1. He decided the religion that best matched his universalist vision was Wicca, a blend of witchcraft, feminism and nature worship that has ancient pagan roots.

2. VA spokesman Matt Burns said that approximately 10 applications were pending from adherents of Wicca, a blend of witchcraft and nature worship that is one of the country‘s fastest–growing religions.

3. Indeed, many reactionary and fundamentalist political movements incorporated nature worship in their doctrines as part of a "return to roots." Nonetheless, it is hard not to compare the involvement of Christian religious leaders today with that of religious leaders in our part of the world: While the former – even the more doctrinaire and conservative among them – exhibit a modern spirit and awareness of the rapidly changing situation of the world and the environment, the vast majority of religious leaders in our part of the world, Jews and Muslims alike, have become entrenched in petrified doctrines and archaic views of "holiness," especially the sanctity of land, that have nothing in common with the needs and lives of human beings under changing political and ecological conditions.