One Of These Things is Not Like the Others…
Reviews for a new book by Christian author Jeffrey Dean, “The Fight of Your Life: Why Your Teen Is at Risk and What Only You Can Do About It”, have started to pop up, and it seems that Wicca is one of the “risks” teens face.
Even as he speaks bluntly about what’s really going on out there—from the new “cool homosexuality” and the rise of Wicca to the far-reaching effects of teen drug and alcohol use—Dean’s tone remains hopeful and encouraging, and for good reason.
Trying to figure out what exactly Dean says about Wicca in the book, I went to an excerpt on the publisher’s web site. There, Dean puts the dangers of Wicca into context for you.
This fight is about a tsunami of information, communication, anything- goes ethics, and the inevitable moral experimentation that results. It’s a world of light-speed Internet, texting, unlimited access to online porn, oral-sex parties, MySpace, cutting, Wicca, drinking, drugs, and more.
Yes, that’s right, Wicca is like porn, drug-use, cutting, and oral-sex parties (Seriously? Oral-sex parties? I thought that myth was debunked.). Now, I didn’t expect Dean to endorse Wicca or modern Paganism, he is Christian after all, but this is the sort of hyperbole that leads to kids getting institutionalized and punished for simply believing differently. Wicca isn’t a warning sign, and it isn’t a form of self-abuse like cutting or drug-use. Dean also continually uses spiritual warfare language throughout the book, and seems to hint that children having a different (non-Christian) belief system must be aggressively combatted. So much for that “free will” thing that Christians say God gave them. The underlying message to teens here seems to be “hide your different beliefs if you have Christian parents”. After all, if a Christian parent allows their children to think differently, they could also start cutting, or using drugs, or attending oral-sex parties.
9 responses so far
Oh, something else to think about. I'm I UU Pagan. Wonder if when my daughter hits the teen years, that means she will dabble in Conservative Christianity? Hmmm…
Frankly, I'm more concerned about teens embracing Christianity. I've witnessed the harmful psychological and emotional effects it has had on close friends.
Well, this is one of the reasons I dislike Christian writers so much. It’s so much easier to blame us than their own bad parenting, or stifling religious values.
I think that you're right.
I found paganism when I realised that christianity did not answer my questions about the world, so I found something that did.
Good point!
Sounds like Mr. Dean is in desperate need of some good weed and a hummer. Maybe then he wouldn't be so uptight.
Just kidding….well sort of….
Yes, nice to see the word "santorum" used properly.
Hahahaha!!! He's wayyy out of date? MySpace??? Cutting??? That's sooo last decade.
Hey diptherio, thanks for that. I laughed so much that if I had been drinking coffee, it would have gone all over the keyboard.