Wiccan Wonders: Into the Forest Once More

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You can’t avoid it. Unless you plan on living in a cave for the remainder of this life, you’re going to have to admit it: discrimination happens.

Religion is a touchy issue, especially these days. We all claim to be accepting and open, but once you tell someone that you’re Wiccan, they may either not know what it is (which sometimes is actually a good thing) or think they know – and discriminate against you for it. Because of all the misconceptions still floating around, people think that Wiccans are crazy, evil, etc. This scares them. And why shouldn’t it? If you thought someone was sacrificing babies to a demon, wouldn’t you be afraid of them? The problem occurs when these things aren’t true and people still believe them and act against those they think are "bad."

Before I get into what discrimination is and what you should and shouldn’t do about it, I’ll first mention another important issue: what discrimination isn’t. There is a huge difference from a hate crime and discrimination and someone who just doesn’t agree with Wicca. I think it’s important to address this because when people don’t realize this, it can create bad problems, such as fighting and legal battle over nothing.

Discrimination is not occurring if the person is not in some way excluding you from something, hurting you physically and./or emotionally, or taking away your rights based on your religion. Not only do people sometimes say that they are being harassed because someone thinks Wicca is bad and has said that to them, they also cry discrimination when they lose any job. Yes, sometimes people are unfairly discriminated against in the workplace, but people also need to start considering that maybe they were fired because they were not what the job was looking for. To help you realize this difference, here’s a simple list of scenarios in which something happens to a Wiccan. Try to decide what the answer is, then see if you are right by looking at the answers listed under all of the scenarios (clicking on the number of the question will also quickly lead you to its answer).

1) A Wiccan teen is in History class one day when the teacher finally hands back an assignment the students had to do. The assignment was to pick a religion and research it, then write a research paper on it including things like what followers of that religion believe, how they practice, key deities, etc. The student chose Christianity and spent the whole assignment ranting about Christians persecuting other religions (namely, Wicca) and how they are bad people. The teacher gave them an ‘F’ on the assignment, telling the student that they didn’t meet the given requirements. Is it justified for the student to go to the principal and ask to have the grade changed on the basis that the teacher was discriminating against Wicca?

2) A Wiccan woman gets a job at an office-building. She’s doing a great job and getting rave reviews from her boss in the first month. Later, she even gets a raise. One day, she wears her pentacle necklace to work. Her boss sees her – and it, shining on her neck – and goes to his office. The next day, despite her doing the same amount of work she always did (and maybe even more), she is called into her boss’ office and fired. When she asks why, her boss just says she’s no longer doing as good as they want, all the while staring at her necklace. Should she try to bring the legal system into the case?

3) A Wiccan family goes on vacation and makes sure to lock their doors before they leave. While they are gone, someone (or maybe a group) breaks into their house and destroys all of their obvious Wiccan decorations and steals all the money that was in plain sight. Note that the only things that were touched other than the money were items like a pentacle wall-hanging, an altar and all of the supplies on it, etc. were broken. Should they call it in as a hate crime?

4) A Wiccan is taking a ride in an elevator up a tall building. On the way up, the Wiccan meets a nice man that is wearing a big shiny cross necklace. They get into a conversation about their religions and the man admits that he thinks Wicca is silly. Is it right for the Wiccan to be angry with him or claim to others that he harassed her?

Okay, that’s all for now. Here are the answers:

1) The answer to this one is simple: no. If anything, the student may want to talk to the teacher about redoing the assignment. The teacher did a great job by giving the student a bad grade because ranting about another religion is a bad and rude thing to do. If the student wanted a good grade, they should have just written a truthful paper about Christianity and how Christians practice. Realize, though, that if he had done exactly as asked and written a good paper, there could be grounds there for getting the teacher in trouble. If this happens to you or someone you know, ask the principal or some other person like that about it and see if you truly deserved the bad grade. If you just didn’t do a good job, ask the teacher about it and see if they’ll let you redo the paper after making recommended changes.

2) This one is a little tricky. Even if the woman thinks she has been doing a great job, she may have been getting worse without realizing it. On the other hand, maybe the pentacle did have something to do with her bring fired. Let it be known that firing someone on the basis of religion is against the law. If something like this happens to you and you think it is truly because you are Wiccan that you were fired, talk to a lawyer about it. Wiccans have the same legal rights as anyone else.

3) Like number 2, this could be tricky. Either way, the family should go to the police about this crime, but whether or not it is, indeed, a hate crime is up to the police. If they police say it is, then there’s your answer. If they say no, then it might not be. If this happens to you and you are fairly sure it is a hate crime, make sure to tell the police and your lawyer (if it goes to court) about your thoughts. Makes sure to record things, have pictures of the damage, etc. in case you need to firmly back your thoughts.

4) This one is very simple. No, the Wiccan has no real right to be mad. Sure, they may feel a little angry at first that someone would say that they think Wicca is silly, but everyone has a right to their opinion. The Wiccan’s best course of action would be to simply to go on with their life and not be "offended" by the opinion of another person.

If you didn’t get one or more of these correct, you may want to pay close attention to this next part: what discrimination, then, is.

Discrimination is only occurring if you are being hurt, mentally or physically, if someone you know id being hurt, mentally or physically, and/or your rights or the rights of someone you know are being taken away based on your religion. Of course, if it’s not based on your religion, it is still discrimination, but I can’t help you with that here. If it is based on your religion, though, be sure to check out this link for more on what legal action you can take. Before acting, make sure you are positive it is based on your religion and if you are not sure, ask someone else. Get more opinions. Also, be sure to write down every detail of what happened to you, whatever it is that did, and date everything so that you have some proof that it happened.