Mapletree7 posts that she finds this post of mine to be (charitably, perhaps) “somewhat prickly,” makes a couple of observations, and asks me a fair question:

I’m not Wiccan. But I’m not Christian either. I’m Jewish. Until fairly recently, there haven’t been many positive portrayals of Jews in literature. It’s been pretty much Shylock & Fagin all the way. And these twisted ideas of Jews were used to justify the worst kind of hatred and violence.

Do you know, the notion of changing the text of S.M. Stirling’s Dies the Fire so that it would suit me better hadn’t occurred to me until M7 asked this question? It’s Stirling’s book, not mine; if I got into the business of modifying all of the books that trouble me in some way or other I’d have no time for anything else. And if I were to start editing my environment in that way (as if I could), there are a host of targets I’d pick on before I ever got around to Stirling’s portrayal of Wiccans…or to Wiccans in general, so far as that goes.

What troubles me about Stirling’s book is that it implies that Wicca has gotten a firm toehold in American society, something I’d not previously realized. Given that I think that Wicca is manifestly false at best and spiritually dangerous to its practitioners at worst, I think that’s a bad thing. Not the worst defect our society has, by a long shot, but a step in the wrong direction, especially for the folks involved.

Now, M7 has pointed out that negative and unfair stereotypes of the Jews have often been used to justify horrible crimes. M7’s right, of course. But surely there’s rather a large step between stating publically that a religious movement is theologically bankrupt and encouraging persecution of members of that movement? The appropriate response to perfectly legal activities which I happen to dislike is honest criticism, which is what I’ve tried to do. Intellectual battles are fought in print, not in the street.