           A CHRISTIAN SPEAKS ON THE FAITH AND PATH OF WICCA
                        by James Clement Taylor

I am a Christian and not a Wiccan.  A Christian is one who has been
baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who has
made a personal, free-will decision to commit himself and all his or her
life to our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Both of these things
are true of me.  I am a Greek Orthodox Christian, a member of St. Mary's
Eastern Orthodox Church, Calhan, Colorado.  In this paper, I am not speaking
as agent for any church, but I am, entirely on my own responsibility,
speaking the truth in love, as we Christians are supposed to do.

A Situation of Strife and Shame:

There are many Christians today who believe that anyone who is not a
Christian is doomed to an eternity of suffering in hell.  Any decent
person, believing this, would be compelled to try to save as many people
from this fate as possible.  But is this belief correct?  Jesus Christ,
having noted the faith and righteousness of a Roman centurion, a Pagan,
proclaimed:

       "Assuredly I say to you, I have not found such great faith,
        not even in Israel!  And I say to you that many will come
        from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and
        Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.  But the sons of the king-
        dom will be cast out into outer darkness.  There will be
        weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 8:10-12)

If we accept these words as true, and surely we should, then it is clear
that heaven will contain many who are not Christians, and hell will
contain many who are!  Clearly, throughout the Gospels, Jesus Christ
sets forth the criteria for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, and
those criteria include love, kindness, forgiveness, and a refusal to
judge others:

        "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
         Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive
         men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
         your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)

        "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and
         with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to
         you." (Matthew 7:2)

        "But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy and not
         sacrifice.'" (Matthew 9:13)

        "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
         Judge not, and you shall not be judged.  Condemn not, and
         you shall not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be for-
         given." (Luke 6:36-38)

Is it not clear?  Anyone who fails in these things, will calling himself
a Christian save him?  Anyone who obeys God in these things, will being
unbaptized condemn him?  Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord,
Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

In addition to these words from the Gospel, let us look at the words of
Micah the Prophet, centuries earlier, who wrote:

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:6-8)

Where, in any of this, does it say what doctrines one is to believe, or
whose teachings concerning reality one must accept?  All these things speak
on how one ACTS, how one lives one's life, the kind of person one's actions
gradually bring into being.

Yet it is not by good works that we earn our way into heaven, because
there is no way we can earn the free gift of God's mercy and grace, which
alone can save us.  But it is clear that it is not by faith, in the
sense of sharing the Christian faith, that we are saved, either.  The
faith which saves us is not faith in the goodness of our works, nor
faith that we have the right theology and/or belong to the right church.
Rather, it is faith in God, and in His mercy:

       "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs,
        but of God who has mercy."  (Romans 9:16)

But the Wiccans, you will say, do not have faith in God.  Yet by their
own theology, they certainly do.  Those who call them Satan-worshippers
are entirely wrong.  They do not worship Satan, or even believe that
Satan exists.  Instead, they worship a Goddess and a God whom they
understand as manifestations of a higher and unknown Deity.

Now if you are a Christian, this will sound familiar to you, and it
should.  In the Bible we find the following:

       "Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said,
        `Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are
        very religious; for as I was passing through and con-
        sidering the objects of your worship, I even found an
        altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
        Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing,
        Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)

The Wiccans worship the Unknown God, as manifested to them in the form
of a Goddess and a God.  Therefore, our Bible tells us they worship the
same God we do; and if they do not know this, we should know it!

For those of us who are unable to simply stand on God's Word, and must
prove to themselves the truth of what it proclaims the holy Apostle John
has given us the method for doing this.  You have only to attend any
public Wiccan ceremony, and test the spirits which are there, to see
"whether they are of God" (1 John 4:1).

You will find that, while you may perceive the power manifested there as
less than what you have experienced as a Christian, that power is clearly
the power of God.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, these people of Wicca have been
terribly slandered by us.  They have lost jobs, and homes, and places of
business because we have assured others that they worship Satan, which
they do not.  We have persecuted them, and God will hold us accountable
for this, you may be sure, for He has said, "Assuredly I say to you,
inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did
it to Me." (Matthew 25:40)

Let us, from this point onward, repent of our misdeeds and declare that
henceforth we shall obey Christ our God, and not judge others or condemn
them, so that He will not have to judge and condemn us for our sins.

*     Z
*   F O S
*     E

Light & Life,
James Clement Taylor
