Wednesday 6 August 2008

Attitudes towards witchcraft

I am usually delighted when people leave comments on A Bad Witch's Blog or send me emails - it shows that people are reading it. Nearly all the comments have been complimentary, which is also lovely.

Over the past few weeks, however, I have had two emails that certainly didn't delight me. They were both in relation to blog entries I had written about a project being organised by a non-profit making group.

I didn't think I had written anything anyone could have been offended over. How wrong I was.

The first email I received said:
"The group have asked me to ask you to stop writing the blog ... they also said that due to your ways if the group is assocated with you in any way they will not get any funding or grants etc as these group of people dont look to kindly to other ways of living that isnt normal..."

Shortly after that, I got another email:

"I am writing to you on the instruction of the Officers of [group name supplied].

"It has come to the Group's notice that our website, e-mail addressesand other associate information are being publicized on your website.I understand that permission to use this information was given to youby [name supplied]. Unfortunately, [name supplied] did not have the supportof the Officers of the Group when she gave you this permission. Ishould be grateful, therefore, if you would remove all and any mentionof the [group name supplied] from your website.

"Thank you for your kind attention in this respect."
As you can see, I have removed the names of the people who emailed me and the name of the group involved from the excerpts above. I also went back through my entries and removed the name of the organisation, the website details and email address where it had appeared in the past, as requested.

To be honest, I wasn't under any legal obligation to do this. No one needs permission to put group names and website details in a blog. There is also nothing illegal in writing factual accounts of public events and activities.

I am certainly not going to "stop writing the blog" simply because someone asks me to, but if someone really doesn't want their name mentioned, I am more than happy to go along with their wishes.

Many people do still fear prejudice if their names are associated with witchcraft. I very much doubt that this group would have lost its funding simply because a witch wrote something about it, but many witches are still scared of the consequences if their wage-payers find out about their spiritual beliefs.

This does seem a sad state of affairs, considering that we live in a society that is supposed to tolerate people with different faiths and beliefs. At least witchcraft is no longer illegal in the UK - or punishable by hanging.

6 comments:

Catty said...

I'm confused by this... I mean, the most you do is provide free publicity!

Badwitch said...

Yes, I wrote a couple of blog entries about this group's project and gave a link to the group's website. I thought the group would like a bit of free publicity - sadly the group felt that it would cause more harm than good. I can't really see that the sponsors would have dropped out simply because someone unconnected with the group wrote something about them, but the group was plainly concerned about this.

Anonymous said...

Keep blogging.I look forward to reading your blogs.The Foxes,info on
witchy events and it's great.I'm just starting out on this path and your reply to one of my questions was appreciated. Blessings to you.

Badwitch said...

Thank you! Blessings to you too!

Anonymous said...

To me, this seems a little different. I agree with your point but I want to add something. I've just read a couple of your posts and I see that your style is closer to reality (truth, or whatever) and this is also irritating for many people.

Many people are comfortable with the case that witchcraft being told like a fairy tale and only like a fairy tale. I have seen many pagan and wiccan people that actually don't believe in what they say they believe.

Your practical style is very real and this is annoying for many people, I think.

Badwitch said...

That's very interesting - I can see what you mean and I think I agree with you.