Girl suspended for...

[Duelist925]

Witchcraft!

A girl in Oklahoma was suspended from her school for reportedly casting a spell that made her teacher sick.
....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95218&page=1

My home state ladies and gents. This is so monumentally stupid, and thats not even getting into her religious rights being violated. -_-

[s_stabeler]

on the facts of the case ( accused because the teacher was sick, and had read about Wicca- not even actually being Wiccan) but a student actually claiming to cast a spell on a teacher to make them sick, and the teacher getting sick, is a different story.

[Andara Bledin]

Just an FYI, but the story is from October of 2000, so not exactly current news.

The depressing part of the whole story is that despite it being a pretty much stellar example of serious misconduct on the part of the school in the form of religious discrimination, the judge dismissed the case and ordered the family to pay $6000 in court fees. Which were the dropped, but only after they agreed not to appeal. >_<

[Rageaholic]

I'm trying to come up with a good Harry Potter joke here, but I got nothing so Avada Kedavra!

[Ginger Tea]

This was on last nights WTFIWWY so either it has had a resurgence in social media feeds or it's damn near identical to the 2000 case.

[Gravekeeper]

I assume everyone involved then went home and laughed at some news story from South Africa where they accused a man of being a shape shifting goat.

[HYHYBT]

Just an FYI, but the story is from October of 2000, so not exactly current news.

The depressing part of the whole story is that despite it being a pretty much stellar example of serious misconduct on the part of the school in the form of religious discrimination, the judge dismissed the case and ordered the family to pay $6000 in court fees. Which were the dropped, but only after they agreed not to appeal. >_<

How did *that* happen?

[s_stabeler]

probably partially because Wicca is moderately obscure- not least, it doesn't help that as a organized religion, it dates from the 1960s. ( Wicca claims to be a revival of older religions. Because it is obscure, and fairly secretive, there isn't that much widely known about it. Lack of knowledge breeds fear, after all.

[fireheart17]

probably partially because Wicca is moderately obscure- not least, it doesn't help that as a organized religion, it dates from the 1960s. ( Wicca claims to be a revival of older religions. Because it is obscure, and fairly secretive, there isn't that much widely known about it. Lack of knowledge breeds fear, after all.

Also there are so many different variations of Wicca, it's kinda hard to work out what's "true" and what's "not."

[Rapscallion]

Also there are so many different variations of Wicca, it's kinda hard to work out what's "true" and what's "not."

On the plus side, there's no mainstream religion like that at all!

[/sarcasm]

Rapscallion

[fireheart17]

On the plus side, there's no mainstream religion like that at all!

[/sarcasm]

Rapscallion

Most mainstream religions tend to keep the lines between sects of a particular religion very clear. There's not a lot of blurring between them.

[Panacea]

on the facts of the case ( accused because the teacher was sick, and had read about Wicca- not even actually being Wiccan) but a student actually claiming to cast a spell on a teacher to make them sick, and the teacher getting sick, is a different story.

In this case, it sounds like the student was browbeaten into a "confession."

But even if the student was genuinely Wiccan, there's a big difference between casting a spell and it actually working. Occam's Razor tells me a simple case of gastroenteritis a much more likely story. Which makes me wonder what the principal's beef with this girl is?

I assume everyone involved then went home and laughed at some news story from South Africa where they accused a man of being a shape shifting goat.

That's actually not so funny. There are African nations where "witches" are being hunted and murdered.

Most mainstream religions tend to keep the lines between sects of a particular religion very clear. There's not a lot of blurring between them.

I don't know that I agree with that. The only substantial difference between Anglicans and Catholics is who the head of the church is. Didn't stop them from killing one another for a few centuries.

[Gravekeeper]

That's actually not so funny. There are African nations where "witches" are being hunted and murdered.

That was my point.

[Hyena Dandy]

I don't know that I agree with that. The only substantial difference between Anglicans and Catholics is who the head of the church is. Didn't stop them from killing one another for a few centuries.

It's very different between Anglicans/Catholics and between various types of Wiccan.

The Anglicans and Catholics may have essentially identical doctrines... But the Anglicans are Anglicans and the Catholics are Catholics. If you're a Catholic, you can tell someone "I'm a Catholic" and another Catholic will know what, exactly, that entails. They may make a decision on whether or not they think you're a 'good' or 'bad' Catholic, but they still know you're a Catholic. Indeed, if a Catholic says I'm Catholic, and the only difference between that and an ANglican was the use of the word "Catholic' and "Anglican" that difference would still be DEFINED, rather than the Wiccans, for whom there are as many paths as there are Wiccans (for some, that's a central belief.)

As for what's 'true/false' about the origins of the religion, again, it's very different between Wiccans and most mainstream faiths.

On the plus side, there's no mainstream religion like that at all!

Glad we were able to get the petty insults into the this thread, I was afraid there might be substance to the discussion.

But it's not true in the same way, no. Wiccans don't necessarily agree on what they think the origins are. Some say it's the oldest religion, some say it dates to the middle ages, some say it's from Gardner. But unlike, say, Jews, who have a faith which says [X] which they may and may not think is true literally... Or Christians, who believe a starting point but disagree on the specifics, or Hindus who know their beliefs are old, have proof of that, but may not agree on an exact date - Or care - Or Buddhists who, like Christians, generally agree on a starting point, which may or may not be TRUE, but is certainly part of the faith, or Shintoists, which like the Jews have a faith which says one thing that may and may not be literally believed, or most revivalist faiths, which agree on what they're reviving and where it's from, many Wiccans don't necessarily agree on what they're reviving, if they're reviving anything at all, and what the beliefs of that revival would be, if indeed they were. And unlike Hellenists/Asatru/Etc, it's not "We're reviving the beliefs of these ancient people, as best we can" it's "We're reviving these ancient beliefs" and "We're making this up as we go along" and "We're doing what Gardner said, even if he made up the whole ancient thing." There are some for whom it's "We're reviving ancient beliefs that faded, and doing our best at it" and others who are "We're continuing an unbroken tradition dating back to the dawn of man" and these are all things that the people who think that is a part of the belief.

This would be similar, metaphorically, to Catholics thinking that Jesus lived in the first Century AD, Orthodox thinking he lived at the dawn of man, and Lutherans thinking he was born and the Bible was written in 1924. (The Muslims are fortunate enough to have an archaeological record of their founding.)

It's really not at all fair to either Wicca, or other faiths, to compare the two. And I'm not trying to degrade Wicca by saying that such is unclear - What I'm trying to say is that Wicca's vastly different, not necessarily inferior, and the differences amongst Wiccans are nearly unique even in neopagan faiths.

[s_stabeler]

In this case, it sounds like the student was browbeaten into a "confession."

But even if the student was genuinely Wiccan, there's a big difference between casting a spell and it actually working. Occam's Razor tells me a simple case of gastroenteritis a much more likely story. Which makes me wonder what the principal's beef with this girl is?

I'm saying that if a Wiccan schoolkid claimed to cast a spell to make someone sick, it should at least be treated as an attempted attack on the teacher. In this case, the girl wasn't even Wiccan. (she's Roman Catholic, as it ahppens)