The "FALSE PROPHET" has opened up a can of worms!
The pastor of Fairview Community Church has taken a leaf out of Pope Francis' book concerning grace--if God's grace covers everyone, including atheists and non-Christians, it covers Wiccans too. Wicca is a federally recognized religion in America. Its members either practice in groups (covens), or are solitary. It is a nature centered religion that recognizes Deity as both male and female–God and Goddess, and from there Wiccans and Pagans follow their own chosen pantheons, or in the case of this one, simply God and Goddess. Besides being a grossly misunderstood religion–Wiccans and Pagans are often characterized as Satan worshippers who sacrifice animals even though there is no Satan in the Wiccan faith–and animals are considered to be as sacred as humans–the truth is Wiccans believe Satan to be a human created Christian construct and thus, not a part of their religion. Some Wiccans don't like to be called witches, others are proud to reclaim the name from centuries of smear tactics by the Catholic church whose militaristic arm, the Inquisition, burned thousands at the stake for being different, non-Catholic, or who practiced herbalism, or healed people when male physicians could not–a person in Europe could be killed for being a witch for nearly any reason. The European witchcraft hysteria was a disease that was spread to early colonial America and erupted in 1692. Christian magistrates responded to the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts, by sentencing innocent women and a man, some young, some elderly, to be hanged (the man was pressed to death) as witches based on spectral evidence, European methods of witchfinding, and the hearsay and wild accusations of "devout" Christian neighbors. (To experience what this would have been like had you been accused, you can experience it here courtesy of National Geographic).
Because of this negative perception of Wicca, Wiccans as a minority faith in a nation ofChristians who serve in the military had to fight for over ten years to get the right to put their religious symbol, a pentacle, on military gravestones when killed in action. "The Wild Hunt" at Patheos.com explains:
In April of 2007 the Bush Administration agreed to a settlement that paved the way for approval of the Wiccan pentacle to be engraved on government-issued headstones and markers, bringing to an end a campaign that lasted a decade, one that saw casual anti-Pagan demagoguery morph into government policy. Nearly five years after that historicsettlement, the number of grave markers with the pentacle emblem, according to iPad-formatted news magazine The Daily, has risen dramatically.
