How Does Wicca Religion Demonstrate Socio-Culture Deviant Behavior

1708 Words4 Pages

It is commonly associated that the deviant behavior of people is any specialized conduct that cannot be in compliance with widely-established and socially approved norms or cultural traditions. For instance, killing another person is a representation of deviant behavior, since it contradicts the legal, social, and cultural norms of the community’s well-being. At the same time, cultural deviations in behavior may include such cases as practicing pagan and neo-satanic religious rituals which are unacceptable by major traditional religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Wicca religion perfectly demonstrates socio-culture deviant behavior, and the deviant patterns of the culturally-religious nature. Wicca religion is …show more content…

Wiccans contradict cultural norms, the term “norm” can also be equaled to the “medium,” while all of those values that stand beyond that medium are considered as deviant. On the medium, we have traditional Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and other approved religions that are supported by millions of individuals. If we look at the demography of Wicca, then it would be clear that the whole quantity of this neo-pagan practice barely equals to 150,000 followers around the world. As a result, it is a demonstration of divergence from the “medium” or deviation from the norm. The same behavioral deviant patterns such as practicing witchcraft or worshipping of non-recognized gods underline the abnormality of Wiccan religion, simply because the actions of Wiccans contradict the laws and morality of the dominative and widely-accepted religions. Christianity, and all its subdivisions and branches, prohibits people from admiring nature but encourages worshiping the Holy Trinity and honoring God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The behavioral values of Christianity are based on obeyance and Christian morality, what technically and practically constitutes the order in the social life of their followers. In contrast to Christianity, Wicca ignores certain morality order and systems, which brings chaos in their ideological belonging and commitment. This can be explained …show more content…

According to the specialists, Wiccans in Europe represent independent covens, while their peers in North American tend to formulate a sort of Wiccan churches. Despite the cohesive appearance of the Wiccan community, their stress on independence only intensifies the social separation between the followers of the religion. The most important catalyst of expressing deviant behaviors in Wiccan groups is the reproaching by major religious groups of Western society. Since most people in the world are the proponents and followers of traditional religions, the presence of non-traditional social groups that demonstrate the opposite and stereotyped elements of behavior breeds conflicts and challenges ground for acceptance of Wicca as a normal cultural practice. This reaction to Wicca can be explained by conflict theory of deviance which is characterized by vivid presence of social inequality and behavior that conflicts between the norm and the individual (Clinard & Meier, 2010). Ideologically, Wicca religion might be a psychological and socially organized response to material and spiritual inequality. The development of Wicca in democratic areas of society, particularly North America and Western Europe, also demonstrates the organizational dispersion of Wiccan

More about How Does Wicca Religion Demonstrate Socio-Culture Deviant Behavior

Open Document