Townspeople say prayer did it but Wiccan leaders say religious intolerance forced them to drop plans for an alternative religion school in central Illinois.
Wiccan leader Ed Hubbard compared the Salem witch trials with a Hoopeston City Council meeting that attracted about 100 people, all vehemently opposed to the teaching of witchcraft.
The Rev. Timothy Kovalcik, pastor of the East Lynn United Methodist Church, had organized a meeting for people to pray the school wouldn't open. He told the Champaign (Ill.) News-Gazette: "When Christians pray, things happen."
The Wiccans were in the process of purchasing a 102-year-old building in Hoopeston and planned to open the school in September.
Hubbard told the newspaper the modern-day Wicca religion teaches reverence for the four elements of nature: earth, air, fire and water. He said the school would have held seminars, broadcast around the world via the Internet.
He said he'd resume his search for a school site elsewhere.