Religion
In reply to the discussion: The Most Persecuted Religion in the World [View all]That is what Church teaches, but if you take a closer look, "magic" is rather the art of making "prayer" (wishes) work. And "occult" means "secret", practice of making wishes come true secretly from Church authorities, as from more general and non-dogmatic view Church is claiming that Jesus (and possibly saints) have monopoly on magic and only magic allowed is that practiced in the name of Jesus and with approval of Church.
Claims of monopoly in spiritual etc. matters and persecution of those not accepting that monopoly, either because of supporting some other monopoly claim or not accepting any monopolies, has gotten old and very tiresome very long long time ago. Instead of monopoly claims more useful distinction would be egoristic prayer/magic/ritual/etc. and similar self-transformative practice into better human being. As they say, be careful what you wish for, cause you might just get it.