After years of Witch School International trying to build a “Salem of the Midwest” in the Rossville-Hoopeston area of Central Illinois, a move that garnered plenty of publicity and hostility as the Witches tried to co-exist in a town dominated by conservative Christians dealing with a depressed economy and a troubling meth problem, the school has decided its time to move on.

“Witch School Headquarters are closing in the Rossville-Hoopeston area of Illinois. Witch School settled from Chicago to Central Illinois in 2003, and became the center of protest by many of the Christian Churches in the area. A well-documented spiritual battle has been waged for the last six years, with open hostilities and long quiet truces by various Christian factions. Simply put, this has not allowed Witch School the staff and resources needed to keep up with their growth. On Halloween, Witch School Rossville will close permanently, and Witch School will be moving its HQ to ‘The Witch City’, Salem Mass.”

As rumored since earlier this year, Witch School will stop trying to build their own Salem, and simply join the Salem that already is. Becoming a part of the massive tourist-friendly oasis custom-built for media-hungry Witches with outsized personalities. With the move now underway, Witch School CEO Ed Hubbard wants us to know it wasn’t because of Christian hostility that they are going, but because of a lack of communications resources.

“The Churches are not the cause, they are a symptom of the problems in rural areas, and that is the lack of useful educational resources. While the United States Urban areas have been undergoing a communications and information revolution, the Digital Divide between those areas and places like Rossville IL, which has very few Internet carriers, all very expensive, and very undependable, has continued to grow. Our Internet provider has terrible customer service, and been down as much as a week at a time, on a regular basis, and we use the same one the city government uses. Also attempts to provide computer training and employment saw pressure on participants to quit and boycott the business. The Churches believing that they were ‘protecting’ the community, have rejected and blocked several attempts by Witch School to improve Internet Service in the area. So it has become necessary to find a place where we can get the online access and staff we need to continue our growth.”

Not that it will stop Hoopeston-area pastors from bragging anyway. While I’m fairly certain their Internet service will be better (and the neighbors friendlier) in Massachusetts than in rural Illinois, it isn’t a leap to assert that the costs of doing business will be far higher in Salem, so it remains to be seen how well Witch School will actually do. As for Witch School’s students, they seem for the most part to be understanding and optimistic about the change in location. No doubt you can expect Witch-School folks to be popping up on reality television shows and taking advantage of national Halloween-oriented coverage of Salem any time now.

It seems that the hardships faced by Don Lewis and Witch School by moving operations to the tiny troubled town of Rossville, Illinois has been something of a blessing in disguise. Tales of the decidedly unfriendly reactions by the predominately Christian town have graduated from regional papers, to the Chicago Tribune (which in turn prompted a mention at Get Religion), and now USA Today is reporting the story.

“Witch School opened in July on Chicago Street, the main drag here, between the Harris Insurance Agency and Wally’s Pub & Eatery. Since then, it has been the chief topic of conversation, rumors and speculation around town. The witches couldn’t be happier. ‘It’s been great for business,’ CEO Donald Lewis says. ‘I do understand that some people, not understanding what we are, might be afraid, but they shouldn’t be. – There are no headless cats, there are no missing children.’”

“Great for business” indeed, you simply can’t buy that much sympathetic press. Not only has this flood of publicity helped dampen opposition, it has also provided the school with thousands of dollars of free publicity. Which I’m sure helps when enduring some hostile prayer-circles and billboards targeting your faith. It raises the question of if the Rev. Don Lewis is far cannier than we have given him credit for, or if Witch School just happened to move to the wrong town at the right time.

Now we just have to wonder if all this press is good for modern Paganism as a whole, or simply good for Witch School’s profit margin. I’m sure many Witches and Wiccans have decidedly mixed emotions about Lewis and Witch School becoming a major public face of Wicca. Time can only tell if Witch School stays in the spotlight once the controversy fades.

The Chicago Tribune takes a closer look at Witch School’s recent move to Rossville, IL and finds a troubled town deeply unhappy with its new Pagan neighbors.

“Things were already going downhill in this small farming community when the witches arrived. Area factories had shut down. So had the local high school. A suspicious fire had gutted much of the downtown. The use of methamphetamine was destroying families. So when a group of Wiccans from out of town moved into a storefront this summer and erected a sign advertising “Witch School,” it was only a matter of time before alarm bells sounded and tempers started to boil in this village of 1,200, about 125 miles south of Chicago near the Indiana border.”

It seems that anti-Witch canvassing, regular prayer meetings, and even an anti-Pagan billboard reading “Worship the Creator not Creation” have all emerged since Witch School’s move here from Hoopeston with dreams of building a new “Salem” in the Midwest. But it may not be the Salem they were hoping for.

“‘Remember the Salem witch trials?’ resident Adam Marganski said. ‘That’s what is happening here.’ … more than 150 people filed into the shuttered high school Wednesday night for the meeting, Andy Thomas, youth minister at the Rossville Church of Christ, said residents had a spiritual responsibility to drive the witches out. If they didn’t, he said, young people were in danger of being pulled off the Christian path … ‘They’re trying to make us scapegoats,’ [Don Lewis] said as he slipped into the meeting unannounced.”

On Wednesday, another meeting was held concerning the “Witch problem” featuring speaker Robert Kurka. While Kurka presented a message of tolerance instead of hostility, this new truce seems fragile at best.

“When the meeting was over, many of the opponents appeared calmed. They vowed to turn down their anger and increase their prayers. Lewis was pleasantly surprised. “It seemed like he was trying to uphold the peace,” he said. But it was unclear how long the peace would last. When a local pastor approached Lewis shortly after to say he would pray for him, the exchange between the two men quickly heated up. It looked as if a fistfight might break out. Then Lewis decided Kurka was right. He turned and walked away.”

It remains to be seen if something like Witch School can survive in a small Christian town already troubled by economic and social problems. While tolerance should be practiced (and enforced) on all sides, one has to wonder if such ingrained hostility will ever allow the enterprise to truly flourish.