According to a book by two Christian researchers, Wicca - often known as "witchcraft" - is the fastest growing religion in the United States. Marla Alupoaicei and Dillon Burroughs' book Generation Hex estimates that the number of Wicca practitioners is doubling every thirty months. And it's not just in places like the West Coast and Salem, Massachusetts either: Wicca is enjoying just as much tremendous popularity in the American South. It has been calculated that by 2012 Wicca will be second only to Christianity as the most practiced faith in America.I can believe it. Several years ago when I was a reporter in Asheville, I covered something called the "We Still Pray" rally at a local high school's football stadium. A few days later the pagans of the community said that it wasn't fair for a publicly-funded facility to cater solely to the Christians, and they threatened to sue unless they got equal access. So less than a month later I also got to cover the "We Still Work Magic" rally at the same location, and I was extremely surprised at the large turnout that came. It paled next to the tens of thousands who clogged I-40 and the Blue Ridge Parkway trying to get into the "We Still Pray" rally, but the stands of the place still wound up rather full.
And it pains me to say this, but I think the number of Wiccans who came to their own rally, were more sincere about their beliefs than the multitude of Christians who came for the "We Still Pray" event.
There is a lesson, I believe, that those who profess to follow Christ should consider: that to proclaim ourselves as "Christians" can not be about religion. But that it exactly what we have turned Christianity into: a label, a "brand name" competing with several others. To follow Christ is about real relationship with God: something that should only cause us to change and grow like unto Him. The evidence of Him in our lives should be our love for others and our love for truth. But in the absence of those things - and I will dare say that there is such an absence - then it's only natural that those around us who are without Christ will look elsewhere for spiritual satisfaction. And not all the Bible-thumping and screaming about it that we could do, will change that.
