I’m sure many of you have already read about this on Boing Boing yesterday, but in case you haven’t, West Marin Witch the Rev. Joey Talley (who can apparently help you with your alien and shark problems) made the news after being booted from a local farmers market.

“After spending the past six summers giving free tarot readings beneath the redwood trees of Bolinas Park, the Rev. Joey Talley, the “Good Witch of West Marin,” has come to think of herself as a part of the Fairfax Farmers Market. Managers at the Marin Farmers Market see things differently. The organization, which operates eight farmers markets throughout the Bay Area, says Talley has never applied to work as a vendor or entertainer at the Wednesday night market, and they’ve asked her to leave.”

Kicked out! Boo! Hiss! But before we switch our outrage meters into overdrive, we might want to read a bit further.

“Talley agrees that she’s never sought an application, and admits that she “snuck around behind her back” after Spilger asked her to leave the market last year. But Talley believes she’s providing a free public service and has been gathering signatures on a petition asking that she be allowed to stick around. “I’ve been here year after year,” Talley said. “There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me.” While Bolinas Park belongs to the town, the Marin Farmers Market has the right to use the park every Wednesday from 4 to 8 p.m., and to decide which vendors can participate…While they appreciate Talley’s unique talents, Marin Farmers Market representatives insist she take part in the same application process as every other vendor at the Fairfax market. It’s that process, Spilger said, that lets customers know what they see at the market is what they’ll get.”

In other words, they kicked her out for flouting the application process and sneaking around after being asked to leave. Rev. Joey seems to think that her free services to local teens are so important that the rules should not apply to her.

“I’ve been here year after year,” Talley said. “There are teens who tell me things they could never take to their parents, and they could never afford to schedule a $100 session with me.”

Of course Talley could simply offer free services to teens at her office, or those tarot-desperate teens could attend one of her many sessions at local coffee houses, but that might not drum up new paying customers the way glomming onto the farmers market does. Sorry Joey, if you break the rules and get caught you pay the price. If you behave dishonorably in your business dealings (like lying and sneaking around), you can’t then imply that you were wronged and circulate a petition as though you were a cause worth fighting for. This isn’t religious discrimination, and it isn’t something to get outraged about.

Four recent news reports tie into two larger stories, the first is the issue of Pagan burial space, a matter that will become more prominent as the Baby Boomers travel further into their retirement years. There are already dedicated spaces in Wisconsin and Washington in America, and an Asatru-dedicated space in Denmark. Now we can add at least two more, an Asatru space in Norway, and a Pagan-inclusive interfaith woodland burial park in the UK.

After spotlighting three news items yesterday, I find that I have another three to share with you today. First up, we have a profile of the Denver Catholic Archbishop Charles J. Chaput. Chaput is receipient of this year’s Canterbury Medal, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s highest honor. But while Chaput thinks that the United States is “a nation that only really makes sense in a religion-friendly context”, it is clear from his acceptance speech that he doesn’t mean friendly towards all religions.

The archbishop said “the bedrock” of our common moral heritage was the First Commandment, “I am the Lord your God; you will not have foreign gods before me.” “All of our Western beliefs about the sanctity of life, human dignity and human rights ultimately depend on a Creator who guarantees them. In other words, we have infinite value because God made us. No human being or political authority can revoke that infinite value. Only God is God.” Any other pretention to answering human suffering and hope is “finally an impostor and a road away from God’s light.” Archbishop Chaput said this view of the value of human life was in direct contrast to a contemporary American spirit in which science can “comfortably” coexist alongside “superstition or barbarism.” As the Western moral consensus weakened alongside the progress of science, people did not become more ethically mature. “The 20th century was the bloodiest in history, and today the occult is flourishing right alongside our computers and Blackberries,” he said.

It seems somewhat strange that a group fighting for the rights of Santeros to perform animal sacrifice would give their “highest honor” to a man who most likely thinks “occult” religions don’t merit the same freedoms and considerations as the dominant “world religions”. Indeed, in his comments he seems to hint that “occult” beliefs are the enemy of religious freedom and liberty. An odd attitude for someone who once served on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. I guess it just goes to show you how elastic terms like “religious freedom” and “religious liberty” are.

We turn from religious freedom honours, to the potential honour of becoming one of the most powerful judges in the United States. With the pending retirement of Supreme Court Justice David Souter, speculation has been rampant as to who President Obama will name to replace him.  One name being bandied about is U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor. While not officially named as a possible appointee, conservatives are already scouring through her decisions (and the decisions of other possible candidates) looking for enough controversy to mount an effective grass-roots challenge. One of the possible talking points should she be appointed is that she is against distinctions being made between faiths in court decisions concerning religion.

In 1994, Judge Sotomayor ruled in favor of two prisoners who claimed to practice Santeria, a Caribbean religion that involves animal sacrifice and voodoo, saying that “distinctions between ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ religions” are “intolerable.”

Frankly, this just makes her seem more appealing to advocates of true religious equality. It is also a stance taken by the Supreme Court (including Antonin Scalia), who saw no distinction between the religious rights of Santeria practitioners and adherents of more “mainstream” faiths. In fact, the (in)famous case of Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah was decided by the Supreme Court in 1993, one year before her 1994 decision. Sotomayor most likely looked to this decision as a guidance on her ruling. I can’t imagine this decision would gain any real traction in the controversy department, but then certain groups are big fans of what I like to call the “Witch Gambit”. Using someone’s non-traditional religion as a basis to deny them custody, convict them of crimes, or discredit them as a witness.

In a final note, the San Francisco Chronicle puts the spotlight on journalist and fellow Pagan blogger Victoria Slind-Flor who is being honored as the “Keeper of Light” at this year’s 8th Annual Pagan Festival & Pride Parade in Berkeley.

“Slind-Flor is a practical witch, grounded in the real world. She worked as an editor and reporter for newspapers in Seattle, New Orleans and Los Angeles before becoming an online business reporter in San Francisco, specializing in copyright law, a field they don’t teach at Hogwarts. When wearing her other hat – the pointed one – she teaches workshops, gives tarot readings, and hangs with the coven. Being Keeper of the Light is the best thing that could happen to a witch, Slind-Flor said, and she will try to be worthy of the honor when the parade rolls through Civic Center Park. She is practicing what she calls her Queen Victoria wave, and she is very glad to be riding in a float, as her legs don’t work as well as they used to and the broom thing cannot be counted on. “I’m probably a symbol of the graying of our community,” she said.”

Congratulation to Victoria on this honor. The festival is tomorrow (Saturday) if you happen to be near Berkeley. Also, if you’re curious, last year’s “Keeper of the Light” honoree was Max Dashu of the Suppressed Histories Archives.

If I could outlaw one rhetorical and stylistic device I think it would be comparing your idealogical opponent to Hitler, Nazis, and fascists*. It cheapens the true horrors of WWII and the Holocaust, and instantly destroys any chance for a civilized debate. The political left and right both employ this “scorched earth” tactic of demonizing the other side, and some religious leaders aren’t much better. So I felt a certain amount of disappointment when I read an article about an intermittent California Bay Area ban on wood burning sent to me by a reader of this blog.

“…most Bay Area residents have been surprisingly receptive to a new rule banning wood fires on pollution-laden Spare the Air days during the winter, say officials at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District … But don’t try telling that to the neo-pagan pantheist who fired off an e-mail to district employees and members of its board of directors. ‘I will NOT be deprived of my constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of religion by bureaucrats looking for more ways to control even more aspects of our lives,’ wrote the pantheist. ‘I’m claiming an exemption because this ban violates my right to practice my religion, a right that is guaranteed by the Constitution … When the government controls everything we do, say and think, that’s fascism … Anyone who would turn in their neighbor for burning wood would be right at home in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Think about it, people, what have we become.’”

Who knew that the new jack-booted thugs would come in the guise of a program banning wood burning on Winter days when air pollution reaches unsafe levels.

“In the wintertime, fine particulate matter (PM2.5) becomes the pollutant with the greatest impact on air quality … When our morning forecast predicts that concentrations of PM2.5 will exceed the national health-based standard, the Air District will issue a Winter Spare the Air Alert. Winter Spare the Air Alerts will be posted on our Spare the Air home page and on the Air District’s www.baaqmd.gov home page.”

Now perhaps our anonymous Pagan pantheist had a point in asking for a religious exemption, but by comparing an initiative to improve air quality with Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia he has labeled himself an un-serious crank who will be ignored by those in power. In addition, Pagan groups who do seek to get an exemption should a holy day fall on a day when a Winter Spare the Air Alert is issued will have to combat the impressions made by this Pagan who cried “fascist”. So if you are planning to write a letter of complaint about a local ordinance, try not to compare your elected officials with regimes that have murdered millions of people, you might be surprised how much further you get in resolving your issue!

* Of course, should your idealogical opponent actually aspire to emulate Hitler, Nazis, or the principles of fascism, feel free to let those analogies, metaphors, and rhetorical flourishes fly!