SOULSCAPE:
Paganism, witchcraft on rise in U.K.
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REUTERS
LONDON, June 19 — Paganism and the ancient art of witchcraft are on the rise in Britain, experts said on Thursday as the summer’s most celebrated Pagan festival approached.
Soaring Pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like “Harry Potter,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
Television, the Internet, environmentalism and even feminism have all played a role in the resurgence, they say.
Soaring Pagan numbers have churches worrying and calling for stricter controls on cult TV programs and films that celebrate sorcery like “Harry Potter,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
Record attendance is expected at dawn on Saturday morning at the mystical megaliths of Stonehenge, where Pagans have celebrated the summer solstice for thousands of years.
The trend has worried some of the Protestant church’s more traditional elements.
“The rise of interest in Paganism is damaging because it normalizes spiritual evil by presenting it as mere fantasy and fiction,” said Reverend Joel Edwards of the Evangelical Alliance, a grouping of some one million UK Christians.
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