Christians and Witches Face Off in Historic Salem

SALEM, Mass., Oct. 25 (RNS)--On the surface, Halloween season in this city of witch fame appears to mean little more than a ghoulish good time for 500,000 tourists and $42 million worth of serious fun for the retailers who sell to them.

But witch-emblazoned T-shirts and signs for "eerie events" mask the genuine October tension here between Wiccan pilgrims and Christian pastors who see them as ambassadors of something insidious, even evil.

A few thousand of those who flock to Salem every year at this time are self-proclaimed witches. Local witches, who count themselves at 2,000-plus in this city of 39,000, say their counterparts come from around the world to gather in circles, communicate with the dead, and pay homage to the 20 alleged witches who died nearby in the Witch Trials of 1692.

"It's safe for someone to be a witch in Salem," said witch and spiritual counselor Therese Pendragon. "That's why Salem is a witch mecca."

The Rev. Kenneth Steigler also knows Salem is a witch mecca. He came here in 1991 not only to pastor Wesley United Methodist Church but also to use his expertise in cults to expose what he sees as dangers of witchcraft.

This year, Steigler and area evangelical pastors have given six months of preparation time and raised more than $10,000 to beef up a late October campaign to reach witches and seekers with the gospel. Students from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary will hand out 50,000 anti-Halloween, pro-Jesus tracts. The Wesley Church will have a weeklong open house where dabblers in paganism can hear praise music and testimonies every night through the 31st.

"Here are people looking for spiritual life, a little deceived, and we're here to say, 'Here's a way to find real spiritual life,'" Steigler said. The week's events bear the name "Holy Happenings," a purposeful twist on Salem's high-profile tourism campaign known as "Haunted Happenings."

Steigler's concern is that seekers, drawn to Salem by promotions and desires for new experiences, "will die spiritually" if they take up Tarot cards, crystals, drugs, and free sex to gain "control, authority, and power" in their lives. Imitating the novice witch, he says, "I take a bite, then another bite. I lose my sense of right and wrong. I lose my moral compass."

Not so, say Salem's witches.

At Crow Haven Corner, Salem's oldest witch shop and witchcraft hub, the owner says her goal is not just maintaining a thriving business but also helping others become "good spiritual people and then choose their own religion.

"You help people get power in their lives," said owner Laurie Stathopoulos. "But you tell them, 'The first one you have to help is yourself. Before you practice the magic or put a love spell on someone else to love you, you have to love and take care of yourself.'"

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