Halloween is supposed to be a real freak show; they’ve capitalized on the nonsense from centuries ago.
....Look for even the conservative churches to under increasing attacks.
Correction: to come.
The Bible reminds us to not neglect the fellowship of believers.
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