The UK's conservative Daily Telegraph reports that Buffy The Vampire Slayer presents a clear and present danger to the Church of England (h/t Kat).

[A] report claims more than 50,000 women a year have deserted their congregations over the past two decades because they feel the church is not relevant to their lives.

It says that instead young women are becoming attracted to the pagan religion Wicca, where females play a central role, which has grown in popularity after being featured positively in films, TV shows and books.

... The report's author, Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby, said: "In short, women are abandoning the church.

"Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church."

Hmmm. Opposition to single mothers, to woman clergy, to sex outside marraige, to abortion, to equal rights for women in so many ways. What could possibly make young women "imagine" traditionalsim and hierachies in church?

But I'm actually quite surprised that the McCain campaign hasn't had a go at Wiccans yet, maybe by suggesting that "Muslim" Obama's wife Michelle is a secret coven-goer. After all, McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb recently tried to tie Obama to Dungeons and Dragons players, hitting the twin themes of geeky basement-dwellers (i.e your average Fighting Keyboarder) and Christian evangelical horror fables about rpgs being closely tied to Satanism. And we're told that while no-one in America will vote for an atheist, they're more likely to vote for an atheist than a pagan. Give it time, I suppose. Goldfarb can only manage so much hackery at once.