pagannews:

ABC News reports that a Saudi woman has been beheaded for “practicing witchcraft and sorcery,” according to the Saudi Interior Ministry. The Arab newspaper al Hayat says that authorities who searched Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar’s home found books on witchcraft and a number of glass bottles “full of an unknown liquid used for sorcery.”

Interestingly, according to Saudi law, “witchcraft and sorcery” are not specifically defined as crimes. Phillip Luther of Amnesty International says that such charges are often used as a way for the government to silence those who might be exercising freedom of speech.

One thing that’s important to note is that in many Middle Eastern countries, “witchcraft” is not viewed the same as the way Neopagans in the western world see it. It’s typically considered “low magic,” and is perceived as harmful magical practice involving the invoking of spirits or djinn and the sale of curses and spells.

Don’t you love how when it’s considered wrong or socially unacceptable to persecute someone for exercising free speech, they’ll find some other way to take them down?

Swallowing The Camel recently put up a couple of posts about Elaine Moses and Rebecca Brown, two woman who claimed to have been involved with a worldwide Satanic cult.  Moses claimed that she had been the “queen of the witches” and was sent by her dear hubby Satan (yes, really) to kill Rebecca Brown, a lone Good Little Christian working at a Satanic hospital who ultimately saved her would-be assassin from the clutches of the Devil.  That’s the really short version; I really recommend you visit STC to get the rest of the story.  The absurdity of her deranged claims will shock and astonish.

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Anyhoo, while reading STC, it becomes pretty clear that there are some common themes among the stories of most ex-Satanists:

• They almost always claim to have been someone important.  High priest, high priestess, queen of the witches, whatever.
• They never know exactly what they’re getting into when they initially join.  They’re just poor innocent widdle suckers.
• The ex-Satanists claim to have awesome demonic superpowers before they converted.
• Chick tracts somehow have the magical ability to convert them to Christianity after they’ve become hardcore Satanists.

Chick tracts aside, these stories read like some kind of Mary Sue fantasy!  The innocent-at-induction trope allows them to retain some semblance of innocence.  Even though they were involved in terrible things, they are still sympathetic because they were seduced unawares or forced into them without really understanding what they were doing before they were overtaken by the forces of evil.

The Satanic super powers and positions of high rank are nothing more than poorly-disguised power fantasies.  Oh, they were bad, yes, so very very bad.  But they were powerful, and power is undeniably fun, even if it is “bad.”  The only thing they give it up for is even more power.  They don’t quit being a baby-sacrificing Satanist because they decide it’s immoral; they quit because they realize Jesus is more powerful than the baby-sacrificing Satanists.

Posing as Satanic experts has probably allowed them to make their power fantasies a reality because they have hundreds, if not thousands of followers hanging onto their every word.

As for the Chick tracts, my guess is that many of them tell Jack Chick that it was a Chick tract that converted them just to butter the old guy up so he’ll publish and plug their books.  Sadly, Chick’s BS-detector seems to be completely broken (if he ever had one to begin with), and he promotes these peoples’ stories uncritically.