Word: witchcraft
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Potter. If, for instance, you utter this charm to Anna Hinkley, 9, a third-grader in Santa Monica, Calif., here is what you will learn: "What happens in the first book, Harry discovers that he's a wizard, and he's going to a school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. At the station he meets a boy named Ron, who's also going to Hogwarts. And on the train, they meet a girl named Hermione..." Given enough time, Anna will tell you the entire plot of a 309-page novel called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...
Joyce Brown, the town's part-time mayor, doesn't care for the film's subject matter--"When it comes to witchcraft, we're a Christian community"--but is savvy enough to have ordered up a town website to set the record straight. Other locals see Blair Witch as a kind of mistaken-identity comedy. "Everybody's kind of laughing," says Robin Goetz, a library clerk. "Why, no one could get lost in our woods. All you'd have to do to get out is walk down toward the farm property...
...when a photo of a torchlight ritual appeared in a local paper. As word spread, Christian groups and politicians denounced the Wiccans as both satanic and inappropriate in the U.S. Army. Eleven religious organizations called on Christians not to enlist or re-enlist until the Army stops supporting witchcraft. "What's next?" asked Republican Congressman Bob Barr in a letter to Fort Hood's commander. "Will armored divisions be forced to travel with sacrificial animals for satanic rituals?" G.O.P. Senator Strom Thurmond vowed to introduce legislation to stop the armed forces from condoning witchcraft. The Army shrugs at such complaints...
...their own martyr. Cassie Bernall's life and death have inspired millions of Americans, but the tribe to which she belonged was that of adolescent evangelicalism. One need attend only one youth gathering to collect an anthology of similar stories: a lost teen dabbles in drugs and witchcraft, finally comes to Jesus and joins a mission to gang members. The difference in Cassie's case was the remarkable act of Christian witness that followed. Some reports have her simply answering yes when the Columbine gunman asked if she believed in God; others record the reply, "There...
...believe in God?" was murdered when she said yes. We expect our martyrs to be etched in stained glass, not carrying a backpack and worrying about their weight and their finals. Hers is a mystery story, the tale of a girl lost to bad friends and drugs and witchcraft and all the dark places of teenage rebellion. Even a youth minister who had some experience turning poisoned kids around had little hope for her. "I remember thinking when I met her," says church volunteer Vali Wilson, "that nothing was going to penetrate that shell." Her parents were advised to take...