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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 19212
[Crime]
Date Posted:
1/11/2008
10:17:47 am EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 6,638
RSS: 16,686
Comments: 11
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Wicca Expert Says Don't Blame Religion For Sioux City Murders
Author: Karla James Source: Radio Iowa
Title: WICCA EXPERT SAYS DON'T BLAME RELIGION FOR SIOUX CITY MURDERS
The funerals are today in Sioux City for the two young sisters who were allegedly murdered by their stepfather during what police say was a Satanic ritual. The bodies of eight-year-old Alysha Suing and her ten-year-old sister, Kendra, were found Sunday in their burning home.
Self-described pagan Lawrence Harris is charged in the killings and reportedly told police a "spell went bad." Leslie McQuaid, of Omaha, is an expert on Wicca and says don't blame the religion for the acts of one individual. McQuaid says, "It's disappointing not only for the faith that he professed to practice but also very tragic that parenting skills have become so poor that people who are in need of assistance wait too long to get professional help."
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Community Thoughts: There are 11 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| At Least... | Jan 13th. at 10:15:02 am EST
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Aritimi Morgana (RotterdamJct/Schdy/Scotia, New York) - Email Me
the perpetrator was portrayed as 'self-described'. He may have thought he was Wiccan, but by his monstrous actions he is most definitely not. It was a welcome change to hear the true pagan mentioned in the article as an 'expert', without the snide remarks so quickly following it.
These are the situations that simply scream for us pagans as a community to stop keeping our heads buried in the sand and defend our beliefs. We need to get out there and explain to the public who and what we are and more importantly, what we are NOT.
I am getting so tired of seeing articles in which some nutcase committing a crime is immediately identified as one of us. I am tired of seeing our beliefs reduced to fluff and nonsense by ignorant journalists who go talk to the loudmouthed crackpots in the gold lame muumuus claiming to be Atlantean high priestesses in a past life, spouting about witchcraft and use them as their 'Wicca experts'.
I don't ever want to hear about something like this happening to anyone again. It sickened me to my core and if this doesn't motivate us to do something, I don't know what will.
These are the incidents that should force us to get over our spiritual differences and come together as a community. I'm not saying that all of us pagans have to follow a singular tradition, but we need to join forces.
If we continue to bicker and fight amongst ourselves, we will continue to be smeared by the media. I feel very personal about this and I will continue to speak my mind about this because I feel it is our duty to speak the truth of our beliefs.
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| He Was A Wannabe Fraud | Jan 12th. at 10:48:28 am EST
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foreverknightfan (Dardanelle, Arkansas) - Email Me
If one poster is right in that Larry Harris was doing the "witchcraft" claim for shock value and wasn't actually studying Wicca, "witchcraft" or magick, it confirms my suspicion that Harris killed the girls to cover up something rather than the " spell gone wrong" excuse he claimed he did. I hope the trial will reveal more.
Harris claimed he was doing a "destruction spell" to protect his three-year old boy. The girls were not biologiclaly his and the mother was off at work. Obviously he knew nothing of the Rede nor did he bother to actually study the subject enough.
Assuming, OC, he was telling the truth, which I seriously doubt.
As for the coverage, it's too soon to say for sure, but while there has been some balanced and fair coverage showing what Harris did has nothing to do with Wicca, I have found a few blogs thats how some malicousness about this and attacks Wicca.
I figured he was a grab-and-do dabbler who did the "witchcraft" for show. The actual reason why he killed the two girls hasn't been revealed yet, but I can guess what this scum was covering up.
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| A Matter Of Percentages | Jan 12th. at 5:06:03 am EST
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Talyn Wyzmaaj (Quapaw, Oklahoma) - Email Me
If you were to visit a prison and poll to find out what faith the criminals there have.... you would get a large percentage of Christians. Does this mean that Christianity makes murderers? No, there are crazies and criminals of all faiths. The fact that most people in prison are Christian is not a statement on Christianity, so much as it is a statement that this particular faith is the Majority. Those criminals might CALL themselves Christian, but they aren't very good at it, or else they wouldn't be murderers and rapists. As Wicca becomes more popular and has a larger number of followers in the world, there are naturally going to be a larger number of criminals who claim it. It is not a reflection of the beliefs of Wicca, as these criminals are obviously not very good Wiccans... being immoral or unethical or evil in the first place. It is not Wicca that caused this man to be a murderer... it is something else, perhaps in his personallity. As Wiccans become a larger percentage of the general population, there will be groups within the group... rich, poor, fat, thin, old, young.... and even criminals will form a small percent.
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| Fill In The Blanks? | Jan 11th. at 9:03:44 pm EST
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Maeven (Los Angeles, California) - Email Me
I don't know of ANY protection spells that include strangulation and stabbing. If the guy blacked out while he murdered children, that's a mental disorder, not a spell.
I appreciate the attempt by the author to clarify that what this man did outrages our community. I am so very pleased that a statement like that has finally been said to the press, but...
I don't recognize his actions as Wicca, nor any other tradition I know of. They also again confused Satanism and Wicca, and this man is clearly mentally ill. I'd say it goes WAY beyond poor parenting skills.
I know our beliefs tend to attract fringe elements, but let's call a spade a spade--what he did was not magick, it was madness and horrific for those poor girls. I would really like to see our community further separate out the misconceptions and the truth to the press. Our way is already confusing enough to outsiders. Yes, we are outraged on behalf of those children but what he did was NOT a "spell gone bad." Those poor girls fell victim to the violence of a man suffering from a mental illness--it was not about religion.
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| While I Appreciate The (Assumed) Intent... | Jan 11th. at 5:25:56 pm EST
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Mysteries Child (Garfield, Arkansas) - Email Me
...what this article actually achieves is reminding me just how direly this country needs English/Language Arts teachers of some appreciable level of competence, higher writing literacy standards, and better composition programs.
I belive them who wrote it relly does have good intentons.
However, I'm also tempted to copy it to my old 9th grade English teacher. I'm sure he'd find it full of instructive potential. Unfortunately, I'm equally sure he'd pop an artery reading it.
It's good to try, but sometimes trying right really does matter.
I know (or anyway believe) that I'm being oversensitive; however, given the content of the article, I wonder if someone might be using the tragedy to advance the grinding of a Witch War axe in the old group tradition vs. solitary debate.
Here in the Bible Belt, one Pagan solitary feels no safer in her community thanks to the effort.
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| Oh Great! | Jan 11th. at 11:35:23 am EST
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karrie9 (Kenosha, Wisconsin) - Email Me - Web
The article is so poorly written that it seems to **validate** the already rampant assumption that "Satanism" and "Wicca" are different terms for the same thing.
That’s a concern because purposeful ignorance is yet formidable due to the fact that many believe that mainstream/God will keep them safe…and everything else is just whacked, hateful (because they’re not Christian/mainstream) , and dangerous.
As soon as it proves true that **all** sectors of society suffer abuse and crime, as soon as someone somehow linked with Paganism and/or magic commits a crime, those perps become icons beholden to mainstream creedism – to many in society they become representative all Wicca/Satanism and the occult (which is conveniently thrown in a mishmash bin) .
In reaction to the challenge of definition and identity, I next expect the ‘solitaire/eclectic vs. tradition’ dichotomy to flare up once again, despite the fact that “eclecticism” comes from Greek eklektikos, "choosing the best" (something the perp certainly wasn't doing) , despite the fact that many famous historical figures were in fact eclectic [Web LINK] , and despite the fact that Wicca itself was born of an eclectic mix.
Some of most serious arise when identity is tied more to type path/religion [Web LINK] than to demonstrable character, virtues, and knowledge [Web LINK] [Web LINK] … and the problems are so monstrous that it’s usually the area of “moral/religious improvement” that humans bicker, create false dilemmas, and even kill each other over. Then it’s back to really dumb tribal behaviors, all while society hasn’t better addressed domestic abuse [Web LINK] and learned empowerment. [Web LINK] [Web LINK]
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| Jeez...."AREN'T Highly Regarded" | Jan 11th. at 11:17:44 am EST
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Devi Spring (Toronto, Ontario) - Email Me
Don't type while eating and don't type before your morning tea.
Sorry.
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| These Acts Are "highly-regarded" By Pagans?? | Jan 11th. at 11:16:53 am EST
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Devi Spring (Toronto, Ontario) - Email Me
Maybe I'm feeling nit-picky today, but isn't that a bit of an understatement? That statement kinda feels like we don't really condone it, but it's not the worst thing that could happen??
I feel this article SHOULD have been much more strongly worded.
It also seems to imply that an un-affiliated person calling themselves Pagan should never have tried to a ritual involving stabbing and strangling, but a properly trained and certified Pagan could have. The comparison between this guy doing this "protection" ritual, to a non-clergy Catholic performing an exorcism is not a truely accurate one. AT ALL.
Another line that peeves me, is that this could be a real blow to a religion that already has PR problems. True-ish. However, that particular wording makes it sound like there are unsavory aspects to the faith, as opposed to it being misunderstood due to propaganda.
Ok. Enough of my ranting for today. The INTENT of the piece seemed innocent enough (I hope) . I just think that alot of inferrances in the style and wording of it did more harm than good in this case.
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