Wicca Experts Encourage Christians to Engage America's 'Fastest-Growing' Religion

Julie »

Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:29 pm Agree: 9   Disagree: 2

Interesting article. From the article, it seems as though, in a nutshell, that Generation Hex is a book designed to convert Wiccans into Christians using sweet, rather than sour, overtones. It also seems as though the book's secondary goal is to thwart personal spiritual and religious exploration, promoting only limited exploration within the confines of Christianity.

As for the author's long-term friendship approach to Wiccans, I can tell you from my own experience that this does not work. It is not true friendship when the Christian person's only goal is to convert their Wiccan friend to Christianity, and not to simply nurture a friendship between two people with two different views on religion. It gets grating to hear a "friend" keep bringing up scripture in conversation and interjecting into conversation their own morals and values, no matter how subtle they think they're being. It's also disrespectful, and therefore insulting, when someone whom you consider a friend constantly questions your own values and personal identity, no matter how nice or well-meaning they are.

True friendship is when people enjoy each other for who they are. True friends learn and grow from one another, using their differences to enrich each other's lives. If a Christian can't befriend a Wiccan (or a Muslim or a Jew) for reasons other than trying to "save" them, or even point them in the direction of the Christian God, then the friendship will not have a solid foundation and any possibility of meaningful camaraderie will fizzle. This approach to friendship is the basis for peace; if people cannot agree to disagree and accept each other's differences, the world will continue fighting over religious, moral and political beliefs. From this perspective, trying to convert someone seems petty and self-serving (or is it any other way?).

What I am getting from this article is that Generation Hex seems like a useless tome of re-hashed ploys of sugar-coated conversion.