Scooby Doo

Camden likes watching Scooby Doo. And I normally don't mind him watching it. Except that tonight, we ran into quite a huge issue with it. The movie was "Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost." And, yes, I assumed they would cast the witch as some not-so-good person, but I was willing to deal with that. However, I was not expecting them to put Wicca into a staring role.

The ghost of a woman, Sarah Ravencroft, who was persecuted as a witch is haunting the town, but her descendant, Ben Ravencroft, (the guy who called the Mystery Team to the case) says she was a Wiccan, not a witch. And Velma pipes up about Wicca being misunderstood and how our word for witch actually derives from Wicca. And I went :joy! However. The witchcraft and witch were portrayed as EVIL. Not simply working magic to do this and that, but simply evil. Ben finds Sarah's hidden spell book and says something along the lines of "Now I have the power of evil on my side" and I was horrified! I turned to Cam and asked him, "Are witches really like that? All mean and evil?" And my darling little heathen said NO! *love* Although, he didn't seem to believe me when I said I am a witch.

While witches were portrayed as evil, Wiccans were portrayed as, of course, pure and good. Another character, a singer by the name of Thorn, is "1/16 Wiccan on her mother's side." What nonsense! They treat it as if it's an ethnicity, instead of a religion. According to these writers, am I 100% Christian because all of my family are (most likely) Christians dating back to almost forever?

So, while I'm glad that cartoons are helping to spread the word of Wicca (and through Wicca, other Pagan religions/spirtualities) and debunk the myths that it is evil and is involved with devil worship, I wish they would do a little more fact checking. Especially since many Wiccans consider themselves Witches. (Right?) It was a big point in the movie, "I'm not a witch! I'm a Wiccan.

Should we be thankful that the Scooby Doo producers/writers are spreading the message that Wicca isn't what so many have thought it to be? Or should we be disgusted in their lack of facts and truth about the religion that is already so misunderstood? A little bit of both, I would think.