Caution Urged Over Portrayal of Wicca in Popular Teen Magazine

by Mary Rettig and Jody Brown
January 19, 2005

(AgapePress) - The February edition of Seventeen magazine has a feature in its religion section about a girl who abandoned Christianity to practice Wicca. A Christian doctor is warning of the subtle appeal of the so-called "religion."

In the article, entitled "My Religion Isn't Evil," the girl describes how she became disillusioned after her parents started attending an evangelical Christian church that, according to the article, "railed against homosexuals and taught ... that people of different religions were damned." Doubting such teachings -- and wondering why her parents would want to ascribe to them -- "Jessica" sought fulfillment in Wicca. As noted in the article, Wiccans "worship male and female deities, empower themselves through magic, and celebrate nature's cycles."

Dr. Walt Larimore, a spokesman for the Christian Medical Association, acknowledges the growing popularity of Wicca. It is often presented, he says, as "white magic" or "natural magic" -- but in fact is "Satanism or occultism at its very worst." He recalls a personal experience.

"I remember one of the first patients I saw in private practice who had entered into this secret society thinking that it was 'white magic' or that it was 'good magic,'" he recalls. "It wasn't until she had a face-to-face encounter with an evil spirit guide that literally scared her to death that she realized she was playing with some really bad medicine. Fortunately, she was able to escape."

In the Seventeen article, Jessica says she found a book called Exploring Wicca and began practicing "spells and rituals" behind closed doors. The result, she claims, was a "calming energy" that would flow through her. "It was the feeling I'd always imagined I should be feeling when I was in church -- but never did."

The young girl says she knew full well her parents would not approve of her exploration of Wicca -- and that after an altercation with her mother over a piece of Wiccan jewelry, a "rift" developed between her and her parents. In fact, she says she found such "solace" in Wicca that she chose it over her parents. She eventually "escaped the tension" at home, she says, when she left for college.

Larimore says since the beginning of time, evil has disguised itself as good -- but he points out that Christians are commanded by scripture to test the spirits. He says when that is done, Wicca's true nature of Satanism is revealed.