A Frightening Thought

I was interviewing a pastor the other day about a youth event, and we started talking about Asheville, N.C. He said that last year (2005) around Halloween in New York about 50 or so witches, warlocks or so gathered.
Not enough to worry about, you say.
In Atlanta around the same time there were about 80 gathered for the same kind of event.
Who cares you say?
The problem is where it might lead.
In Asheville, there were around 600, yes, I typed 600.
The pastor said the witches and other new age, occult leaders believe there's something mystical in the mountains. Some come for the ancient Indian burial grounds.

Below are two articles about pagan worship in Asheville and a woman from Tennessee who says she is a witch and a Christian. The first story had a fairly lengthy list of events associated around the "holiday"

During Samhain, pagans worship the Earth, ancestors
(Asheville Citizen-Times)
ASHEVILLE — On Tuesday, members of the Earth Religions, such as Wicca, celebrate the most sacred day of the year.
Known as Samhain (pronounced SOW-in), the day is the final of three Pagan harvest celebrations and a day to commemorate ancestors and others who have died.
“This is the big one for us,” said Byron Ballard, a high priestess and a founder of the Coalition of Earth Religions for Education and Support. “This is the beginning of the Celtic winter and the celebration of our new year.”
The biggest event in the region this year is Tuesday evening on the grounds of Unity Center for Christianity on Fanning Bridge Road in Fletcher. Several thousand people are expected to attend the 12th annual Samhain celebration sponsored by Oldenwilde Coven.
“People know we do this every year now, it’s always free, and we don’t allow any selling,” said Dixie Deerman, also known as Lady Passion, the high priestess of Oldenwilde. “We have been promoting it on our Web site, so people know about it.”
Deerman said the Oldenwilde Samhain is joyful and reverent.
“What we do has meaning and purpose,” she said.
The event will include a spiral dance, during which participants dance in concentric circles, plus a maze trance dance, tribal music, a costume contest, harp music around the balefires and more. Children can enjoy autumn games such as “bat bowling” and candy corn relay races.
Earth religions are the oldest on the planet, Ballard said. They predate monotheistic religions by many centuries.
“People worshipped the forces that brought them their food and their lives,” she said. “In ancient times, people celebrated the change of the seasons and remembered the people who had come before.”
Pagans — the umbrella term for people of all Earth religions — believe the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest on this night. Originally, Celtic people celebrated the Feast of the Dead by leaving food on altars and doorsteps for the wandering dead. Single candles were lit and left in a window to help guide the spirits of ancestors and loved ones home, and extra chairs were set at the table and around the hearth for the unseen guests.
Samhain was when cattle and other livestock were slaughtered for eating during the winter, and any crops still in the field on Samhain, considered taboo, were left as offerings to the nature spirits.
Pagans built bonfires (originally called bone-fires, because the bones were thrown in the fire after the feast as offerings for healthy and plentiful livestock in the coming year). Stones were marked with people’s names, then thrown into the fire, to be retrieved in the morning. The condition of the retrieved stone foretold that person’s fortune in the coming year.
Pagans also lit hearth fires from the village bonfire to ensure unity, and the ashes were spread over the harvested fields to protect and bless the land.
Many Pagans believe the six weeks between the autumnal equinox, called Mabon, and Samhain are a time for introspection and contemplation, Ballard said.
Today, Pagan religions are emerging again, after centuries of persecution, Ballard and Deerman said.
“There were times we had to call the police because we felt threatened,” Ballard said. “We have had our religious ceremonies picketed and invaded.”
But the religions are growing as people become disillusioned with what Deerman calls “the dominant paradigm.”
“It’s about universal love of the land and knowing … we’re all integrally connected,” Deerman said. “We find the sacred in the land and in humanity.”

Something Wiccan This Way Comes
By KAY CAMPBELL
Religion News Service
FAYETTEVILLE, Tenn. -- Rebecca Walkoff knows that she could never pass a
psychological test. "I hear voices," Walkoff, 47, said as she enjoyed a
cigarette outside her store, The Moon Willow, just off the Fayetteville
Square. "I see visions."
Walkoff shrugged, her green eyes twinkling, and snubbed out the
cigarette.
"Magic is everywhere you look, if you're inclined to see it," she said.
"I'd rather be a person who sees it."
She's untroubled by an outside assessment of her sanity or what people
think of her when she identifies herself as a Christian Wiccan.
Though she considers herself a believer in Jesus, Walkoff also embraces
a label, "witch," that was a death sentence for an estimated 100,000 people,
mostly women, during the European witch-hunting period from 1450 to 1700.
The mass hysteria by church leaders was "one of the longest and most bizarre
delusions in Western history," says Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World
Religions.
Walkoff is quick to assure questioners that she does not worship the
devil -- Wiccans do not believe in a devil -- and that the Wiccan creed is
"And it harm none, do what you will," a creed that guarantees that she tries
to generate only good energy and deeds.
"We don't do black magic," Walkoff said. "According to the Wiccan Law of
Three, anything you put out, you'll get back times three."
Walkoff pushed open the door of the little shop. Inside, a spicy herb
smell lingered around racks of greeting cards. Tendrils of steam wound out
of the nostrils of a dragon perched over a decorative fog lamp. Halloween
costumes crowded a rack next to a pile of chunky crystals. Somewhere a
fountain splashed.
Walkoff's store features some herbs, minerals and other basic equipment
used by Wiccans for casting spells or making herbal potions. It also
includes jewelry made of simple semi-precious gems, books about magic and
herbs, but also house decorations, candles and the playful kitsch of Harry
Potter, fairies and elves.
Walkoff believes that her prayers led her to the Fayetteville Square, a
historic district with a thriving antiques clientele and shoppers from
around the region. What she's found in Fayetteville are a lot of friendly
people, she said, even if her shop does raise a few eyebrows.
In case a visitor misses the possibility that the store offers
Wiccan-friendly materials, a banner on the wall is emblazoned with a star
inside a circle. The symbol, for Wiccans, symbolizes that the spiritual
world, the point at the top, rules over the four elements of the material
world: air, earth, fire, water. A Satan worshipper would reverse the
pentagram, asserting that the material world controls the spiritual world,
Walkoff said.
(A Nevada widow recently won a fight to have a Wiccan pentagram placed
beside her husband's name on a veterans' memorial wall. Currently, the
Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize Wicca as an official
religion.)
One grandmother, Walkoff said, wandered into the store with her
grandchildren. When she glimpsed the pentagram on the wall, she reacted
immediately.
"Come on, kids, we've got to go," she said. "This place is evil."
Joanny Simpler, Walkoff's sister, manages the store most days. She said
most people have been very friendly to her, and the customers they've
attracted since opening last summer have been loyal.
"Everybody needs to meet them," said Mary Ann Marsh, who sells
advertisements for The Exchange, a local shopper, which takes her into every
shop on the square. "It's enlightening."
Walkoff enjoys combining whimsy and witchcraft in the shop. The
combination isn't that unusual in Wicca. The religion is still defining
itself after being recovered in 1939 by Englishman Gerald B. Gardner and his
partner, Doreen Valiente, according to the Encyclopedia of World Religions.
The two culled rituals from English folklore, world mythology and other
writers on mysticism and goddess traditions.
It wasn't the physics aspect that attracted Walkoff to Wicca, she said.
It was the inclusion of a female divine force and the emphasis on letting
people figure out things for themselves.
"They say in society one of the biggest problems we have is families
with just one parent," Walkoff said. "I say, in the church, where's the
goddess? Let's put the mother back."
Wiccan rituals, hinged on the changes of the moon and the seasons,
celebrate the rhythms of life and a feminine appreciation of connections,
she said. When she stumbled upon the system of beliefs that are part of
Wicca, Walkoff realized that she had found the group she had been moving
toward naturally on her own.
Walkoff said she knew early that she had psychic gifts. She said she
gave her mother messages from her deceased grandfather when she was 2. She
grew up with an Irish mother and part-Cherokee father and said her household
was filled with folk knowledge about herbs and some shamanistic practices.
"It was never anything but commonplace with my family," Walkoff said.
"It was only when I got out into the world that I realized what other people
thought of it."
Walkoff wishes people would not fear Wicca. In fact, she thinks other
believers, including Christians and Muslims, could even learn something from
Wiccans.
"I think they could learn to relax, to stop being so serious," Walkoff
said. "And to stop killing people in the name of God. There never was a war
fought in the name of Wicca."

Giving in obedience

When I was little my parents always tithed for me. I never really got an allowance until much later — when I was living with my grandmother and aunt during the week. And then, the money given didn't cover the expenses of buying reeds for my saxophone, paying for lunch, etc. I didn't learn the importance of tithing.
A recent report released by empty tomb, inc. said that according to church members in 2004, giving was down compared to previous years.

The article said: "Church members gave 2.56 percent of their income, down from 3.11 percent in 1968.
"The Illinois-based Christian research organization found that giving to benevolent causes — activities focused outside the congregation — as a portion of income increased slightly in 2004 from the 2003 level. The levels for 2003 and 2004 both rounded to 0.38 percent, the lowest in the 37-year period empty tomb has tracked such numbers.
"Empty tomb reported the rate of giving to congregational finances — the funding of internal operations of the congregation — began to recover in 1993 but was down in 2003 and 2004. The portion of income given to congregational finances declined more than activities focused on benevolences, the study found.
"For each dollar donated to a congregation, denominations spent 2 cents on overseas missions in 2004, down from 7 cents in the 1920s. The study’s authors, John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, said evangelical Christians could complete the task of global evangelization for 7 cents per member per day.
"Using statistics published by the Southern Baptist Convention for 2004, empty tomb determined that 1 cent of each dollar given to an SBC church ultimately makes it way to the International Mission Board to support missionaries.
dditional data is available through the empty tomb website, www.emptytomb.org, and the entire report is available in a book called “The State of Church Giving through 2004.”

I pray this is not correct. One cent of every dollar given to a Southern Baptist Convention church ultimately makes it to the Interational Mission Board. Since Cooperative Program giving and Annie Armstrong reports are up, can you imagine what Lottie Moon might be this year — well, technically next year? And that apparently is only one cent on the dollar given to SBC churches!
Imagine, if you will, a world in which all church members tithed!
I've never seen it, and in a world full of greedy people I don't imagine it will ever happen. But I can continue to pray and share the many blessings I've received by being faithful in tithing to my local church.

Giving in obedience

When I was little my parents always tithed for me. I never really got an allowance until much later — when I was living with my grandmother and aunt during the week. And then, the money given didn't cover the expenses of buying reeds for my saxophone, paying for lunch, etc. I didn't learn the importance of tithing.
A recent report released by empty tomb, inc. said that according to church members in 2004, giving was down compared to previous years.

The article said: "Church members gave 2.56 percent of their income, down from 3.11 percent in 1968.
"The Illinois-based Christian research organization found that giving to benevolent causes — activities focused outside the congregation — as a portion of income increased slightly in 2004 from the 2003 level. The levels for 2003 and 2004 both rounded to 0.38 percent, the lowest in the 37-year period empty tomb has tracked such numbers.
"Empty tomb reported the rate of giving to congregational finances — the funding of internal operations of the congregation — began to recover in 1993 but was down in 2003 and 2004. The portion of income given to congregational finances declined more than activities focused on benevolences, the study found.
"For each dollar donated to a congregation, denominations spent 2 cents on overseas missions in 2004, down from 7 cents in the 1920s. The study’s authors, John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, said evangelical Christians could complete the task of global evangelization for 7 cents per member per day.
"Using statistics published by the Southern Baptist Convention for 2004, empty tomb determined that 1 cent of each dollar given to an SBC church ultimately makes it way to the International Mission Board to support missionaries.
dditional data is available through the empty tomb website, www.emptytomb.org, and the entire report is available in a book called “The State of Church Giving through 2004.”

I pray this is not correct. One cent of every dollar given to a Southern Baptist Convention church ultimately makes it to the Interational Mission Board. Since Cooperative Program giving and Annie Armstrong reports are up, can you imagine what Lottie Moon might be this year — well, technically next year? And that apparently is only one cent on the dollar given to SBC churches!
Imagine, if you will, a world in which all church members tithed!
I've never seen it, and in a world full of greedy people I don't imagine it will ever happen. But I can continue to pray and share the many blessings I've received by being faithful in tithing to my local church.

Talk about obedience

Part of my job is looking at other articles about Baptists and the work God has called them to around the world. The other day when I was looking at some Baptist newspapers online and came across this photograph.

The caption said: If new believers wish to be baptized before Spring, Siberian Baptist church members carve a hole in the ice of a local lake with axes for the ordinance. The Siberian pastor who conducted this baptism last winter gave this photo to members of a mission team from Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola who worked with an International Mission Board strategist to send pastors and wives to Siberia.

WOW! I remember when I was baptized. I was 15. It was February, and the church had just built a new sanctuary in a new location. I was among the first baptized there. The day I was baptized the water heater went out so the water was pretty cold. But I will say it was Alabama cold, not Siberia cold!
To this day tears form in my eyes each time I see a baptism. It is such a public demonstration of complete submission to God and His complete cleansing of our sins. Being raised to a new life takes on a whole new meaning.
PRAISE GOD from whom all blessings flow!

Feeling the crunch!

Some days it just seems you don’t have enough time to get all you need done. Well, I should say most days. Now that I’m working full time and going to school full time, I have a lot more days like that…
This summer, it was quite different. I moved to Raleigh in May and started work. May, June, July and much of August was spent getting to know the area, looking for a few pieces of furniture for the apartment, etc. I also managed to read a few books — for fun!
But that is all over. And, oddly enough, I’m enjoying myself now too. I never thought I would enjoy learning Hebrew as much as I am. Don’t mistake this emotion for in any way being fluent or to indicate that this is easy.
Being one of three women in the class of 50+, I feel the pressure to represent. I am also the oldest woman in the class but definitely not the oldest person.
Since I’ve been out of college a little more than 10 years, I’m definitely feeling the crunch — a certain number of hours to work, homework piling up for all three of my classes, classes to attend, papers to write, quizzes and tests to take, church to attend, orchestra, quiet time — did I say quiet? When do I have TIME for that?
One of things I’ve learned is that if you are following God’s will, which is what I believe I am doing, He makes TIME stretch. TIME has no hold on my GOD! He is beyond all we can imagine.

Facing the Giants

If you haven't already seen it, go see "Facing the Giants". I finally got to see the whole thing Sept. 29. It was wonderful. Please support Christian movies in the theater.