Buffy the Vampire Slayer and women leaving the Church

Bess writes: Women are abandoning the Church in droves – for Wicca, claims a new report. Religion and Women in the West, a study compiled by a sociologist based at the University of Derby, claims that  as many as 50,000 young women a year are swapping Christ for Wicca, because it empowers females. And who is to blame for this growing trend? Apparently, that magically empowered televisual heroine,  Buffy the Vampire Slayer (see picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar who plays the eponymous Buffy, above) is at least partially responsible. Or at least that is the belief of the author's report, Dr Kirstin Aune, who explains: “Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, as popularised by the TV series”.
Dr Aune adds: “Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditional hierarchies they imagine are integral to the Church. Women’s ordination, as priests and now bishops, has dominated debate and headlines – but while looking at women in the pulpit we have taken our eyes off the pews, where a shift with more consequences for the Church’s survival is underway.” 

Comments

[iain rae]

More like men leaving in droves to watch the georgous Buffy on the box.

[peter mckenna]

hardly surprising in view of the traditional hatred of women in the Judeo Christian tradition.Not exactly welcoming to gay people either.

[Gabe]

Rather sad that people make their choice after watching the 'idiot box'

[J. Cresswell]

Who gives a toss ?

If they're daft enough to go in for 'witchcraft' the church is probably well rid of them.

[Pip]

Perhaps women have noticed more sharply the utter misogyny inherent in all the Abrahamic faiths.

[Faustino]

Total nonsense. Nothing witch-like about Buffy, good old-fashioned values at the core of her gang, and constant concern at the tendency of the main witch, Willow, to over-emphasise magic at the expense of core values. More a warning against witchery than an advertisement for it.

The two steadiest characters were male, carpenter Xander and grounded werewolf Oz. No Wicca promotion there!

[Phil]

Doesn't seem very likely as the show hasn't run for some time. More likely to be a result of the church's attitude to women, all the fighting about women priests let alone bishops .... When there's a female pope then may be you'll see an increase in church membership overall

[Louise]

As one of those women who found spiritual fulfillment in Wicca, the antics of Buffy were not at all instrumental in my conversion. Pagan women are heir own priestesses and our faith teaches respect and freedom for men AND women. Self responsibility, healthy sexuality, resilience and independence are valued alongside motherhood, compassion, tolerance and respect for our Elders.
I do not know any other woman who came to paganism as a serious seeker through the sole influence of the lovely Buffy. If anything, I find the series rather daft !

[iain rae]

Most men like a woman with a touch of the devil rather than a goody two shoes happy clappy christian type.

[Geoffrey Smith]

"When there's a female pope then maybe you'll see an increase in church membership overall."
- Phil, 31 AUG 2008, 09:17:33

Hey, Phil, don't forget Pope Joan!
You really mustn't antagonise the feminists by ignoring her, no sir!

[Delilah]

The departure of women from the church has I imagine far more to do with the last generation's failure to prioritise regular family church attendance, with the result that this generation is remarkably ignorant about Christianity and unused to the "give and take" that participation in organised religion requires. And as for judeao-christian misogyny - people are far more likely to notice a rather "henhouse" atmosphere at your average church with men vastly outnumbered by women. Whether related to that or not - and I would ascribe it to the dreadful ignorance of most attendees - I can confirm as a woman that attending Anglican church has become a decreasingly spiritual experience, drowned in a morass of material concerns and ambitions and politically-correct posturing. By contrast, Buffy (and presumably Wicca, not to mention Islam) speaks clearly to the part of all of us that seeks meaning beyond this mortal coil, and a spiritual (as well as a practical) response to the everyday challenges of evil, as well as good. No wonder women are leaving the Anglican church in droves, and the latest changes are likley to accelerate rather than stem that trend.

[Rich]

Does it matter what claptrap people choose to believe in as long as they are not trying to force it on others through violence?

[A]

The misogyny is in the societies which claim they have accepted Christianity - Where in the Bible is Christ supposed to have discriminated against women?

[ladyxx]

The Church has always treated women like second class citizens. Can you blame them for leaving?? I doubt that a movie had anything to do with the exodus. In addition, their doctrine is not the most intelligent piece of work around either.

[Nathan]

And after it has all finished... it's the church which is left to pick up the pieces.

Even I, with my limited church experience have come across pastors n priest spending increasing amounts of time trying to help those who dabbled in witchcraft, who have become lost to families; increasingly confused and irrational.

Sadly it seems this path to empowerment is often a path to very dark places.

[Geoffrey Smith]

"Does it matter what claptrap people choose to believe in as long as they are not trying to force it on others through violence?"
- Rich, 2 SEP 2008, 11:59:17

Well, Rich, some people have chosen to believe the CP claptrap of our Labour government, but they still want to force it on us Christians through the violence of a law for which they have no mandate. They don't mind us holding prayer vigils in protest, but if our adoption agencies should refuse to accept such couples as applicants, they shut us down. Nazis.

[R Carolus]

A wrote:

The misogyny is in the societies which claim they have accepted Christianity - Where in the Bible is Christ supposed to have discriminated against women?

By having 12 disciples, all men.

[e skelton]

What can you say? Are 'spiritual' women so shallow that their religious orientation is dictated by a teen flick? Yes.

[Jon]

I am often astonished by the very poor research that not only gets funded but reported. The University of Derby publicized this woefully inadequate project to no great furtherance of its reputation. Normally, one's colleagues or Head help keep one on even keel and away from the truly daft.

Clearly, this institution is not the place to send an aspiring sociologist - a pulp fiction writer perhaps - but not a social scientist.

The question of empowerment in religion is real and quantifiable. The focus on Buffy is laughable.

[Hannah]

Women leaving the church in droves... really!? As a twenty something, church going woman I find the distinct lack of (particularly single) men more distressing - in both my church and the churches that friends attend, women far outnumber men in the pews.

[fatpie42]

Wiccans and Neo-Pagans I've known have been just as likely to be fans of Harry Potter as Buffy the VS. The former was written by a typical Christian who, in later novels has allowed Christian themes to become quite explicit. Joss Whedon, the atheist writer of BtVS, has admitted that he often uses Christian ideas in his work. I no of noone who would accept that these stories led them to become Wiccan. They tend to point to Wiccas connection with nature and respect for femininity, diversity and equality as far more compelling reasons to be Wiccan.

[Virginia Koh]

Belong, believe and behave. This is the order of how a church should operate. Gays are indeed in need of Jesus, in fact everyone is. But after one has commited their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will convict the new creation. They will no longer be drawn to sexual immorality be it gay or straight. God desires that none should perish, that is why Jesus came into our humanity and paid a high price for our salvation. There is none righeous, not one. Let Jesus change you as we are not capable of change on our own.

[Graeme]

Who cares. As long as people do right and live right, who cares how they came to do it. Many religions, most in fact, teach people to live with respect for others and the world around them. And as long as no ones tries to push a certain view on others, then let everyone have their own beliefs. And people are leaving Christianity in droves because it has become a bastardized, warped version of itself where too many are fanatics and seeing what they want in scripture and then becoming aggressive and closed minded about any other point of view, not only with regards to other religions but other branches of the same faith. It's really quite pathetic...if you become that focused and unrelenting about a belief then you have taken it beyond a religion, beyond its meaning, which is a guide to help you live your life, and you have made it a cult. I would go so far as to say that a large portion of modern Christianity is a cult. NO wonder people are avoiding it and leaving it.

[Jos Costello]

Could it be that women are drawn to Wicca because the first principle of paganism is 'do no harm'? Where in the more traditional faiths does such a tenet exist? As usual it is a matter of push/pull factors - women feel pushed out by the traditional misogyny that is still so prevalent in many traditions, and see Wiccan/pagan religions as an alternative where their spirituality will be permitted to blossom without diktats from one group towards another. Believe, belong, behave indeed - that's for sheep, not intelligent people. Nothing to with Buffy, everything to do with self-determination.

[Jonathan Peden]

Why is a (admittedly great) tv show being blamed for the church's latest woes?

Surely it shows the church has nothing to offer women but a second-class existence? So what if women want to take responsibility for their own lives? More pwer to them.