Witches on TLC

February 20th, 2007

The TLC cable channel aired a new episode of My Unique Family last night, featuring a family of witches. My wife (Bella) and I watched it, wondering how a relatively mainstream television channel would portray modern witchcraft.

We were pleasantly surprised. The show’s producers did an excellent job of showing what witches did without sensationalizing or exaggerating as most media does. The show followed the family of Rev. Kendra Vaughan Hovey, founder and pastor of the First Church of Wicca in Duxbury, MA.

Though I feel Rev. Hovey is more blatant in her community (which she admits is small and Christian conservative on the show), she does present a very good face for Wicca and witchcraft. She, through the show, demonstrates how witches are ordinary people who simply practice another religion, not something to fear.

I really liked how the show interviewed non-Wiccans in her community too, including people who think her family is evil, along with her Christian neighbor. The neighbor really showed me how Wiccans can work to be included in communities. She said that Hovey’s family, though they are witches, are good neighbors who have helped her and their neighborhood. It shows how if one is a witch, being a good neighbor is very important.  Your neighbors might think your religious practices are strange (or even evil), but they will tolerate you and accept you if you act as a good, responsible neighbor.

I also found the church’s Samhain ritual/party to be interesting. Though I am not a fan of watering-down witchcraft, especially solemn holidays as Samhain, but their inviting and including the non-Wiccan community and religious leaders is an excellent way to help witchcraft be more tolerated. Many non-Wiccans at the party said that they were surprised at how they previously misunderstood witchcraft after they saw the Samhain ritual. We should work to invite more non-Wiccan community members to rituals to help them learn about us in a positive way. I just personally would not do it as a party at Samhain, unless there was a separate ritual that was more solemn.

If you can catch the rebroadcast of this show, I highly recommend it.

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4 Responses to “Witches on TLC”

  1. Aurin Willfox Says:
    February 23rd, 2007 at 9:36 am

    Interesting.

    I don’t suppose you know if anyone has a digital copy of the episode? I tried finding it on YouTube, but it’s not there.

  2. Morninghawk Says:
    February 23rd, 2007 at 11:30 am

    Unfortunately, I don’t have a good copy of it. All we have for video technology is an old TV and VCR, so I wouldn’t really have a way to make a digital copy. TLC tends to rerun a lot of its shows, so hopefully they will air this one again.

  3. Lynn Says:
    January 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am

    I too watched the episode. I can’t find rebroadcasts or anything on the internet for episodes. I had signed up for the email from the First Church of Wicca and was surprised when I recently received an email. She has disbanded the church to form a new one based on the teachings of Christ. Rather sad….I had believed her to be honest and strong in her faith.

  4. Morninghawk Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 12:25 pm

    I hadn’t heard that. Thanks for letting me know. I do understand that people change religions and I respect that choice. Some people find that, after a while, they don’t relate as well to their religion as they would another. That is part of Seeking.

    What I find very unfortunate is that she was a minister. Before becoming an ordained minister, one needs to be absolutely sure that they know without a doubt what their religion is. They can continue to learn new things and respect other religions (and should), but they need to be done Seeking. Ministers are, by definition, held to a higher standard. That is a part of their oath of ordination.

    I have serious reservations about a minister of any religion making such a drastic change. What she chose to do is not a minor change, such as moving from one tradition to another within the same religion. Instead, she chose to move to a diametrically opposed religion.

    To me, this shows that she was not as sincere and truthful with herself as she purported, which is sad. It also shows that she does not take sacred vows seriously and I would have to question her leading a Christian group (or any religion). Maybe that Roman collar she always wore was an indication of her ecumenical ambiguity.

    But these things happen. I hope those left behind in her Wiccan church can have the strength to move on to another group, or form their own, within Wicca. I also pray that Ms. Hovey finds what she is Seeking.

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