A former Episcopalian priest claims reading Harry Potter during a mid-life crisis led him to eventually decide to become a Wiccan priest.

By most standards, Wayne Haney appears entirely normal. He is a teacher of World History and American History at North Branch High School in rural Lapeer County in Michigan, approximately 80 miles north of Detroit. He is 41 years old, married, and the father of two.

Haney was not raised in a church, but he began attending a Episcopal church in Plainwell Michigan during his high school years. Eventually Haney attended Virginia Theological Seminary and became an Episcopalian priest, serving his church in New Hampshire and Michigan.

But Haney says after serving only five years as a priest, he left the Episcopalian church over “the strain of leading a Christian flock while not fully being able to believe the message I was preaching.”

This dropped him “into what might be called a very early mid-life crisis” that required psychological treatment, according to an article in the Battle Creek Enquirer (03/04/06). Haney was contacted by Spero News, but declined to comment. Instead, Haney referred Spero News to the Battlecreek Enquirer article for material.

None of this would seem remarkable to most parents and other observers, other than the fact that Haney is now a practicing minister of the Sacred Birch Society, a Wiccan group that meets regularly in the Lapeer Michigan area.