Two days prior to the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, a group of writers at US-based feminist magazine, Jezebel, published an article stating that they 'Paid Some Etsy Witches to Curse Charlie Kirk’. The magazine has since pulled the article, on the advice of their lawyers, so as not to cause any confusion about their stance on political violence of any kind.  

Is it ever ethical to wish harm on someone, even if that harm is theoretical or supernatural? What code of ethics are witches bound to? And why do witches have such a complex relationship with right-wing politics? 

GUESTS

• Dr Caroline Tully – witchcraft maven, archaeologist, writer, tarot reader, and scholar of modern Pagan religions 
• Dr Kenneth Freeman – Adjunct Professor of social work at North Carolina Central University, author of the research paper Ethical parallels: an exploration of the NASW code of ethics, Wiccan Rede, and the growing influence of Wicca in the United States
• Dr Megan Goodwin – scholar of politics, and American religions, senior editor of Religion Dispatches, and author of Religion is Not Done With You

This episode of God Forbid was made on Gadigal land, in Naarm, and on the land of the Eno, Tuscarora and Occcaneechi peoples.