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The
Coalition for Religious Freedom
Since the beginnings of monotheism, religious bigots have been hunting down and persecuting Witches and Pagans. Few Americans realize the extent to which this persecution continues unabated even today.
We always hear about the saints "thrown to the lions" by Roman emperors. Yet the numbers of Christians who lost their lives for their religion were few compared to the many thousands of pagans who were tortured and executed by ecclesiastical officials or torn to pieces by howling mobs of monks when Christianity took over Rome. Christian zealots also destroyed every sacred shrine, grove, and temple they could find throughout the Empire, even burning the irreplaceable library of Alexandria because it housed "pagan learning".[1]
Christians drew their inspiration from the patriarchs of the Old Testament who obliterated the Gods and holy places of the indigenous Canaanites, and condemned their own people for honoring the goddess Asherah.[2]
From the Dark Ages on, "true believers" have preached sin and repentance while practicing remorseless genocide against all indigenous religions. Their crusades, holy wars, and inquisitions against Pagans and Witches set the precedent for the holocausts, genocides, and "ethnic cleansings" of modern times. Their missionaries have imposed churches and bibles on native peoples around the globe, enslaving their spirit in order to prepare the way for their political and economic enslavement. Little wonder that, in some parts of the world (such as South Africa), accused Witches are still being burned at the stake.[3]
Religious persecution is excruciatingly personal: it's a rejection of your spiritual choice by others. Solely because we are Witches, we are fired from our jobs, evicted from our homes, and harassed with burning crosses on our lawns. Because we practice Witchcraft, our children are taken from us by judges and social workers, our houses are torched by arsonists, and our altars and groves are desecrated by vandals. In America, outside of a few relatively tolerant metropolitan areas, almost every Witch has experienced being a target for hate crimes and wrongful prejudice.
Coven Oldenwilde's most recent encounters with religious bigotry occurred shortly before our Samhain Rite of 1997. Late one night, Lady Passion received a phone call from a man identifying himself as the chief of police. He threatened her, claiming he and his boys had ways of "making Witches disappear". Days before the Rite, city bureaucrats insisted the only way we could celebrate it in torchlight -- or any light other than the harsh glare of the floodlights at the stadium where we were allowed to conduct it -- was to obtain a $3 million event-insurance contract. We got the contract. One of the city officials then called our insurance broker, "letting him know" that Witches were involved. The insurance company promptly cancelled our coverage.
Monotheistic religions fear diversity in any form. To allow any departure from their "One Way" might lessen their claim to absolute control of humanity's access to the realm of the spirit. For century upon century, they have striven through propaganda and persecution to convince us that their dictatorship over the soul is "good", and that humanity's older, more natural forms of worship are "evil".
Many people who have become aware in recent years of the stubborn persistence of racial and sexual prejudice in this country still have no idea how deeply religious prejudice is rooted. Even the US Supreme Court, in overturning the Religious Freedom Reformation Act last year, blandly questioned whether such legal protection against religious bigotry was even necessary. (To her credit, dissenting Justice Sandra Day O'Connor issued a stinging reply that it most certainly is necessary.)
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