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Gratuitous Club Bashing 2.0: Making No Wiccan' Sense
By Jay DeVoy
[Note: Article appeared in the November 2004 Issue of the Courier, put forth by Canisius College's Republic Club and distributed on the Canisius College campus]
I don't claim to be anything more than a simple man with a liking for rock music, Tarantino movies, shiny metallic objects, and things that go fast. I do, however, understand right from wrong on an ethical and moral level, and have a fair amount of education in theology that I won’t go into here. However, when an “alternative faiths” club was meant to be started on campus- by a known Wiccan – it became very obvious to me that this was a forum for a few people to rationalize their beliefs and justify their practices through conglomeration of fellow adherents. All religions are openly embraced at Canisius, and there should be no need for such an organization, and the criticism against it reaches much deeper than a matter of acceptance. Now, I’m not going to criticize anyone’s religion, because Wicca isn’t a religion. I’m not saying that everyone should believe in God, or go to Church, or anything to that effect, there was a good portion of my life where I would be in remiss to deny that I was substantially godless, and just didn’t care.
However, you must be kidding me that someone would have the gall and belligerent ignorance to begin what will be a de facto Occult organization at Canisius College. Granted, I think the dynamic of Canisius as a Catholic college works because Campus Ministry and the Jesuits aren’t in everyone’s face being preachy all the time; I would have gone to school in Utah if I wanted hourly sermons. However, to demonstrate the theo-social incompetence needed to earnestly form a club of “alternative” religions at Canisius in unconscionable. If the religious studies department gives it credence in class, then it is an actual religion and recognizable set of beliefs, be it Islam, Daoism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and several others, demonstrating the overwhelming acceptance of such faiths, negating a need to further celebrate them in their own clubs. I can’t even believe how up in arms people would be if I tried to start the Roman Catholic club. Students here fall into to general categories: the ones who believe in a god, and the ones who don’t for whatever pseudo-intellectual reasons or honest life experiences that they use to rationalize their beliefs. Wicca is a series of rituals based in the school of thought that the individual is the master of his or her natural surroundings, and can command them through the use of spells.
Now, Wiccans will dispute this and say that they’re part of a “holistic religion” which focuses on the “white magic” or using spells for the benefit of the self or others. This is irrelevant. These are people who believe in spells and “magic”. Be an empiricist or religious aficionado as you may be, on either side, I leave you as a reader to gauge the logic and likelihood of “magic” as a governing force of the Cosmos. That a Catholic college would even potentially allow the occult to use students and student funds to establish itself on campus is absolutely beyond me. These people call themselves witches for a reason; they are determined to cast their spells and do their rituals, and it’s wholly unbelievable to me that there is student body support for this, considering that an incredibly limited number of students would be receiving your money to refute any religious or logical beliefs one may hold.
I’ve seen a lot of ridiculous things at Canisius. I remember when they tried to overhaul the budget system before we arrive at the happy, efficient and responsible medium we have now. Even more recently, MTV came and blatantly lied to the student body about the draft, two Boston Red Sox fans streaked through the quad, demonstrating the ignorance so expectedly intrinsic to that unique, mentally deficient species of fan, and when we had a bomb threat and I got out of class early. None of these are quite as preposterous, intentionally irresponsible, and unanswerable as this. It doesn’t matter what religious or personal values you hold, or where you compass of tolerance is oriented, the recognition of a Wiccan association at Canisius and the potential funding of a group that exists to celebrate neo-paganism at the expense of YOUR MONEY is abhorrent, especially when the only result will be curses and spells put out on the college. If I suddenly become ill and die sometime after the publication of this, you all know who to blame.
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