Animal sacrifice was a normal element in Judaism and most Pagan traditions in ancient times.  Two and a half millennia ago, the Pythagoreans rejected animal sacrifice and all other forms of animal slaughter and abuse on the grounds of transmigration of the soul (humans reincarnating into animal bodies). About the same time, the first Jewish temple at Jerusalem was destroyed and much of the population exiled to Babylon. Some Jewish prophets called for a radical change in Jewish worship, from a priestly one based in sacrifice and feasting to a rabbinical one based on moral reflection on texts read aloud to the gathered community.

In America today, animal sacrifice is mostly done by Orthodox Jewish specialists as part of Kosher butchering.  Many practitioners of Santeria sacrifice and eat chickens and sometimes other animals. In the the religions of the African Diaspora, ebo (animal sacrifice) is normative.

Despite the sensationalism of fiction and the disturbed behavior of a few self-styled "Satanists," sacrifice involves a quick and humane slaughter, far less traumatic than methods used in commercial slaughter.  Surviving instructions indicate that if the animal cries out, flinches or otherwise shows fear ("unwillingness"), the sacrifice is null and void.  The animals were extremely well cared for. Only "perfect victims" could be sacrificed; in fact, ancient Etruscans and Romans performed a primitive biopsy on the entrails to determine the animal's health; any imperfections were considered evidence of the Gods' displeasure in the matter for which the sacrifice was performed.

In Kosher animal sacrifice, the blood is considered God's portion.  In classical Paganism, after the entrails are examined, they were wrapped around bones, covered with layers of fat, honey, and finally, mola salsa (grain meal and salt). These are burned and the meat distributed in banquette halls. Similarly, after ebo, the meat is eaten. Innuit animal sacrifice involves "entertaining" the animal 's spirit with a great communal feast ending with the "resurrection" of the animal for future hunts. Typically, animal sacrificing religions seek a mystical participation between the slaughterer/feasters and the collective spirit of the animal's species.

The religions of the African diaspora use animal sacrifice to accumulate and concentrate ache (ah SHAY). Ache (ah SHAY) means a numinous life force, roughly equivalent to wakan, orenda, barach, and mana.

Santeria priest Ernesto Pichardo thought this was a good idea. The City Council did not. The government of the city of 240,000, 11 miles northwest of Miami, prosecuted the church under a law banning animal sacrifices. The church contended that the ritual scatterings were an indispensable part of their religion, and of its Afro-Cuban cultural roots. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional religious discrimination. 

Although they are now recognized as legal, Pichardo says that authorities still occasionally hassle church members. Pichardo is an orite, a priest empowered to conduct sacrifices. He is philosophiocal about the situation. "I learned one thing" he says. "When you bring something forward that is outside the Judeo-Christian tradition, the dominant culture is going to cause you problems."

U.S. courts are seeing increasing numbers of immigrants from African, Asian and other non-western cultures, who are prosecuted for offenses which were not crimes in their native countries. These cases have involved many different customs, such as ritual mutilation and animal sacrifice.

Although legal traditionalists resist the idea, some academics and legal analysts have proposed that U.S. courts allow a "cultural defense." This would allow defendants from non-Western backgrounds to plead special circumstances when charged with certain crimes.

Alison Dundes Renteln is a political science professor at the University of Southern California. She has written the book, "The Cultural Defense," which considers this point.

Says Renteln: "We say that as a society we welcome diversity, and in fact that we embrace it. In practice, it's not that easy."

Recent cases clearly illustrate the problem: 

·     Fresno, Ca, 1995: A Hmong shaman originally from Laos, Thai Chia Moua, performed a ritual to send the spirit of a German Shepherd puppy to hunt down an evil spirit that was tormenting his wife. This involved others beating the puppy to death on Moua's front porch while he chanted over its body. Moua pleaded guilty to and was sentenced for animal cruelty. He was put on probation, and did community service. 

·     San Mateo, Ca, 2000: A native of Tonga, Taufui Piutau, had consumed kava tea, a mild euphoric from his home island. He was arrested for Driving Under the Influence. A hung jury and mistrial resulted. 

·    Michigan, New York, Georgia, Connecticut and Minnesota, 1990s-present: Chewers of khat leaf have been prosecuted. Common in East Africa and Yemen, the leaf produces a "buzz" like that of caffeine. It is legal in Great BR.in, but U.S. law classifies it as a controlled substance, with Ecstasy and LSD. 

·    Sanford, NC, 2003: Mexican agricultural workers, new immigrants to the town, butchered goats at backyard barbeques, then customarily nailed the animals' heads to trees. Slaughtering of goats and other farm animals was banned by the city.

·    Lawrenceville, Ga., March, 2004: An Ethiopian immigrant, Khalid Adem, was charged with child cruelty. He had submitted his daughter to female circumcision, the partial removal of her genitals, as is common in his African homeland. This practice is condemned by the United Nations, and was banned by a 1995 U.S. law.

Civil lawsuits by immigrants also increase

The clash of cultures is not one-sided. New arrivals have used their U.S. legal rights to sue airlines and fast food restaurants over what their cultures would hold as offensive behavior.

Under Sikh custom, a child is obligated to care for aging parents. Using this argument, in 1998 the parents of Jasbar Singh won an unusually high $400,000 court-mandated award from Air Illinois when their 26-year-old son was killed in a plane crash.

A vegetarian and Hindu, pharmacist Mukesh Rai, of Carpenteria, Ca, accepted an undisclosed sum from Taco Bell in 1999. Rai had sued the fast-food restaurant for $144,000 after he had been mistakenly served a beef burrito. This incident had offended him deeply on cultural and religious grounds. He said that the incident had made it necessary to consult a psychiatrist, and to make a pilgrimage to India to purify himself by bathing in the Ganges River. Legal analysts commented that such suits brought by non-religious vegetarians usually fail.

Immigrants' cultures have conflicted with U.S. law before.

Renteln sees America's "evolving definition of diversity" as a factor which the courts must learn to recognize. She contends that although those who commit "culture-based crimes" should not always be acquitted, culture should be considered when evaluating guilt.

Michael Rushford, president of the conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, disagrees. He holds that applying varying cultural standards would bring about "legal relativism." Rushford said that the result would be a legal system where "what's a crime for one person isn't for his neighbor. ... The system we have is the best we can do to allow cultural differences without beating down basic human rights."

U.S. courts have been reluctant to cite cultural factors unless they also involve religious rights.

In some cases, judges have accepted attorneys' arguments to treat defendants from other cultures moderately.

Chinese-born Dong Lu-Chen, of Brooklyn N.Y., was convicted in 1989 of beating his wife to death with a claw hammer. His attorney, Stewart Orden, argued that Lu-Chen's shame and rage at learning of his wife's adultery were amplified by his Chinese upbringing. Lu-Chen received probation.

Orden says he has not used this strategy again, as it was "as much of a cultural explanation as a cultural defense."

"... steps are being taken to protect not only Aware Woman, but a woman's right to choose. Work is being done mundanely, financially, and magically, to help get through the next few months and beyond." 

Readers of Open Circle are exhorted to become "clinic escorts" -pro-abortion activists who eagerly escort pregnant women entering the abortion clinic. Clinic escorts distract the women from pro-life sidewalk counselors who try to hand them literature and counsel them not to have an abortion. Undoubtedly, many of Aware Woman's "clinic escorts" are practicing witches. Readers of Open Circle are also told how they can help fund the South Brevard National Organization of Woman's program to help low income women have abortions.  Wiccans are also encouraged to work their magic on the area surrounding the clinic: 

"Finally, many individuals and groups have been helping to magically (sic) protect the building and property ... This has been done by magical and psychic shielding being put on and around the property...."

The phone number of Aware Woman is given and the following guidelines are suggested: "If you want to do magical work to protect the clinic, please, please, do it with perfect love and trust. Our goal is to protect the clinic, the staff, and the patients from those who want to force their views on them. Please keep in mind the Harm None Clause and make your work defensive in nature." 

And just what is the "Harm None Clause" to which Wiccans refer? According to Laurie Cabot, founder of the Witches League for Public Awareness in Salem, Massachusetts, the Wiccan craft is based on three principles, the first being: "Do what you will and harm none." 2 Christians whose actions uphold the moral law of God found in the Bible (You shall not murder) are "those who want to force their views" on society. Apparently, the Wiccan "Harm None" clause does not apply to the life of the unborn child. 

Wiccan Ways
In researching Wiccan festivals and worship, we sent two college students to one of the "Wiccan Ways" weekly meetings in Melbourne. Upon arriving for the first class, they were greeted with suspicion by their hosts: "How old are you? If you're underage, you can't attend this class. If you are under 18 years of age, your parents could bring suit against us." They were charged $3.50 each for the hour-and-a-half long seminar. After the meeting with the Wiccan teaching group and study of literature obtained at the seminar, we were able to obtain answers to questions we had about Wicca. How many Wiccans are there? Conservative reckonings estimate that there are 200,000 Witches in the United States. 

How does Wicca gain followers? 
In order to be initiated into a coven, a year or more of training is usually required. The movement grows through networking and outreach. Some Wiccans travel throughout the United States as folk musicians or teachers, promoting the movement by visiting covens, singing and teaching at festivals. 

What happens at Wiccan festivals? 
Wiccan festivals or Sabbats occur eight times a year: four times on the solstices and equinoxes; and four earth holidays between these times. This is a time of dancing and celebration; sometimes a skit is performed to honor the god or goddess being worshipped. 

What happens at Wiccan rituals? 
Full moon and new moon rituals occur each month and involve consecration of a ritual space and the invocation of pagan gods. Ceremonial stone rings are created and fires are lit. The difference between the two was summarized by the Wiccan Ways' teacher: "Festivals are for fun; rituals are for worship." Members of Wicca were encouraged to bring family and friends to their Sabbat festivals, but the worship rituals were off-limits to the uninitiated. Wiccans believe that their spells and rituals have their greatest effect on these holidays. 

Do Wiccans worship Satan? 
From a biblical viewpoint, witches do worship Satan. Although witches claim not to believe in the Christian concept of Satan, they do worship "the European Pagan Horned God, who has been depicted as Pan.... Our Horned God is neither evil nor a source of evil; He is the energy of nature, of plant and animal life, which energy manifests for people in music and dance, intoxication and ecstasy, and all joyous activities, including lovemaking."3  

What about bloodletting?
Although Wiccans deny using animal and human sacrifices in their rituals they do admit that they "pour out libations ...Some female Witches use their own menstrual blood in spells; other witches may prick themselves ... and offer a drop or two of their own blood. But the only blood a Witch has the right to offer is her/his own." 

As of the printing of this article, we were not able to ascertain whether or not Witches use the blood of aborted children in their sacrifices. Since the child is not considered human according to our liberal abortion laws, it stands to reason that such a sacrifice, protected by law, could be used by witches. 

Wicca's National Network 
The association of witchcraft/paganism with the promotion of abortion on demand can be seen in cities where Wicca has gained it strongest following. Most of these centers are liberal communities with large colleges or universities such as San Francisco; Cleveland; Birmingham; Boston; and Salem. Wicca finds its greatest popularity in so-called "New Age Centers. "However, many Wiccans look down on New Agers as "spiritual wanna-be's" who have picked up the terminology of Pagans and Wiccans, but "have no expertise in the craft." Wiccans are those who take their "magic" more seriously. 

The Witches' League for Public Awareness and the Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida are two groups which are seeking to bring about Wiccan "unity" by networking covens into a nationally-organized, highly-funded, tax-exempt cult with a local headquarters in every New Age Center. 

Salem, Massachusetts not only symbolizes witchcraft to tourists with a casual historical interest, but is the national headquarters of an organized, politically-active and profitable cult. Laurie Cabot is the foremost leader of the American witch cult. Cabot, called the "official witch" of Salem, Massachusetts, made her first national convergence in the April, 1979 issue of National Geographic. The magazine described her as a descendant of a well-known Massachusetts family: "Ten years ago (1969) she felt drawn to Salem from her home on the West Coast. Shortly after settling in the town, she announced herself to the mayor as a witch. Since then Laurie Cabot has made a living lecturing on witchcraft and selling herbs, astrological charts, and magic mirrors." The National Geographic report described a ritual led by Cabot in which a coven of her followers called upon the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis. She was also described as being involved in group chanting and displays of psychic power in conjuring a "blue aura." 

When the National Geographic article was published in 1979, there were 350 witches in the area. Today Salem, a city of 38,000 people, has approximately 2,400 practicing witches. Cabot has become well-known across the nation and has been featured on television talk shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show and Good Morning America.

Cabot's agenda is to organize the 2,400 witches in Salem (one-third of whom are feminist activists) and the 200,000 witches nationwide. She wants to "set the record straight" on the definition of Wicca by dispelling the notion that there is anything evil about witchcraft. Cabot contends that the concept of Satan was introduced by the Christian Church, but that there is no place for the devil in their beliefs, practices and traditions. Cabot seeks to portray witchcraft in a respectable new light as a "science and an art." Says Cabot, "Witchcraft has not been redefined since 1692, and it's time for people to ask us who we are, not ask our enemies."4 

Cabot and her league of witches lobby as a political action group through 15 witches' councils which cover the United States, Ireland, England and Canada. Cabot's strategy is to desensitize Americans to the evils of witchcraft and to promote Wicca through a carefully crafted political agenda. According to Cabot: "Each council head oversees volunteer activities such as letter writing campaigns, monitoring television programs, news reports, and newspaper accounts of Witchcraft, and reporting back to our central office in Salem. In addition to being a watchdog on misinformation about the Craft, we review books and articles on the Craft and recommend the better ones to libraries and schools. We also keep tabs on congressional bills that deal with civil rights and religious liberties."5  

Abortion advocates from Salem have militantly demonstrated at Boston area abortion clinics, common sites of pro-life activism. Pro-life leaders in the Boston area claim that witches from Salem make up some of the ranks of some of the most vocal pro-abortion activists. Laurie Cabot concurs with the rise of feminist activism within Wiccan covens that worship the Goddess Diana: "In Dianic covens great emphasis is placed on the Goddess and the role of priestesses. Covens and organizations are matrifocal and center around women's issues. The current women's movement has inspired much of the political activism that some covens engage in.... radical feminism, including lesbianism, has found a place in Dianic covens...."6 

Witchcraft and Child Sacrifice 

Mention the word witchcraft and most Americans think of the Salem witch trials - "an outbreak of religious hysteria among superstitious people." The term "witch hunt" evokes the most negative images. There is no doubt that many of those executed for witchcraft were the innocent victims of gross superstition. But it is hard to cope with the genuine instances of demonically inspired activity recorded with full documentation.  [!!! If there was any, they'd publish it. They don't. Q.E.D. it doesn't hold up. cl, ed.]
A modern misconception about those tried and executed for witchcraft is that they were punished for merely casting spells. The death penalty for witches was prescribed for their monstrous practice of human sacrifice. The biblical injunction, "You shall not suffer a witch to live" (Exodus 22:18) had nothing to do with bigotry against those practicing the religion of witchcraft. God had warned Israel not to intermingle with the Canaanite tribes - worshippers of Baal, Asherah, Molech and Ashteroth - because they were practitioners of child sacrifice. The ancient Israelites were first enticed into sexual promiscuity through the worship of Baal and Asherah, the sun god and fertility goddess. The children of this generation grew up in a world in which pagan sex rituals were deemed "normal." Soon Israel was lured into worshipping Molech and Ashteroth, supposedly the same deities; but darker and more sinister, demanding human sacrifice. 

In Power of the Witch, Laurie Cabot extols the paganism the ancient Celtic world in which fornication, adultery and homosexuality were "normal." The Mother Goddess cult is presented as "a joyous, playful, sensuous, peace-loving culture."7  Cabot then describes the permutation of the Mother Goddess into an old crone and the Horned God into a ravenous animal. 

Cabot's description closely mirrors the transformation of ancient deities from sensual sun gods and fertility goddesses into demons of infant ritual sacrifice. And like the ancient Israelites, 20th century Americans were first enticed by the sexual revolution of the 1960s; and just a few years later we codified abortion as a "fundamental right" and killed over one million unborn children a year. Whenever pagan sexual immorality is accepted, abortion and child sacrifice becomes a necessity in covering up the fruit of sin. As we look at revivals of paganism in historical perspective, the connection between abortion and witchcraft becomes even more apparent. It is impossible to understand ancient and medieval Europe without having an understanding of the pagan rituals that accompanied everyday life. Paganism and Witchcraft played an important part in these periods, affecting the lives of all classes of people. * The Celtic and Northern German tribes - the ancestors of English and German speaking peoples - were barbaric, pagan idolaters who sacrificed their own children to the Mother Goddess. Child sacrifice and abortion were practiced and were accepted as facts of everyday life - the necessary consummation of rampant sexual immorality. * 

Texan Santeria
Animal Sacrifice Lawsuit