Dear Editor;

I am writing to voice my disappointment in your article on Witchcraft at

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,115001+1+108515,00.html

I am sorry to say that the above article has a propagandist tone to it. Wicca, an alternate term for the religion of Witchcraft, is recognized by the United States government as a valid religion, and the U.S. military recognizes its Wiccan members and includes Wiccans in the ranks of its clergy. Wiccan religious groups are given the same church status by the U.S. government as Catholic churches, Jewish synagogues, and Muslim mosques. I can understand stating a history of the PERCEPTION of Witchcraft (as does J.B. Russell in the book, which you cited in your bibliography, "A History of Witchcraft - Sorcerers, Heretics, and Pagans" ... a book which the author of the article in question apparently did not read very attentively), but to dismiss the current practice of Witchcraft as you do in the following quote is a gross abuse of journalistic ethics:

"The incorrect use of the term refers to persons claiming to be witches and reported to belong to covens, who assemble on appropriate calendrical occasions for sabbaths at which they perform rituals according to a tradition that the coven leaders claim descends from earlier witches. This kind of "witchcraft," judging by the way in which its participants freely acknowledge their adherence, seems highly respectable compared with the activities of the despised and hated miscreants of earlier periods in our own society or of contemporary nonliterate or peasant communities. These so-called witches claim to be adherents of an ancient religion, the one to which Christianity is regarded as a counter-religion, and in this way they seek to secure public recognition of their eccentric activities by appealing to the cherished modern value of religious toleration."

Some of the errors in the above quote are as follows:

-Witches do not regard Christianity as a counter-religion. It is just another religion, as are Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc., and is to be respected as such. To Witches, all religious paths deserve respect.
-Witchcraft as a religion does not seek "public recognition", nor does it need such recognition to validate itself. Further, if the author had researched modern Witchcraft instead of dismissing it in one paragraph, s/he would know that Witchcraft is a non-proselytizing religion.
-The final sentence of this paragraph deserves a further note. The obviously biased word "eccentric", contrasted to the "cherished moral values" the author cites, are sensationalist press disguised by a thin (and not very well applied) veneer of scholarship. The bias of the author is also quite apparent in his/her implied invalidation of practitioners of the religion of Witchcraft with the words "claiming to be witches", "reported to belong to covens", and "so-called witches."
-Finally, stating that a nationally recognized religion is "the incorrect use of the term" is just not true. The author is clearly far out of step with the times. I would wonder when this article was last reviewed for update.

Moving on to a few more of your errors:

"Moreover, both beliefs [sorcery and Witchcraft] derive from the same worldview, or cosmology, one that has been described as the closed predicament (i.e., one in which any alternatives to traditional beliefs are unthinkable) as opposed to the open one that is considered to prevail in more enlightened modern societies." -- Actually, the best examples of the "closed predicament" are the worldviews of fundamentalist Moslems and fundamentalist Christians. Both claim to have the One Truth, and reject all other beliefs as, at best, wrong, and at worst, evil. May I point out also that Christianity and Islam are the two dominant religions of the world... the "enlightened modern" world. In contrast, one of the basic tenets of Witchcraft, as stated above, is non-proselytization.

"These practitioners usually turn out to be entirely sincere but misguided people who have been directly or indirectly influenced by Margaret Murray's article "Witchcraft," published in the 14th edition of Encyclopędia Britannica (1929), which put forth in its most popular form her theory that the witches of western Europe were the lingering adherents of a once general pagan religion that has been displaced, though not completely, by Christianity." -- Firstly, I have never seen Ms. Murray's article in your encyclopedia cited as a source. However, I HAVE seen her books "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" and "God of the Witches" cited as sources. You may want to look these up... they are still available in bookstores today, whereas I doubt the 14th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica is as easily found. Secondly, many Witches now agree with the current anthropological view that Ms. Murray's conclusions are based on somewhat thin evidence. On another point, would you characterize Moslems, Hindus, Christians, or Buddhists as "entirely sincere but misguided people"? They, too, are followers of a recognized religion.

I'd like to point out just a few more things:

Using the Brittanica.com search engine, I performed a search for "Witchcraft" and found the article in question, as well as several other links. When I performed a search for "Wicca," I found that Encyclopedia Brittanica does not have an entry for that word. One of the links that did come up, however, was to the "Witchcraft and Wicca" page at www.religioustolerance.org. I enjoy the irony of a link from a site such as yours which seems to promulgate religious bias to a site devoted to religious tolerance.

Finally, whether your author acknowledges the fact or not, Witchcraft is a recognized, valid religion. I would ask that, in the (hopefully very near future) update of this article, the encyclopedia brittanica have the courtesy to capitalize the "W" in Witchcraft, just as the "C" is capitalized in Christianity, the "M" in Moslem, the "B" in Buddhist, the "H" in Hinduism, and even the "S" in Scientology.

Please rectify the erroneous parts of this article.

Sincerely,
Thomas Kopp