Title:  Magical Community Skeptical of Alleged Former Wiccan
Priest Turned Christian

From:   AMER Intelligence

The Official Journal of the Alliance for Magical and Earth
Religions, Volume 1, Number 1.

copyright 1991 by AMER and the respective authors.  All rights
reserved.  (Permission to reprint has been granted by AMER.)


The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions advises members of
the occult community to exercise caution if they are asked to
participate in any "Christian-Pagan Forum" organized by a Mr.
Eric Pryor.

Pryor, a former Wiccan priest, and recent convert to
fundamentalist Christianity, has been trying to involve occult
leaders in California and other states in such events.

Pryor came to national attention last October when he organized a
public ritual opposing televangelist Larry Lea's attempt to "pray
the perversion and witchcraft out" of San Francisco with marches
to disrupt Pagan gatherings.

Pryor sent publicity about his October 30 ritual to many groups
in the occult community, including the Bay Area Pagan Assemblies,
the Church of All Worlds, the Covenant of the Goddess, and the
Temple of Set; about 150 persons attended the circle.

Although TV coverage and Pryor's own publicity indicated his
intent was to "surround Lea's negativism with a ring of positive
energy", he performed a binding which ended in curses and
destruction of a candle effigy of Lea.

Despite this, much of the media coverage of the occult community
was more positive than that of Lea's fundamentalist followers,
especially when one of Lea's planned marches was cancelled
because participants feared to leave their bus.  A rattled
follower reportedly yelled at Pagan protesters, "Your being here
violates my freedom of speech!"

On Halloween morning, Pryor appeared on San Francisco TV with
Rev. Dick Bernal, pastor of Jubilee Christian Center.  Shortly
after, Bernal and Pryor began to discuss the idea of a
Pagan-Christian forum to "foster peace and solidarity".

At Bernal's invitation, Pryor attended a local Christian revival
and spent a great deal of time with Bernal and Lea.

Pryor contacted the Bay Area Pagan Assemblies about the forum,
and volunteered to act as a liaison with the Christian community.

In an interview with the BAPA newsletter, Pryor claimed to be a
Welsh High Priest and to have been officially certified and
ordained as a Gardnerian High Priest.  Many of his claims have
now been disproved.

Shortly after this, Rev. Bernal invited Pryor to stay in his
home, and Pryor dropped out of sight.

On November 1st, AMER contacted Pryor with our congratulations on
his ritual, especially complimenting him on what appeared to be
his success in bringing many differing groups together in a
common cause.

Within a few days, Pryor called AMER for information about our
organization.  He claimed to be a member of the BAPA board, and
the leader of about a thousand members of the New Earth Temple. 
He also said he would soon be on a tour speaking to audiences all
over the United States, and asked if he could talk about AMER.

Pryor was anxious to contact our California members, particularly
any members who were Satanists.

Although AMER sent further correspondence and the information
Pryor had requested, he has failed to respond further.

In mid-November, Pryor contacted the San Francisco press and
announced his conversion to Christianity, renouncing all ties to
the Pagan community.  He allowed members of Jubilee Christian
Center to come into the New Earth Temple, destroy his altar, and
ritualistically burn many items.

In spite of this desecration, Pryor continued to urge Bay Area
Pagans to participate in his forum.

It further developed that Pryor insisted upon being allowed to
choose two of the Pagan members of the forum's panel as well as
being able to veto any of the others that the pagan community
suggests.  He immediately ruled out Z-Budapest and Lori Cabot. 
In addition, he insisted that the Christians would screen all
panel topics and questions.  As of early March, BAPA had refused
to take part in the forum under these restrictions.

Finally, when Pryor imposed even more control, the panel's
moderator, G. Gordon Melton, a Christian clergyman and a widely
respected expert on religion in America, withdrew his support and
the panel was cancelled at the last moment.

Meanwhile, Pryor had been in frequent contact with an AMER member
in the Bay Area who is active in the Satanic community.  Eric
presented himself as a Pagan community leader, though he
indicated that he was working for Jubilee Christian Center as a
"counselor".

After learning of Pryor's conversion, our member informed AMER of
phone calls in which Pryor had made suspicious and contradictory
remarks about his status and activities.

In early March, Pryor called his AMER contact and tried to raise
interest in a proposed "Christian-Satanist" forum which he
claimed to be organizing for Colorado televangelist Bob Larson,
whom he has supposedly "set straight about Satanism".

Our member feels that Pryor is now trying to further alienate the
Satanic and Pagan communities, and to undo AMER's attempts at
interfaith networking.

Pryor now complains that Pagans are "unprofessional", "don't even
know what they believe" and are "too involved in politics" to be
serious about a dialog with Christians.

AMER feels that members of any religion should think twice before
becoming involved with a man who has desecrated his own temple
and has misrepresented himself to BAPA, the press, AMER, and
others.

Although the occult world thrives on figurative iconoclasm, his
literal smashing of sacred images should place Pryor beyond the
pale.

If you would like more information on Eric Pryor or his
activities, please contact AMER at (314)-994-1026 or BAPA at
(415)-487-GAIA.

/end of article/
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