Wiccans

Upon reading the Complete Idiot's Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft (Zimmerman and Gleason, 2006), I came upon the following statement:

"The central principle is called the Wiccan Rede, and it is expressed, in somewhat archaic language, like this: 'An it harm none, do what ye will.' If you think about it, this statement covers many of the Christian Ten Commandments in one phrase." (12)

I beg to differ! The Ten Commandments expressed in Exodus 20 begin by saying, "You shall have no other gods before Me." The new Paganism exulted by Wicca and embodied in the Rede, assumes no such rules or guiding principles in terms of whom or what to worship. In contrast, they begin with a dualistic concept of the Ultimate Power in the Universe, the Goddess and God also called the Lady and Lord. In addition to this conception they also state that practitioners may wish to employ an additional deity or two from lists and tables of ancient gods and goddesses from other ancient traditions as diverse as the Greek and Roman pantheon, Egyptian mystery religions to the gods of Hinduism. (47-56).

The only hard and fast rule about who or what they will believe in comes in the form of a total rejection of the belief in Satan: "The all-evil Satan is a Christian concept that plays no part in the Wiccan religion. Witches do not believe that negativity or evil is an organized force....Neither do Wiccans believe there is a place (hell) where the damned or the evil languish and suffer." (13).

If the 10 Commandments begin with the statement that we shall have no other gods before God, I do not see how it encompasses something as nebulous as "If it harms none, do what you will."

But hey, what do I know ;)

	Exd 20:1	And God spoke all these words, saying:
	Exd 20:2	"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
	Exd 20:3	"You shall have no other gods before Me.
	Exd 20:4	"You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
	Exd 20:5	you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
	Exd 20:6	but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
	Exd 20:7	"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
	Exd 20:8	"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
	Exd 20:9	Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
	Exd 20:10	but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
	Exd 20:11	For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
	Exd 20:12	"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
	Exd 20:13	"You shall not murder.
	Exd 20:14	"You shall not commit adultery.
	Exd 20:15	"You shall not steal.
	Exd 20:16	"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
	Exd 20:17	"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's."

Scripture verses from the Blueletterbible.com NKJV of Exodus 20.