Goddess Worship in the News & Expelled: The Movie

A few newsy snacks relating to goddess worship and paganism...

• Earth worship on the rise among evangelical youth. Concerned Women for America reports that "many young people in evangelical churches are experimenting with the Wiccan religion....[citing] an article in Religion Journal which said youth pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention were worried about large numbers of evangelicals taking part in Wicca, a religion that involves nature worship, stresses moral autonomy, and includes remedies and spells." The article points to recent books and TV shows featuring Wiccan and witchcraft themes and suggests that they effectively kindle teen interest in "moral autonomy," as well as spell casting and earth worship.  (from "Earth worship on the rise among evangelical youth," by Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 2/25/2008)
• MTV sits up and takes notice with "Young witches explain what they're really about." MTV online just ran a story about a 24 year-old Montana man, a witch who goes by the name Raven Digitalis. He's been a pagan priest for 4 years, and roams the streets of Missoula in a black trenchcoat, lace gloves, and purple eyeshadow (and a flair for the theatrical, methinks). He's pretty articulate about the appeal of paganism/goddess worship; Digitalis explains that people are drawn to personal empowerment, environmentalism, equality of the sexes, and the concept of karma. He also suggests there's a strong bent towards individualism:"Some people don't feel God in the church, so they seek out different expressions of God that are more personal or mystic," said Raven, who has mentored younger Pagans and is active in the online community. "[Witchcraft] is revolting against common views of God. That's a huge part of the appeal, especially for young people — that you don't have to follow the herd." (from "Far From Devil Worship and 'Harry Potter,' Young Witches Explain What They're Really about, "by Alex Mar, 3/25/2008)
• A new book suggests parents must guard against neopagan influence. "More than three-quarters of America's youth have engaged in at lease one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity, beyond media exposure or horoscope usage," according to a new book by Linda Harvey called Not My Child: Contemporary Paganism & the New Spirituality. Harvey, founder of Mission America, says that nature-based ritual and sorcery are being offered on the all-you-can-eat American buffet to children of all ages while parents stand by, smiling indulgently while their children absorb the messages. Scary stuff; what should we do? Harvey maintains that "the task before us is to get our priorities straight and courageously show our kids the value of truth and the Christian worldview."
• Speaking of worldview, go see the new Ben Stein movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. My husband and I saw it last night and found it to be thought provoking, entertaining, and sometimes frightening. Stein, an actor, game show host, writer, and attorney, is widely considered the funniest Republican in Hollywood. He's also smart and opinionated. Expelled is his attempt to shake Americans awake to the scientific establishment's agenda to disseminate its atheistic worldview while quashing any other. Scientists open to the idea of intelligent design are openly, and on film, deemed ignorant and stupid by prominent Darwinians, along with being censured and sometimes fired from their posts at American universities. The film ends with Stein's interview with Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion.  Suffice it to say that Dawkins does not come off well and will probably not be putting this interview in his portfolio.

Meanwhile, there's a bit of an argument brewing in evangelical circles over a new allegorical best-selling novel called The Shack. Some Christians love it; some hate it. The controversy revolves around the portrayal of the trinity, specifically God the Father, portrayed as a woman. Shades of goddess worship? More in my next post....

Comments

[UtteceSwath]

Hi Everybody...

Just joined the forum and thought I'd say hello.

Kudos to the mods on making such a great place to hang out on.

[Mirele]

Oh my! Portraying God the Father as a *woman* is shades of goddess worship?!

How about the idea that you're worshipping a male human being when you're praying and praising Jesus? You can elide it all you want by saying, "oh, he's both god and man at the same time," but the fact of the matter is that you're bowing down and worshipping the same biological matter that you yourself are made up of.

Why is it OK to pray and praise males (God the Father and Jesus Christ the male son and the Holy Spirit, described as a male "Lord" in the Nicene creed), but if we step outside of that maleness, it's a *big problem*?

The thing is, Christians (and I used to be one until rather recently, so I know) get all huffy about goddess worship, because it's the worship of the feminine element, but fail to see the overwhelming masculine element within Christianity. Maleness is worshipped and praised and exalted within Christianity, whereas femaleness is seen as weak and sinful and Other. Or the woman is placed upon a pedestal and worshipped as virgin, unattainable, mother of God. Neither of these ideas (commonly spoken of as the virgin/whore idea of women) are at all healthy to women, Nor is the idea that godliness is encapsulated within words such as father, son and lord, and he, him and his when referring to a supposedly infinite and eternal God.

I can totally understand why people would go to the other side in goddess worship, if only to make up for the lack in their previous spiritual diet.

But it surely is funny to me to hear all this huffing and puffing from male god worshippers about possibly imaging god as female, when you fail to see your own god worship as limited to a biological sex and its presumed attributes.

God is not limited to one sex (or even both sexes) in attributes. God is God. Not some human conception.

Goddess worship has its problems, but the same problems can be turned back upon god worshippers as well. Why should you freak out about goddess worship when you're limiting who God is by saying God can only be imaged in a particular relationship (father) or as a particular sex (male)?

Frankly, goddess worship is holding up an uncomfortable mirror to the god worshippers, one that is long overdue.

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SUSY RESPONDS...
The problem with Goddess worship, as I see it, Miele, is that the Goddess is not the same as God. They are two different entities. They have different qualities, messages, and promises. Their worshippers hold to very different beliefs on the core issues on the origin of life, on the identity and person of Jesus, on evil, death, reincarnation, sin, on the nature of people, on the Bible, and lots of other things.

The message of Jesus and the Gospel is for each individual person, with gender not an issue.

But who God is, what He says, and what He offers? That's the core issue.