Please forgive and correct me if I’m wrong, but…this doesn’t actually sound like Wicca, does it? I’ve only met a few practicing Wiccans in my life but this particular comment strikes me as the sort of thing that drives them up the wall, in terms of their religion being misrepresented by people who seem to think that anyone who dares label themselves a “witch” is off somewhere, Weird Sisters-style, cackling into a cauldron, or poisoning apples, or threatening to, you know, “get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.”
I don’t think it’s terribly weird for anyone to “dabble” in any particular belief system during their formative years before settling on something that speaks to them, but I wonder if O’Donnell using her former “satanic altar” date as some kind of street cred, in a way, to back her fundamentalist views, as if to say: “I know these things are ‘evil’ because I was a part of them once, before I was saved,” or some such. But this, of course, is all conjecture, as no one knows for sure what the O’Donnell of 2010 has to say about such things; I suspect she’ll be asked at some point in the near future.
In any case, the things O’Donnell said on television eleven years ago may be having an effect on her current Senate campaign: while she still attended a recent Values Voters Summit to speak to fans and supporters, she also pulled out of two national television appearances that were set to air this weekend: one on CBS’ Face The Nation, and another on Fox News Sunday.
According to the Associated Press, “Diane Banister, whose public relations firm booked the shows for O’Donnell, said in an e-mail Saturday that O’Donnell canceled so she could attend a Republican campaign event Sunday in Delaware’s Sussex County.” After the amount of not-so-pleasant national exposure O’Donnell has had recently, it’s not entirely surprising that her campaign is focusing on local voters, and keeping their candidate off the national airwaves—unless Bill Maher has any other vintage clips he’d like to share.
Christine O’Donnell In October 1999: “I Dabbled Into Witchcraft” [Think Progress]
Senate Hopeful O’Donnell Cancels National TV Spots [Washington Post]
Christine O’Donnell Energizes Religious Right Crowd” “We’re Not Just A Bunch Of Aging Former Reagan Staffers And Homeschoolers” [Huffington Post]