This book is a guide to the radical Christian right wing on how to combat the evil known as Goddess worship, witchcraft and paganism. The author has taken every misconception about Paganism, Witchcraft, Wicca and other new age religions and turned it into an opportunity to lambaste and label the entire movement as devil worshiping ignorant fools who are being misled. His attitude is condescending and belittling to anyone who does not follow the Christian religion.
Hawkins has written a book of intolerance and hate toward the Goddess beliefs. His closed mind on the topic has created a religiously bigoted work which misrepresents Goddess worship, witchcraft and Paganism. At the end of the book there is a section telling Christians how to approach and convert Pagans which he calls witnessing. In essence he is calling to all good Christians to help him save the misguided and lost sheep who call themselves Pagans. Statements like “We should not assume that most neo-pagans have carefully thought through their views,” and “For many neo-pagans, truth is subjective.” shows his lack of interaction with most experienced practitioners and underlines his misconceptions.
Hawkins disparages pagan beliefs for being vague, made up and incomplete. Many of his arguments, could be applied to Christianity. He states that “witches disagree about what constitutes a witch or practitioner of witchcraft. The same could be said of Christianity but he fails to note that. He criticizes the diversity within the pagan community yet there is just as much diversity within the Christian faiths. He states that “neo-pagans do not all subscribe to precisely the same views, beliefs and practices.” His criticism aptly describes the Christian faith as well yet he implies Christians are better for following the true belief.
The overtone of the book is that witchcraft is evil; while Christianity is the only true and correct religion. Do not waste your money on this book. This book is an insult to both Christians and Pagans with its intolerance and stereotyped assumptions.
~review by Eileen Troemel
Author: Craig S Hawkins
Zondervan, 1998
pp. 96, $6.99
