CUEW Triad

[Cover page in business format that contains your address, legal name or a legal use name (published pen name, for example) and is signed by you personally above a printed name, containing your phone number with area code and any legitimate titles you have that are appropriate to the situation. It should include a statement that you are forwarding the following letter, which should be on a different page.]

An open letter to those who write about Paganism and Wicca:

Thank you so much for your article on Paganism and/or Wicca. It is my firm belief that every article is of benefit to our community, as rumors and fear do not stand up well to the bright light of the press, regardless of the quality or intensity of that light.
Our community is very diverse, and you may've faced some unfortunate and unforeseen consequences of your article being published or republished on a Pagan news service, or forwarded to a pagan e-group. If you are lucky, your article was not picked up by some of our more rabid members, generally newcomers or members of fringe sects. It seems every group of religious practitioners is plagued with the same problem, a group of ill behaved persons on the fringes making life difficult for the rest of us.
Those fringers often respond to articles as all religious extremists do, in the worst possible light, and it is possible that even if your article was the fairest ever written, there was something in it that drove the fringe crazy. This open letter serves as a guide to both to what preventable things insult the fringe, along with genuine errors often found in articles that may get not only the fringe going, but the rest of us. Feel free to save this and access it next time your job takes you into our corner of the universe….
Capitals are used for all religions and religious groups.
Wicca, Paganism, Druidry (or Druidism) and other Pagan faiths all take a capital.
Play nice with the capitalization of God.
If you are going to use the god of Abraham and Pagan gods in the same sentence or article, they get the same level of capitalization. God should only be used at the beginning of a sentence or to indicate that the god’s name is God. If this is going to make your editor crazy, use deity instead. Most Pagans are theists, many are polytheists.
Use appropriate information sources
Some radical antisecularists say Pagans worship Satan. They also say crazy stuff about Judaism and Islam. If you would not trust them for those religions, don't trust them for ours.
The messy use of the words Witch and Warlock.
The titles Witch and Warlock take a capital when referring to a religious practitioner, but not otherwise, and both of these words should only be used when the person describes him or herself with those words, and in that case it is best to ask them whether it is spelled with a capital or lowercase W. Both have definition issues within the community, so if you use the words, which may not be avoidable, be prepared to get some email. Don’t ever refer to someone as a Warlock if they say they are a Witch, or vice versa. In addition, when translating from other languages, use the word Witch (or Wiccan, if appropriate) but not Warlock, which is a term used only by a small minority.
Don’t guess the right title for the group or individual.
Ask your interview subjects what they call themselves. For example, most practitioners of Modern Germanic Paganism prefer the terms Heathen and Heathenry over the Latin-based Pagan and Paganism. It is best to refer to a mixed group of Pagans as Modern Pagans, at least at first, although there is scholarly debate in our own community as to whether Modern Pagans, Neopagans, Neo-Pagans, Pagans or some other word is most appropriate. If dealing with a group of Pagans, Heathens and other people who are not Christian, Jewish or Muslim, it is best to refer to them as members of Non-Abrahamic religions. Even if you approach this carefully, you may still get email saying you’re wrong, but at least you will have tried.
Wicca is the largest, but not the only, Modern Pagan religion.
Wicca, whose practitioners are called Wiccans in general (some may use the term Witch, but not all, and a smaller minority don’t use the term Wiccan) is the largest Pagan religion. Wicca is the name of the religion, not Wiccanism.
Modern Druidry, which may be called Druidism, is the second largest group under the Pagan umbrella. For the most part, the practitioners of Druidism call themselves Druids.
Reconstructionists (including Modern Germanic, Celtic and Classical Pagans) make up the next largest subgroup of Pagans, although some prefer the term Heathens. They are a diverse group and you should ask the practitioners what the most appropriate term for themselves and their religions is for your article.
Paganism and Modern Paganism are umbrella terms referring to a large community of non-Abrahamic practitioners. While there are those who consider themselves “just plain Pagan” they are not indicative of the majority.
Pagans are not “self-described.”
In general, any term you would not use for a member of an Abrahamic Faith you should not use for a Pagan. You can say that “Joe Blow describes himself as “just plain Pagan,” but for the most part, if someone says they are Pagan, Wiccan, or something else, you have to take their word for it. You’d never call someone a self-described Christian in a neutral article, would you?
Paganism may or may not be Earth-based.
The term Earth-based is used by a distinct subset of Pagans and Wiccans and may not be appropriate for all Pagans.
Don’t seek out the wacky guy or take it all as fact.
If you are at a large gathering of Pagans, and most of the people are wearing street clothes and acting normal, most of those people actually are the Pagans, not reporters or bystanders. Talk to them as well as the wacky guy. In addition, do a little fact checking or properly disclaim what the person says, especially if it seems really strange. If Joe the wacky guy says Paganism is about being a vegan nudist, ask some of the other Pagans there if they agree, and search the net. “Joe says that Paganism is about being a Vegan Nudist, a view that is not held by the bulk of Paganism” is preferable to telling Pagans they believe as Joe does.
In Wicca, and some other forms of Paganism, denominations or sects are called Traditions or trads, and may be practiced in groups, or not.
In Wicca, Alexandrian, Gardnerian and Eclectic Wiccans all have different views. They are like Episcopalians, Catholics and Unitarian Universalists. It often helps to state a person’s tradition (denomination) when writing about them. Solitary practitioners (people who don’t practice in a group) are also often atraditional (lacking a tradition) and may refer to themselves as eclectic Wiccans. Properly, Eclectic Wiccans are members in a specific Eclectic sect, but it is generally best to refer to them by tradition name. I, for example, am a Universal Eclectic Wiccan, or a UEWiccan, or a UEWwie.
There is a title legitimacy problem in Wicca and other forms of Paganism.
There are groups that hand out Wiccan degrees (levels of participation in a tradition and/or group) to anyone with an internet connection and money. Just as you would not generally use a non-denominational fringe Christian church source on what Christians believe, you should seek out multiple and established Wiccan groups and scholars to get “what they believe” statements. Just as (for example,) Catholic church goers do not know as much as Jesuit Priests, people who are “Wiccan Priests” from anything but skills-based classes don’t know as much as scholars of Wicca. Just as you would say “Catholic Priest” you should state the tradition or sect of a Pagan leader.
There is a knowledge gap in Paganism as huge as in any other religious group.
There are fundamentalist Pagans who don’t really understand their religion’s theology, just as there are fundamentalist Abrahamicists.
We are members of legitimate religions with the same rights and responsibilities as others.
Use a simple litmus test in your writing. If it would not be fair for a given thing to happen to members of your own faith, it’s not fair for the rest of us on the same grounds.
You may not think the religions are equal, but they are equal under the law.

Kaatryn MacMorgan
Elder, CUEW (cuew.org)