http://speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=3062

Ex-priest says Harry Potter led him to Wicca

A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Martin Barillas

A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.

Ex-priest says Harry Potter led him to Wicca

http://speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=3062


Ex-priest says Harry Potter led him to Wicca


A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan
priest.

http://speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=3062


Ex-priest says Harry Potter led him to Wicca


A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.



Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Martin Barillas


A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.

By most standards, Wayne Haney appears entirely normal. He is a teacher
of World History and American History at North Branch High School in
rural Lapeer County in Michigan, approximately 80 miles north of
Detroit. He is 41 years old, married, and the father of two.

Haney was not raised in a church, but he began attending a Episcopal
church in Plainwell Michigan during his high school years. Eventually
Haney attended Virginia Theological Seminary and became an Episcopalian
priest, serving his church in New Hampshire and Michigan.

But Haney says after serving only five years as a priest, he left the
Episcopalian church over "the strain of leading a Christian flock
while not fully being able to believe the message I was preaching."

This dropped him "into what might be called a very early mid-life
crisis" that required psychological treatment, according to an
article in the Battle Creek Enquirer (03/04/06). Haney was contacted by
Spero News, but declined to comment. Instead, Haney referred Spero News
to the Battlecreek Enquirer article for material.

None of this would seem remarkable to most parents and other observers,
other than the fact that Haney is now a practicing minister of the
Sacred Birch Society, a Wiccan group that meets regularly in the Lapeer
Michigan area.

Claiming that he does not proselytize, Haney hopes nonetheless to be a
resource for enquirers into his new found faith. Wiccans claim that
their system of beliefs is compatible with other religions, even while
they deny Christian teachings as to the identity of Jesus Christ. Some
Wiccans also deny the label of "Satanist" since they deny the
existence of Satan. Wiccans have practices that draw from a variety of
Celtic, Norse, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian sources, as well as the
esoteric and sexual practices of eccentrics such as the sexual
revolutionary and occultist Aleister Crowley.

According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, Haney says that it was during
this crisis of faith that he began to read the "Harry Potter"
series of books to his children. The magic depicted in the books
aroused a curiosity in Haney that led him to Web-searches and other
readings. This led finally to a Wiccan group in nearby Flint, Michigan
where he and his wife were welcomed.

Having since become a Wiccan minister (which has chaplains in the US
military), Haney leads worshipers in thanksgiving for what they have
been given "not from a sense of spiritual duty as part of a life that
leads to heavenly rewards." He said that he has performed wedding
ceremonies at the planetarium located in Flint, near the campus of Mott
Community College and University of Michigan-Flint.

Wiccan has been a source of controversy in Michigan schools recently.

In Muskegon Michigan, parents complained after the publication of the
Winter 2005 issue of the Muskegon middle school's student newspaper
included an article written by an 8th grader describing his aunt as a
Wiccan witch. The child described generally the meetings he attended
with his aunt where he received indoctrination in its system of
beliefs. School officials pledged, only after being contacted by the
president of the Michigan chapter of the American Family Association,
to ensure that the newspaper would no longer feature articles
encouraging experimentation in the occult.

In 2001, parents in Port Huron Michigan expressed deep reservations
about Earth Day curricula that they felt had Wicca-inspired
incantations and teachings. The curriculum was removed after parents
challenged the school system. Websites such as "Witchvox" offer
personal pages for Wiccans and enquirers, some of whom are minors and
high school students.

A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.

Ex-priest says Harry Potter led him to Wicca


A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.

http://speroforum.com/site/print.asp?idarticle=3062


Ex-priest says Harry Potter led him to Wicca


A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.



Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Martin Barillas


A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a
mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.