Count me among the supposed one million plus who have walked away from Christianity since 1989. But, I assure you, it wasn’t “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” that lead me astray.
A British study recently released claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their churches over the past twenty years because they feel church is not relevant to their lives — and shows like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” have played a role in the exodus.
The research, published in a new book called “Women and Religion in the West,” says TV shows like “Buffy” offer women an appealing message of female empowerment while the old-fashioned attitudes and hierarchies of churches are causing a steep decline in the number of female worshippers.
“In short, women are abandoning the church,” writes Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby. “Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by [the pagan religion] Wicca, popularized by the TV series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church.”
Her research cites an English Church census which found that more than a million women worshippers have left churches since 1989, and that women have been leaving churches at twice the rate of men.
Good grief. OK. Well, if television shows such as “Buffy” or “Charmed,” or movies like “The Craft” have had anything to do with the increase in female pagans of late, then let’s hope once they started actually studying paganism (and, oh please, Goddess, tell me they studied) they learned that the entertainment industry knows about as much about true paganism as the Pope. In other words, you don’t want to learn what paganism is all about from television or movies any more than you would attend Catholic mass to learn more about what it is to be a witch.
That’s not to say that there haven’t been some movies that have come close to portraying pagans correctly. “Practical Magic” wasn’t too far off. And “The Mists of Avalon” and “King Arthur” are both excellent interpretations of the Arthurian legend with a more pagan flavor than the Holy Grail chasing, Christian-influenced versions of past centuries. I recommend these films to anyone with the need to watch something about pagans, but one still must take in the content with a grain of salt.
No. Unfortunately, Hollywood is still a long, long way from truly understanding what wicca and other pagan paths are truly about. Or maybe they do understand, but the truth wouldn’t sell as well at the box office. Feeding into that Christian paranoia and creating movies like “The Wicker Man” to demonize pagans and reinforce the propanda the church elders taught us growing up is still what the public at large really wants. The Church may not be able to get away with torturing or burning us at the stake anymore, but in many ways, witch hunts still continue.
