Wiccan religion misrepresented, misunderstood

The March 1 article about the murder of Matthew Stegman offended a number of my pagan friends, and me, with the paragraph about how it was connected to witchcraft. That is a ridiculous thing to say. Wicca has nothing to do with hurting anyone.

The article should have at least said "because of its alleged connection to witchcraft."

The way it was put sounded like an absolute fact, and it's misleading. Those kids might have believed themselves to be practicing witchcraft, but they were doing nothing of the sort.

I admire Shelley and Scott Stegman for their courage in handling their son's untimely death. I hope they do not believe that their son's murderers were part of witchcraft. [The Wiccan] religion had nothing to do with their son's death.

I encourage the public to do some extensive research on religion before judging it, especially the ones that aren't widely understood.

- Debra Blair,

Ames.