Conference hydra::dejavu

    
    	Sounds like it may be an issue of religious descrimination.
    
    
    	Jayna 

    The premise of the program, as described in .0, sounds like it presents
    The Craft in an entirely negative light.  But is it possible that
    in addition to the bad 'guys', that they also show modern Witches as 
    human beings, with both good and bad aspects, and a very unique 
    subculture ?   I can think of scripts with both good and bad 'guys'
    using Wicca as a unique backdrop for dramatic effect.  
    
    Just wondering.  A possibility, though slim, that the show might
    be a positive thing in some ways.   I hadn't heard anything about it
    before.
    
    								todd

    Joanne,
    
    Will send a letter. Todd does bring up a good point. In my letter I
    will warn them not to lump Witches with others groups such as Satanists
    which the media loves to do. There is a disturbing trend in America
    today, with Fundamentalist groups, who lump all those who do not believe
    as they do to consider them "of the Devil". We don't need another
    "witch hunt" (literally)
    
    Marilyn

    I just called the phone number of Rick Hull and finally ended up
    talking to the answering machine of the PR man.
    
    I left this message:
    
    "I understand that you are in the process of producing a TV series
    called "The Craft".  I personally am not a witch but I strongly feel 
    such a show would put a little understood minority of people in a bad 
    light.  I would personally not watch this show and would talk with my
    family, neighbors, and friends in the hopes they would come to a like
    decision."
     
    I left my name and number if the PR man wanted to call me back...
    I'll let you know if I get a call...
    
    Ya-tah-hey!
    Bunkie
    @;)
    
    

    
            and decided not to produce the show after all.
        I called the number given in .0 and spoke with Mr. Bob Wright.
        He gave no reason (I didn't ask) but seemed a bit abrupt.  I
    	thought I'd let you know.
    
    	Howard.    
    

Last Sunday night, a show _To Save a Child_ aired as a made-for-TV movie.  

The story, as shown:

A woman has married a handsome young man who happens to be a doctor (M.D. type);
he takes her to live in New Mexico, in a small town, the most prominent members
of which are his parents.  The young couple is put up in the guest cottage.  The
doctor's father seems to be sort of lecherous to the better-than-8-months-preg-
nany daughter-in-law; the mother seems somewhat sinister.  The doctor's often
away, and from time to time, an American ndian who helps around the place
encounters the heroine.

She notices a mask that her ex-boss (apparently an archeologist or anthropol-
igist) weas discussing in his final class before she left: a mask of a demon
that ate women's souls.  Anyway, she gets uneasy; uneasier when a hairdresser
in town warns her to get away from the town; and (after she tells her husband
about it) she finds out the hairdresser's been in a life-critical accident.

Anywaym, she has the baby, and, though she hazily sees the (C-section) birth,
bthe heroine's told the baby's born deaqd and deformed.  In time, though, she
runs into a couple who've gotten an "adopted" baby, and she recognizes the
baby as hers (though how is unclear).  Subsequently, she discovers her husband
is one of "them," and he asks her to jion him.

In a very ill-defined ceremony, the celebrants are preparing to receive the
baby, who is to be the new high priest when he grows up; however, the heroine
manages to fake taking a sleeping pill, recovers the child, and drives away, 
killing her father-in-law in the process (by accident).  She gets help from
the Indian, and as the picture sloses, she drives off, looking for help, the
witch folk (obviously) going to track her down, if they can.

A few comments on the show:

The witch stuff was _very_ unclear, didn't look like Seax Wicca, _might_ have
been Satanic, but had traces of other traditions' images.  In a long-distance
phone conversation to her ex-boss, he identified them as belonging to "the 
Craft," at least most probably, so there's the tie-in to the series.

Not a very satisfactory film.

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    
    I caught a good portion of this movie...
    
    Looked like "Craft" bashing to me...
    
    But give it a chance... maybe the American Indian is "Of the Craft" also...
    
    Michelle_not_of_the_Craft

    I did not watch the movie because of the advertising I saw. I felt very
    uncomfortable with the ideas of taking someones baby away from them for
    occult purposes....
    
    denise

Re .7 (Michelle):

    >Looked like "Craft" bashing to me...
    >
    >But give it a chance... maybe the American Indian is "Of the Craft" also...
 
Umm ...

Here we go into a rather technical dsiscussion (which in some casesn is silly
because the film was not very technically accurate).

"Witch" means more than one kind of practitioner.  The most vocal of folk
calling themselves witches are those who practice Wicca.  Wiccans correctly
state that their creed is "not Satanic"; Wiccans don't believe Satan exists.
There are lay healers who are called (and sometimes call themselves) witches.
There are some forms of dowsers who call themselves witches, usually with a
modifier (e.g., "water wtiches").  And there are worshippers of Satan who call
themselves (and are called by others) witches.

Isaac Bonewits has gone as far as to break down the twem "witch" to something
on the order of nine varieties.  

It is as silly for a Wiccan to say a Satanic Witch is "not a witch" as it
is for a layperson to say that "[all} witchcraft is Satanic."  In either case,
it's trying to stretch a specific meaning of a term to a global.

Having said all that:

"The Craft" is a term I've only heard associated with Wiccans.  Therefore, to 
the uninformed, a person who practices "the Craft," in the context of the film
in question, is an evil person.  And to that extent, the film is egregiously
incorrect.  [This is not to say that there might not be evil Wiccans; there are
historically demonstrable cases of people who call themselves Christians who are
(or were) nonetheless evil.  Evil "anything"s are, well, evil, regardless of 
creed, nationality, or whatever.]  [American] Indians belong to a different
esoteric tradition, and while possible, it's unlikely that one would be a
Wiccan.

"Craft" in this context, seems to be more evil than not.

As I said before, a most unsatisfactory film, esoterically.

Dramatically, as a stand-alone item, it is also unsatisfactory, as it ends
just where it should be getting started.  Okay for a pilot, but death for a
drama.

Re .8 (Denise):

    >I did not watch the movie because of the advertising I saw. I felt very
    >uncomfortable with the ideas of taking someones baby away from them for
    >occult purposes....
 
Why restrict it to "for occult purposes"?

Steve Kallis, Jr.

    re: 9
    
    When I use the word occult I guess I was likening it to Satanism and
    now thinking about it I feel that the word occult is very broad...I 
    practice Wiccan Magic and movie like this can do alot of harm for
    witches that are not involved in Satanism...
    
    I may be judging this movie to harshly because I did not watch it..just
    saw the advertising...but I just don't like the concept...
    
    denise
    
    

    re: 9 (Steve)
    
    	Thank you for that information. Now I can see how silly my
    statement must have sounded to practicing Wicca's. But what I 
    intended to say was... (remember I missed the first half of the 
    movie) ...maybe the man that was of American Indian heritage is
    actually another "witch" with different values and teachings.
    
    "Time will tell..." - Michelle