True Crime

In 1951 the Witchcraft Act (of 1735) was finally repealed.

Sixty years on I am able to practice my craft without fear of prosecution. Oh, there's persecution from time to time, a little religious bigotry here, a touch of condescension there. A lot of willful misunderstanding. But at the end of the day, I'm legal! I'm here, I'm queer... Sorry, wearing the wrong minority hat for a minute there :)

The comparison is somewhat apt though. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in England in 1967. Both groups have been condemned by the church, demonised and ridiculed in turn by the tabloids. Both are said to indulge in 'unnatural practices'. Two small sectors of society, compartmentalised by the misconceptions of the public at large.

(The big difference between being gay and being a witch; I chose to take up the craft. Sexual preference is a fallacy (phallus-ey?) - I did not choose to be gay. Better instead to call it sexual determination. Something in our genetic make-up determines who we get the hots for and we have no more choice in the matter than we do over our height, our eye colour. But I digress.)

It is so easy in these enlightened, tolerant times (heh!) to forget where we came from, how much easier we have things than those who came before us. And yet...

When civil partnerships became legal between same-sex couples in 2005 there was an outcry! The moral crusaders felt that by allowing gay couples the same rights as heterosexuals that it would somehow erode the moral fibre of society. I'm not sure just how us evil homos were going to achieve this.
I remember one protester who insisted that marriage was for the sole purpose of begetting children. I always thought it was a declaration of love, but then I'm just an old romantic. Besides, how many kids are born out of wedlock? How many heterosexual couples choose not to have kids? How many all-girl couples do? All-guy couples too for that matter, but they need a lot more than a turkey baster...

And the tabloids seem unable to seperate witchcraft from satanism, gleefully mislabeling them as one and the same. Satanists worship Satan, an wholly Christian creation. Nothing to do with us pagans.

Even Pope Benedict XVI got a few sly digs in. Back in 2003 when he was just Cardinal Ratzinger, he wrote a letter of concern about the Harry Potter novels. He felt that the tales of magic and witchcraft were 'subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul.' He was a little late jumping on that bandwagon.
In 2002 pastor Jack D. Brock of Almagordo in southern New Mexico announced to his congregation that Harry Potter was, in fact, the devil. Well, I suppose they are both fictional characters.
It wasn't the first time that the people of Almagordo had spoken out against Mr. Potter though. The year before, they had burned copies of Harry Potter books alongside novels by Stephen King, ouija boards and, oddly, AC/DC records.

Now book burning... There should be a law against that.