::grin:: Not that I don't sympathize with your frustration, Chantal, but you made me laugh. If the people at my dad's church knew that I was reading that post about a real, live Wiccan (read: witch, heathen, pagan) having trouble shopping for a wand, they'd probably try to have me burned at a stake. These people have no sense of perspective.

One reason that I joined the Unitarian church is that they welcome all comers. This was in response to the pastors at my dad's church declaring the Harry Potter books to be an insidious tool to corrupt young minds. I just felt that I had to go out and join the opposition to that kind of idiocy. So now I'm a proud Unitarian-Universalist, a formerly Christian faith that's so liberal that they don't even claim to be Christian anymore.

My dad's fiancee asked my sister once if UU's believe in God. I told my sister to tell her that it's optional. (And it is. We have a lot of atheists among us, including our former married pastors.) But that's defining atheism in a very broad way--not believing in a single all-powerful god doesn't keep you from being spiritual. Works for me.

I was talking to one of our pagan members, Nancy, one day just before Halloween, when we were encouraged to wear costumes. I wore a witch's hat with a bright red and gold feather boa sewed to it, but as soon as I saw Nancy I asked her, to be sure, if the hat would be offensive to the pagans at the church. She grinned and said "You should have seen the one I was wearing last night." That settled my mind. We went on to talk about the Harry Potter influence on these things, and she began to complain about how witches are always portrayed riding a broom with the bristled end facing backward. "You can't get any stability riding like that," she muttered as she walked away.

I love Nancy. She makes me sit up and take notice.

Kris Sr.

Kris--LOL!

This was a pretty shallow post, but when you put it like that, yes, I can definitely see the humor in it! (g)

Most witches I know have no objection to the witch's hat being worn by people; it's a costume, after all. It would be like getting offended at someone for coming to a costume party dressed as the Virgin Mary. It's just a costume.

Your friend Nancy sounds like fun!

Personally, I like the broom bristles to be in the back (Marginally) more aerodynamic, that way.

I don't consider myself as much of a witch as some Wiccans I know. I am too much of a Christian at heart to ever be solely Wiccan, and I don't do a lot of the New Age-type stuff that many other Wiccans do. But I do like the meditation and spiritual communion aspects of Wicca, and I like the idea of being my own 'priest,' rather than having someone else do that for me.

Chantal

Chantal

I got a note in the Email that Rosemary had posted this comment, but something happened and it never actually appeared here. I've copied it and I hope that it will work this time....


I ran across this, remembered your comment, then couldn't remember who's journal it was in. But I found it. :)
Something to share with your bible thumping friends when they decry "Harry Potter." Here's what JP II had to say on the matter. Quoted from The Leaky Cauldron without any permission whatsoever.

In 2003... a Vatican spokesman responded to criticism that the books are anti-Christian:
"I don't see any, any problems in the Harry Potter series...I don't think there's anyone in this room who grew up without fairies, magic and angels in their imaginary world...They aren't bad. They aren't serving as a banner for an anti-Christian ideology...If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter's author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil...And she is very clear on this...[JKR is] Christian by conviction, is Christian in her mode of living, even in her way of writing."

I took out the HTML markups since they were apparently part of the problem before.