Burning Times Official Site

Merry Meet! A few months ago when I visited your site, you had some form letters to send to school principals, mayors, police stations, etc. I have an officer of my Coven whom is having trouble with her newly dedicated 11 year old daughter's teacher and school administrators. This beautiful Faerie Goddaughter of mine was born on Samhaim and when this was brought to the teacher's attention, she humiliated and invalidated her birthday, faith, and her families chosen
religion in front of her peers by what amounts to an important role model. I of course was outraged, and took two months to calm down enough to write a rational, reasonable response to the incident. Along with the letter to the teacher, I sent about 2 inches of literature from
many of the better Wicca sites explaining what it is today, and that we're a peaceful and beautiful religion who allows freedom and respect for differing &/or opposing faith systems, and why can't she do the same in return. I also included some famous quotes by scholars, philosophers, authors, and religious icons about prejudice, (some taken directly from an unexpergated version of the Bible.) The response back from that teacher, her superiors and collegues has been very encouraging and a formal apology infront of her classmates was made. And now almost all the staff at that school has either read the literature or accessed the recommended sites or books. However, the principal is a real stubborn son-of-a-gun, (and I suspect a Taurus,) and wants to see more specific stuff on the laws and mandates that dictate recognition and respect from government employees. Perchance I've misremembered the content of your form letters, but I believe they are just what I'm needing. If I am mistaken, maybe you could steer me in the right direction to look.
Thankyou for your time and consideration in this matter and any help you may have will be greatly appreciated. By the way, this occured in a Metro Denver Area Elementary School. If you would like a more detailed account for your site, please do not hesitate to contact me at frayednerves@juno.com

"My persecution as a result of being Wicca started like 1-2 weeks before Samhain Halloween).....i'm homeschooled cuz the public schools in my city suck...and i take these once-a-week classes for highschool credits, like language and dissection...anyways..in my oil painting class we got into a theological discussion..i have no idea how the discussion started but somewhere in the middle of all that i openly stated: "i'm not a christian." well well well...hell broke loose..the teacher started going insane and kept saying to me: "you're gonna go to hell. you're gonna go to hell if you don't believe." i piped up and said: "why don't you do some research on it and decide for yourself whether it's evil or not?" she replied: "you're gonna go to hell."

one of the kids got the guts and asked: "what is Wicca?" …"witchcraft" the dumb teacher replied. and she said it so low and whispery....so now everyone at that school (btw, it's GRACE Homeschooled Association at the 7th reformed church...) thinks i'm a satanist. james, this kid who i think has a crush on me, likes to talk me and all but when his mother enters the room..he quickly gets up and ignores me...so i want nothing to do with him....and when that discussion came about..i happened to be sittingnext to james..the preacher's boy..the mama's boy...the "i'm the best" attitude snowboarder....my family and i have tried to go after them legally..but their registered as a private organization so i can't sue them for religious discimination.. This year is my final year and after that i'm going to a public school in a suburb of my city..when i'm outta there...me and dad are gonna go after them with fire...mom's still in denial and everyone thing that, deep down, i'm still a christian which is bull...i'm about to initiate myself cuz i'm a solitary practitioner... it's a long story...and it made me realize that most of the ppl in america suck....it twisted my mind around to think that all christians suck..well..they DO! of course...but some are actually openminded...anyways....you can read this story at http://members.tripod.com/~pagan22/expert.html and i received a stupid letter from the big boss man which you can read here: http://members.tripod.com/~pagan22/letter.html

btw, to anyone reading this...i live in grand rapids, michigan..part of the damn midwest bible belt... -alex lperkins@voyager.net

"I recently had to do a report for my English teacher. He said we could do anything we wanted to do it on, as long as it was not too broad of a subject, in which case we could narrow it down to a specific point that interested us. So my best friend and I thought it would be the perfect chance to sharpen some skills, and learn more about our religion, and express the truth to our peers in the class. The teacher gave us a few ideas, ie. Salem Witch Trials. Well our teacher is a MAJOR Christian, but we ignored that. He assumed we were Christian also, so he allowed us to do our reports on witchcraft. Well after a few days of researching the topic, he found that we were not Christian, but Pagan, and realized that we would not be doing our report on the Salem Witch Trials as through the eyes of a Christian but through the eyes of another Witch. He immediately threw the book at us. Called the Principal in, made us talk about our decision, and tried to tell us that Christianity is THE ONLY WAY. And any other way is false and we would burn in hell. But, being the way we are, they saw we would not budge our beliefs. So they gave us each a bible and made us swear we would follow Gods way. We both apologized for wasting their time, set the bibles gently on the desk, and said no thank you, and preceeded to exit the room. They rushed back and hauled us back in, well this went on for hours. And continued on the next day. So finally we broke down and told them we woud be Christian, don't worry, it was just an excuse to get away from them.

So he allowed us to go back to class, and begin work on our reports. Again he found we were doing it from our Pagan beliefs, so he, knowing his Christianity thing would not work on us, said we could not do our specified topic for it was too broad. So he narrowed it down for us. Basically changing what it was. So I said, forget it, I will do mine on the truth about Witchcraft. Again, too broad. So I narrowed it down to Christian Opposition to Witchcraft. Yep you guessed it!!!! Too broad.

This guy wouldn't let us do anythign we wanted, so finally I stormed out of the room, and screamed, "Then just for you! I will do my report on 'Why Christianity is Wrong!!" and left the room. The next day he was very polite to me. I was wearing my normal attire, but no hat, I allowed my neck length black hair to hang over my face all through class, only to scare him. He was so polite I almost felt sorry for the guy. I feel he was truly scared of me. After class I went up to him, and told him that I would be doing my report on the prophecies of nostradomas, or that of Stone Henge. He agreed they would be good topics, and sent me on my way. Then the due date came around. I proceeded into his class, again hair hanging down, a queer smirk on my face, and glared at him as I handed in my 17 page paper. The maximum was 12 pages. The title? Closed Minds to the Old Gods.

He sat down, and read the whole thing. Ignoreing the class for the entire period. When he finished, he looked down upon himself for a few moments, I think he was crying, got up and walked over to me, slammed my paper down in my face, and screamed, in front of everyone. "You shall BURN in hell with all of the wrath of God and his furies! This is absurdity, and will not be tolerated in my class! "

He failed me. he wouldn't allow me to redo a paper or anything, not that I wanted to, I expressed my point that I am not Christian and do not believe in its ways. So basically I won, though I failed my senior english my first semester, I won! Cause he had to read the paper.

A few days later, he approached me and asked that I give him the paper back. Thinking he was going to turn it in to the school board I got scared, I questioned him, and he replied that he only wanted to read it once more. So I happily handed it over, and later that day I was called into his room during his prep hour, and to my astonishment, he gave me 600 points out of a possible 500. Stating my report was excellent, well researched, and the best he had ever read.

Well to finish this I am proud to state, that not only did I receive the best grade in the entire Senior class, but my dear old english teacher, has dropped his Christian ways and has started a Pagan worship with me, to learn more about it, and still apologizes for what he said. MAY THE TRUTH BE HEARD!! Blessed Be!

P.S. I apologize if this is a bit lengthy. I am just very proud of my accomplishment.

Sincerely, Derwin