Ariannlys

Blog entry #1:

Hi everyone! My name is Ariannlys but you can call me Aria :) I am 19 years old, I go by the pronouns she/her and I'm planning to study linguistics in Concordia University. I studied German and Italian here at Dawson but I'm currently only studying Italian. One of the reasons why I chose to continue to study Italian is that I would find it a bit easier to continue to learn instead of German since Italian and Spanish are very similar. But, even if it is similar, learning a new language isn't easy.I'm a rather shy person but once I get comfortable around people I tend to talk a lot!

A few of my interests are astrology! I love talking about astrology with people and just learning about the subject overall! I bought a book that specifically tells me and teaches me how to read birth charts, discover things about yourself and why the planets in space were placed in a specific position when you were born and how that influences you as a person. Another of my interests is reading mystery or thriller books! I am not a big fan of romance books since they tend to be too slow for me but I love books that tend to go slow because of suspense. Finally, another one of my interests is listening to music! I listen to pretty much every kind of music. From R&B to some K-pop but the music genre I've always been a huge fan of is Metal and Rock music. It may not be everyone's favorite genre of music, but it is mine.

A few topic ideas I've thought about are the history of the Spanish in the Dominican Republic, the history of the music in Italy and a few important artists. I still have to think about more topics since I am worried about not finding good sources or many sources for my topic.

The research topic I chose is very different from what I initially thought I'd chose but it is a topic I'm very interested in. The research topic I chose is to talk about an NRM, more specifically Wicca. I want to do my research on the study of wicca: therefore the history/ origins of wicca and their beliefs. Wicca is a modern religion whose origins are based on traditional practices of witchcraft. I did find two sources that talks about Wicca and another that explains what NRMs are, which is an important part for the research since some people do not know what NRMs are.

Wicca is a modern Pagan religion where the followers practice witchcraft and do nature worshipping. It's a religion based on pre-Christian traditions of northern and western Europe. Pagan comes from the word Paganism, which is a term first used in the fourth century by Christians to refer to people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism or other ethnic religions that were not Judaism.

As for the feedback, my teammates suggested that I mention the five types of categories for cults that were seen in the Cults and Culture class and find one cult that belongs in each category/one that could fit in multiple categories.

White, Ethan Doyle. Wicca : History, Belief, and Community in Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Sussex Academic Press, 2015. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=e000xna&AN=1090693&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This source is all about the history of Wicca, how the religion has spread throughout the world and talks about various things like what the followers of Wicca believe in, some rituals the followers can do, the theology of Wicca, the culture of Wiccans, the Wicca community itself and many more things.this work places great empha-sis on the temporal variation that exists within Wicca. The author’s claim is to show people that religion is not as taboo or scary as we may see them in the media or in general. Especially for the Wicca religion, where things from said religion has many varieties in things that have changed over the years. And yet those changes are not really kept up-to-date because of the stigmas surrounding cults or NRMs in general. This source is reliable since the author, Ethan Doyle White, has a PhD in Medieval History and Archaeology from the University College London. Since Wicca is a religion that has been around for a very very long time, I do believe his study of history makes his book a reliable source. This source will help me not only with the history/origins of the Wiccan religion but also get some information on the Wiccan community in the modern time.

Ethan Doyle White argues that Wicca came to be marketed to a teenage audience through popular television shows and soon was filling shelves in bookshops and pages on websites, spreading hope and fear in equal measure. Although I agree with Ethan Doyle White to a point, I cannot accept his over conclusion that the knowledge on Wicca is spreading hope and fear in equal measure, I would say that the knowledge spreads more fear than hope since a lot of information spread about NRMs can come from anti-cultists, who more often than not, have a negative view on NRMs because of the prejudices that were spread over the years, that come from the intense NRMs that do exist and are viewed as 'scary' by the media.

Melton, J. Gordon. "Wicca". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Feb. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wicca. Accessed 3 February 2022.

This source is about the Wiccan religion, more specifically the origins and beliefs of Wicca. The main point of this source is to inform the readers about the historical background of the Wiccan religion but also, to inform us in more details about the beliefs in the Wiccan community. What makes this source reliable is that this article comes from the Britannica website, which is a verified and secure encyclopedia website. Plus, the article is written by J. Gordon Melton, who is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently the Distinguished Professor of American Religious History with the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Even though this source is quite shorter than the other one, this source will help me find more beliefs that are within the Wicca religion, which I could use as examples for some of my paragraphs in my paper.

Dawson, Lorne L. Comprehending Cults : The Sociology of New Religious Movements. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2006. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=cat01165a&AN=dawson.127910&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Here’s the book we are currently reading in my Cults and Culture class, which talks a lot about cults in general and goes into detail about various NRMs that fit in various of the five different types of cults. Wicca and NRMs that resemble Wicca are also mentioned in the book with lots of different studies made by professionals that take different positions regarding cults in general. Lorne L. Dawson takes a very neutral position in his book, in the question whether cults/NRMs are bad/ have a negative influence on society. Lorne L. Dawson is a reliable author because he is a Canadian scholar of the sociology of religion who has written about new religious movements, the brainwashing controversy, and religion and the Internet. Since his work is focused on religious terrorism and the process of radicalization, especially with regard to domestic terrorists, I think that makes him a very reliable source when I’m researching information about cutls/NRMs. This source will help me with my paper because I can integrate the many studies of different professionals that have been done on cults/NRMs, especially since some of these studies do have a negative view on cults. Having studies done by a professional that clearly has a negative view on cults will help me argue in my paper on why cults are not as bad as the media portrays them. Having to argue in the paper will therefore make things a lot more interesting to write and read.

Rubinstein, Murray. "new religious movement". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Feb. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/new-religious-movement. Accessed 3 February 2022.

This source is about New Religious Movement (NRMs). It talks about where the name ‘New Religious Movement’ came from, the history of NRMs/cults, from which ancient religions did NRMs stem from, etc. It also talks about NRMs in the East and the West and each talks about one NRM that has caused an uproar in society and the various countries where those NRMs were discussed. The author does not have a claim or a thesis in this source since this source is more of an informative source, which teaches people very briefly about NRMs around the globe.Murray Rubinstein was a professor that has taught East Asian History at Baruch College of the City University of New York for over 30 years. He had a brief stay at Columbia as an Adjunct Professor teaching the History of Modern China in the Spring of 1985. Rubinstein writes on Christianity in China, Chinese popular religion, and on the socio-political development of Taiwan/the Republic of China and Fujian/ The People's Republic of China. Rubinstein received his PhD in East Asian History and Modern European History from NYU in 1976. Since Rubinstein has a lot of experience in religion for decades, it makes him a reliable author. This source will help me in my paper when I will talk about how many NRMs exist and that can be found all over the world. The example of NRMs that are mentioned in this source will be a great example I could mention in my paper.

-Some thoughts:

*As I've been researching more on my topic, I've also realised that I tend to look for sources that lean towards what my point of view towards what I think of NRMs or Wicca in general. I'm going to try and make a note to not only search for sources that do have the same view as me, but also sources that has the opposite opinon on my subject. It can be useful to find those type of sources so it can give me a different view on what some people think of NRMs and find good sources I can use to argue against in my paper.

Thegypsy. “Witch’s Alphabet – The Language of Mysticism.” The Gypsy Thread, 9 Feb. 2021, www.thegypsythread.org/witchs-alphabet-language-mysticism.

This source is about the language used not only in the Wicca religion, but with witches. The source also talks about how witches from before used the language and explains how the actual language itself works/ from where the language has taken some things from. This source also talks about how this language is used in modern days since this language is very old and more commonly used in ancient times rather than today. The author has no claim or thesis since this source is more about informing the readers of the ancient language that witches use for their magic spells and used in their grimoires. I do think this is a reliable source since the language used by witches has unknown origins so not a lot of research has been conducted on this. But what makes it reliable is that this source is written by the owner of the website who has been practicing magic and using the language used by witches, which is called the Theban script. Since in my paper I will argue about the prejudices on NRMs, more specifically the ones against Wicca, one of the prejudices is the use of magic and the symbols that come with it. Since this language does include some symbols, using this source that informs me with the language and what the symbols used actually mean, it can help me argue against the bad things said about the Wiccan religion.

Stewart, Bradford S. “Opening the Broom Closet: Recognizing the Religious Rights of Wiccans, Witches, and Other Neo-Pagans.” Northern Illinois University Law Review, vol. 32, no. 1, Jan. 2011, pp. 135–204. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.niulr32.9&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This source is about the rights that belong to wiccans, witches and neo-pagans. The author’s claim is that religious freedom is a part of every nation/country and that every religion has the right to have rights, but unfortunately a lot of people whose religion was related/close to the neo-paganism have faced discrimination in society. This source focuses on how even those that do practice Wicca and Neo-Paganism deserve religious rights/freedom. This source is reliable since it is written by a law attorney and this source focuses on rights and discriminations that have happened in court. This source will help me with my paper since I will use the discriminations that have happened to some people as an argument on why people are too quick to judge people who practice neo-paganism and wicca because of the prejudices that have been spread over those religions in the media without proper research.

1) TOPIC: Occult religions (Wicca/Neo-Paganism)

2) CLAIM: People shouldn't generalise occult religions (Wicca/Neo-paganism) based on what is said about them in the mainstream.

3) AN OVERVIEW OF YOUR ARGUMENTS:

a) The media often turn to the Anti-Cult Movement, who have prejudices against occult religions to get their information.

b) Not all occult religions fall into the same category as those who perform illicit & dangerous activities (generalisation of occult religions).

c) All religions, including occult religions, deserve the same rights and respect as other religions.

Tentative thesis statement:

People shouldn't generalise occult religions based on what is said about them in the mainstream since the media turn to prejudices to get their information, not all occult religions fall into the same category and all religions deserve the same rights and respect.

Peer review reaction:

I should definitely shorten my thesis statement since it’s a sentence that will be in my introduction so making it long is not ideal/ could be difficult to read. Also avoid repeating the same words in the sentence since it could make it heavier and sound repetitive. Somehow include the alphabet used in the Wiccan and Neo-Paganism religion, in one of those arguments. Modify the term ‘people’ to ‘The media often do not depict the different types of occult religions’ and ‘deserve’ to ‘all religions are entitled to…' it still means the same thing that I was trying to say but it doesn't make it seem like it's an opinion I have.

JENSEN, GARY F., and ASHLEY THOMPSON. “‘Out of the Broom Closet’: The Social Ecology of American Wicca.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 47, no. 4, Dec. 2008, pp. 753–66. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2325/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00439.x.

This source is about how new religious movements in American society over the last decade is Wicca and related forms of "Neo-Paganism", which contribute to what the authors call a ‘privatized marketplace’. The author’s claim is that since those new religious movements are very private and not that out there in society, not much reliable information is known about those religions, and not much research has been done about them that can provide us with those informations. Therefore, the authors claim that by having new approaches into researching those religions society sees as ‘taboo’ more reliable information can be found and studied. This source is reliable since it was written by two scholars, Ashley Thompson who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology, Lynchburg College and Gary F. Jensen is a Professor of Sociology in the Departments of Sociology and Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. This source will help my paper when I will be arguing about people in society not doing enough research on New Religious Movements and that most information is taken from groups that have a clear prejudice against cults and the New Religious Movements.

Reflections on my writing:

Writing tentatively is definitely something that I need to keep in mind when I start writing this research paper since a lot of the time, without noticing, I put my opinion in the essay. Since this paper is argumentative and I need to convince my reader, I need to show them that I am open to other things that I already know about. Another thing I’ve noticed about my writing is using a lot of vague words. That happens when I have the idea in mind but I don’t know the exact words/ how to word the exact idea I have inside my head. I should really use precise words since using vague words can make me less convincing. Another aspect that I’ve noticed about my writing is repeating a lot of words. Repeating words can put a burden on my paper since it can be boring and feel really heavy to read, especially since this paper is going to be a long one.

White, Ethan Doyle. “The Meaning of ‘Wicca’: A Study in Etymology, History, and Pagan Politics.” Pomegranate, vol. 12, no. 2, Nov. 2010, pp. 185–207. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2325/10.1558/pome.v12i2.184.

This source gives us information on the language aspect of Wicca and Neo-Paganism. Ethan Doyle claims that the term "Wicca" was used in reference to the modern religion of Pagan Witchcraft and has been utilised throughout a lot of believer’s history. In this source, the author examens and goes in depth this/ words that existed before, including the Old English "wicca" and the early Cardnerian "Wica". The author also looks at the many definitions that the term has seen over the last seventy years, and comes to conclusions that provide a new interpretation of not only how the term has been used in the Pagan community of the past and the present. This source is reliable since the author, Ethan Doyle White, has a PhD in Medieval History and Archaeology from the University College London.Since I did use another one of this author’s work as one of my sources, I do believe his study of history makes his book a reliable source. This source will help me more in the aspect of languages, and how far back this religion goes and will help me argue about how some anti-cult members feel threatened because of this religion for various reasons.

Cookson, Catharine. “Reports from the Trenches: A Case Study of Religious Freedom Issues Faced by Wiccans Practicing in the United States.” Journal of Church and State, vol. 39, no. 4, Jan. 1997, pp. 723–48. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.jchs39.53&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This source is about how a lot of Wiccans/ believers report that the biggest challenges to their religious freedom are directly traceable to misperceptions and intolerance from the mainstream, which is society in general. The author argues that the misperceptions that wiccans are experiencing are due to false rumors and ignorance due to some anti-cult experts that have added to the misperceptions by failing to adequately distinguish between Wiccans and Satanic groups in their lectures and materials warning against Satanic beliefs and rituals. The author of this source is reliable since Catherine Cookson, was a British author. She has had a lot of accomplishments, one of which she was in the top 20 of the most widely read British novelists.This source will help me argue on the fact that a lot of people in society are starting to rely more on information given by members of the anti-cult movement and people who haven’t done their research well enough, which leads to prejudices being created against Wiccans and Neo-paganism believers.

Some thoughts:

*Note for sources: make sure the title of the website/academic sources are in italics, since if it’s not in italics, it’s not quite MLA style. + remember to check your spelling/grammar/syntax in your texts throughout the semester.

*Note for website appearance: not always use gifs of animals, instead use pictures, videos that have to do with my topic. Remember to keep the website appear sort of professional, since you’re going to present it at the end of the semester. (for pictures, remember to give credits).

Gallagher, Terence. “The Neo-Pagans Are Giving Ancient Paganism a Bad Name.” New Oxford Review, 17 Sept. 2021, www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/the-neo-pagans-are-giving-ancient-paganism-a-bad-name.

This source is about Neo-Pagans that are giving ancient paganism a bad name in various ways. The author’s claim is that neo-pagans claim to be restoring the real meaning of such latterly Christian holidays as Christmas, Easter, and All Souls Day. This source is reliable because it was published in The NEW OXFORD REVIEW, which is an orthodox Catholic magazine that explores ideas concerning faith and culture. This source will help me understand how Christians view Pagans and why they have a certain opinion on them. Since it’s important to have sources that have a different point of view or different opinion on my topic, this was one of the few sources that I found in which I could find said information.

Reece, Gwendolyn. “Contemporary Pagans and Stigmatized Identity.” Pomegranate, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 60–95. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2325/10.1558/pome.v18i1.27917.

This source is about a survey and a study done by the author of this source. The author’s claim is based on the results of the large-scale national survey of Pagans, Witches and Heathens in the United States. The author shows us the data on the many ways how the stigma affects contemporary Pagans in many ways. The author pays particular attention to how Pagans are scared and will suffer false accusations. The author is reliable because Gwendolyn Reece, is the Associate University Librarian and Director of Research, Teaching and Learning in the University Library. The author's scholarly research is primarily on Contemporary Paganism and she has an MA and was a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies at University of California at Santa Barbara. This source will help my paper since I will argue about how prejudices against Pagans and other believers from different occult religions can be affected by those prejudices.

Rist, John M. “Marenbon, John. Pagans and Philosophers: The Problem of Paganism from Augustine to Leibniz.” The Review of Metaphysics, vol. 70, no. 1, Sept. 2016, p. 141. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.463512294&site=eds-live&scope=site.

This source is about Christian views on pagan knowledge, pagan virtue, and pagan salvation in the medieval West. The author’s claim is how Christians view pagans in general and how the concept of the Long Middle Ages is applicable only to the problem of paganism or whether it can more generally help correct earlier and more piecemeal divisions of Western civilization. This author and source is reliable because John Marenbon is a British philosopher and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His principal area of specialization is medieval philosophy. This source will help me see a different point of view on Pagans and Paganism from someone who has different beliefs as those in the Pagan religion.

I was prety nervous for the peer review today since I hadn't had the time to review my paper before coming to class. I was worried that my paper would have too many complicated terms that some people don't understand and that it would be quite boring and a chore to read it. But thanks to the feedback given by my peer review teammate, I was reassured that my paper (thus far) is actually easy to read and that the information I gave is clear and interesting. Of course, I still have things to improve and make sure everything flows smoothly and is understandable.

The way individuals live their lives in society has a meaning behind it, their beliefs.When a person gives up one such perspective or ordered view of the world for another is referred to as conversion. Converting to another religion is not an easy thing to do, especially when it comes to a cult religion.One of numerous steps in converting is doing your research on the religion that piques your interest, that shares your beliefs and ideologies. But what if you’re interested in a cult religion that has no information provided from past members? A cult that has become popular over the years is Wicca. Unfortunately, there is a multitude of lack of accurate knowledge about the cults that can be found on the internet. Finding unbiased sources on religions is very hard because journalists use sources that state their clear opinion and influence people’s opinion. This essay will examine how there is a lack of knowledge on cults, the lack of knowledge generalizes occult religions and the opinion of social media can affect cult members.

Something that is present in the majority of people is the lack of knowledge on cults. This also applies to the Wiccan cult. First and foremost, cults emerged into light in the 1960s and the early 1970s. Many new cults are the product of the ongoing fusion of different religious traditions and components of the religious and the secular worlds. Wicca is a cult whose followers practice witchcraft and worship nature, who have traditions that are based on pre-Christian beliefs (Melton 2021).Wicca came to be marketed to a teenage audience through popular television shows. Consequently, the cult was spreading hope and fear in equal measure. Some stories of past experiences in the Wiccan cult, more often than not, come from ex-members. Since everyone has their own personal beliefs and values, those stories shared by ex-members can be viewed as ‘scary’ or ‘awakening’, which then spreads throughout social media and eventually some of them spread to local news outlets. But the stories provided are usually presented with little development of the broader context, and traceable references to specific cults or incidents are rarely provided (Dawson 28). Thus, they are ‘stories’ that were collected in different ways by different people for different purposes . Admittedly, a lot of journal articles pander to our worst fears and prejudices on the basis of a few abnormal cases. Thus journalists are necessarily guided by the demand to attract readers, and often lack expertise in the subject, which is why people on social media see cults as violent and that can take control of people’s minds and brainwash them. Ethan Doyle White argues that Wicca becoming more exposed to social media spreads hope and fear in equal measure (Doyle 2), which I agree with. The Wiccan cult itself has gone from being a mysterious cult practiced by very few to a public religion practiced by a profuse amount of people all over the world. But, since Wiccan used to be a more closed off cult with little practitioners, a considerable amount of information did not meet the needs for the students of religious studies and related disciplines, who did not want to convert to Wicca but to simply study it, mapping the cult's diverse forms. Therefore, having a minuscule amount of information misinforms people in society about the cults beliefs and practices.

As mentioned, the lack of knowledge on cults lead to many things, one of them being generalizing occult religions together, and religion in general.For example, in their effort to perceive the “religious economy” of the United States, Stark and Bainbridge (1985:198) : ‘‘used headquarters by state to “perform a reconnaissance in space.”’’ (Jensen and Thompson 2).They described combined categories of “Pagans” with “Magic, Witches, Satanists” in their accumulated data. Moreover, they combined categories that share little or no traditions in common, other than the common accusations as socially disapproved religious groups (Satanists, Pagans, and Witches). To draw conclusions regarding these groups and lumping all sorts of religious groups together, we need at least a simple awareness of their concepts and how they like to live. The social scientist Jeffrey Pfeifer conducted a study in 1992 into the effects of media coverage.The generic ‘cults’ and ‘new religious movements’, although a useful term, tends to blur the line between these different kinds of religious groups. As Dawson argues: ‘‘Not all cults are particularly new, nor are they all movements’’ (Dawson 10). Therefore, the lack of knowledge on cults could be represented on the internet as religious conversion. Thus, it would show a negative association with churches since traditional religions encourage atypical assumptions about the beliefs in other cults, beliefs about the nature of humanity and the universe, as stated by Jensen and Thompson (Jensen and Thompson 5). Accordingly, gathering and generalizing cults because of the lack of knowledge brings harm to not only cults but also other more traditional and publicly accepted religions (Marebon). As mentioned in Gallagher’s article, some religions that are gathered together just bring harm to individual beliefs of those religions since some of those religions do not share the same ideology and traditions. Even if those religions are influenced and have some things in common, like language and scripts, meddling them together just pushed ever more the stereotypes made against them (Thegypsy).Since religion is a matter of choice, that depends on your morals and values, generalization and making assumptions simply because you do not know anything or hardly any information on cults, is problematic since relying massively on a set of implicit judgments and assumptions tends ‘‘to support the capability to dismiss all new and ‘out of the norm’ forms of religion as dangerous’’ (Dawson 28).

In consequence, one of the repercussions of the generalization of cults because of the lack of knowledge is that the opinion of social media can affect cult members. Generally, people on social media’s opinion is based on stereotypes that were created against cult members. The popular news press and anti-cult literatures tend to blend together all of the stereotypes of cult members, using unreliable evidence that derives from the lack of reliable sources on cults. As stated by Cookson, Wiccans report that the biggest challenges to their religious freedom are directly connected to misperceptions and intolerance (Cookson). Misperceptions are due to false rumors and ignorance that can be easily cleared up with educational efforts on the Wiccan cult or cults in general. As described by Stark and Bainbridge (1985:198) when discussing Pagans and associating them with “Magic, Witches, Satanists”.Wiccans are not Satanists, nor do Wiccans worship devils or demons. In fact, the Wiccan ideology and practices are precisely the opposite. Wicca is a life-affirming, positive system of spiritual beliefs and ritual practices (Doyle 77). As noted by J. Gordon Melton, most modern witches are followers of a nature-oriented, polytheistic faith.Witches and Neo-Pagans worship what they call the ‘‘great Mother Goddess’’. Ethically, Witches value freedom and harmlessness. Despite Wicca being an occult religion who does not match any of the stereotypes made up against them,Pagans and Wiccans have to hide their stereotyped identity (Stewart 15). In an article cited by Reece, the survey in the article has shown that 60.8 percent of the Pagans who took the survey indicated that having to hide their identity because of prejudice was a challenge or barrier to their personal religious practice(Reece 2).Wiccans disclose some evictions from rented homes, professional offices, and retail stores, motivated by religious hatred and fear. They also disclose a few job firings and job harassment and discrimination. Unfortunately, another common problem is the vandalism of sacred lands and altars, vandalism of believers homes, and verbal threats and harassment against Wiccans themselves. But, too often, Wiccans and other believers cannot fight for their right of religious freedom and rights because they do not have the resources it takes to hire the necessary things to fight for those rights, like a lawyer, and endure the long process of going to court to resolve the problems (Cookson). Thus, having all of these things snowball together just overall creates unnecessary problems which can be easily avoided if one simply does some research on cults, the negative and the positive side of things.

Finding unbiased sources on religions is very hard because journalists use sources that state their clear opinion and influence people’s opinion. Acknowledging how there is a lack of knowledge on cults, the lack of knowledge generalizes occult religions and the opinion of social media can affect cult members can be easily avoided. Doing some research on your own to feed your curiosity on certain religions and cults, we can understand that freedom to worship in peace without fear of disturbance and the freedom to correct misinformation and simply educate others about their religion in order to prevent harassment and promote tolerance is something that is being done slowly but steadily in society.

Bibliography

Cookson, Catharine. “Reports from the Trenches: A Case Study of Religious Freedom Issues Faced by Wiccans Practicing in the United States.” Journal of Church and State, vol. 39, no. 4, Jan. 1997, pp. 723–48. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.jchs39.53&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Dawson, Lorne L. ‘‘Comprehending Cults : The Sociology of New Religious Movements.’’ 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2006. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=cat01165a&AN=dawson.127910&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Gallagher, Terence. “The Neo-Pagans Are Giving Ancient Paganism a Bad Name.” New Oxford Review, 17 Sept. 2021, www.newoxfordreview.org/documents/the-neo-pagans-are-giving-ancient-paganism-a-bad-name.

Jensen, Gary F., and Thompson, Ashley. “‘Out of the Broom Closet’: The Social Ecology of American Wicca.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 47, no. 4, Dec. 2008, pp. 753–66. EBSCOhost, dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2325/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00439.x

Melton, J. Gordon. "Wicca". Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Feb. 2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Wicca. Accessed 3 February 2022.

Reece, Gwendolyn. “Contemporary Pagans and Stigmatized Identity.” Pomegranate, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 60–95. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2325/10.1558/pome.v18i1.27917.

Rist, John M. “Marenbon, John. Pagans and Philosophers: The Problem of Paganism from Augustine to Leibniz.” The Review of Metaphysics, vol. 70, no. 1, Sept. 2016, p. 141. EBSCOhost, https://dc153.dawsoncollege.qc.ca:2070/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,url,uid&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.463512294&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Rubinstein, Murray. "new religious movement". Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 Feb. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/new-religious-movement. Accessed 3 February 2022.

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