Auburn/Opelika Community Concerned Library Event Promotes Witchcraft

September 25, 2025 - OPELIKA, AL. - Every Fall, people start thinking about pumpkins and small hay bales to use to decorate their front porches for the changing of the season. However, with Halloween coming at the end of October, popular culture delves into the macabre, as well. With people bringing out broomsticks, plastic skeletons, and black canonical sharply pointed black hats with which to go trick-or-treating. In the past, such an interest in the macabre was temporal and shortly replaced thereafter by the peace, love, and joy of the Christmas season. However, lately, popular culture is delving into the macabre and remaining there. Which is causing some concern among various communities and Christian groups.

This concern recently prompted the Liberty Counsel, a Christian ministry that focuses on strategic litigation to advance "religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family", to send a demand letter to the Orange County Public Schools in Florida. Due to the West Orange High School airing a weekly "Witchy Wednesday" video series during morning announcements that provided "religious instruction" on how to cast spells, magic, worship the moon, and perform other witchcraft rituals. Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, Liberty Counsel reminded the school district that parents have a right to opt their children out of instruction that undermines their religious beliefs. Therefore, West Orange High School, must provide opt outs to their "Witchy Wednesday" series if the parents and students wished to abstain. As of September 24th, the school district heeded the demand letter issued by Liberty Counsel and directed the high school to cease their witchcraft-oriented video series.

Now, in Alabama, members of the community in the Auburn/Opelika area are expressing concern over the Opelika Public Library and their witchcraft themed event they are holding on October 09th, 2025. For as part of their lecture series, they are hosting the author of "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls", Grady Hendrix. A New York Times Bestselling author, Hendrix focuses on the horror genre and has had articles published in "Playboy Magazine", as well. With the plot of "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" centering on a fifteen-year-old girl, Neva Craven, who is pregnant out of wedlock. And to avoid the scandal such would bring on Southern society in 1970, her father drives her from Alabama to a maternity home for unwed teenagers in St. Augustine, Florida. While in this home for pregnant teenagers, Neva and her friends receive a book on witchcraft from the bookmobile librarian and start casting some of the spells in the book. Spells, that to their surprise, actually work.

With the Grady Hendrix event being advertised as an event where one can "take a wild flight into the night and investigate the world of witchcraft in books and movies and witness an army of broomstick-brandishing, unstoppable, unbeatable witches!", community members are concerned about this nonchalant portrayal of a practice that according to an article in The Gospel Coalition "usually involves forming a compact with evil spirits in order to cause harm to other living beings." With pastors in Africa even warning about the dangers of witchcraft because it not only destroys, "it enslaves." In fact, Grady Hendrix has stated that his knowledge about witchcraft stems from his studies of witchcraft literature while in college. He first attended Bennington College for a year, a college in Vermont that did not give grades at that time. And then transferred to NYU where he focused on sound engineering, philosophy, and history. According to "Charleston" magazine, the South Carolina native once worked for a paranormal institute.

Sponsored by the Auburn Oil. Co. Booksellers, an independent bookstore in Auburn co-owned by Mike Armor and June Wilcox, the "Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" event is from 6 until 9 in the evening and costs $35 to attend. The controversial event is already sold out. With some community members expressing concern that the taxpayer-funded library is hosting an event that can be interpreted as promoting witchcraft.

Luisa Reyes is a Tuscaloosa Attorney, piano instructor, and vocalist.

Opinions expressed are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Alabama Gazette staff or publishers.