The News Tribune checks back in with McNeil Island Prison after a court decision in January gave prisoners the right to claim adherence to multiple faiths.

“Inmates across the state won the right to declare multiple faiths after an inmate who was both an American Indian practitioner and a Seventh-day Adventist sued, arguing that the Department of Corrections was illegally restrictive. The rule change prompted Tom Suss, McNeil’s longtime chaplain, to resign. Suss, a Catholic priest in addition to a state employee, said his job would have forced him to go against his beliefs in working with inmates he thought were espousing contradictory combinations – such as being Catholic and pagan simultaneously.”

I covered the histrionics of former chaplain Tom Suss, who heavily implied that the new policy would endanger the sanctity of his faith, and leave chaplains open to spiteful litigation if they didn’t compromise their beliefs (rhetoric reached a point where special legislation was drafted to “protect” clergy from having to minister to multiple-faith adherents). The reality, several months on, seems to be that prisoners are using the freedom of multiple adherence to more fully practice their preferred faith or reflect the religious reality of their lives before incarceration.

While some have raised alarms that prisoners will “game the system” by claiming multiple faiths, prisoners see the situation as a solution to longstanding problems with the way issues of adherence and religious observances were handled.

“Inmate Maceo “Mace” Wiles, 31, said some people will always try to game any system. “Look at the welfare program,” he said. “It’s the same situation. You have some people that are needy of it and some people that are greedy.” But that shouldn’t diminish the possible good than can come from religious exploration, said Wiles, who is scheduled to be released in 2014. “I grew up on the East Side of Tacoma involved with gangs and went to more funerals than graduations. So if somebody is even alive to … find a cause for their living and their life and the breath that they have, that’s a good thing.” Wiles said he selected both Catholic and Protestant because prison policy would not allow him to simply declare as a nondenominational Christian.”

So nearly a year into this new policy, anarchy hasn’t broken out, prisoners aren’t living like kings off their newfound ability to purchase rosaries and scented oils, Catholic priests haven’t been forced to give Pagans the Eucharist, and the 40 or so inmates claiming multiple faiths seem more content. It looks like acknowledging the very human tendency towards syncretism and adaptation might just work out after all.

Back in January, I blogged about a new policy within the Washington Department of Corrections that altered its stance regarding a prisoner’s adherence to multiple faiths. Before, a prisoner had to get permission from each faith in order to declare adherence to multiple belief systems, but after a recent lawsuit this hurdle was removed, and now only a simple form needs to be filled out. This allowed for “Christo-Pagans” (specifically an Asatru-Catholic) to exist, and caused the head chaplain of McNeil Island prison, Catholic priest Tom Suss, to take a leave of absence in protest.

“Common sense says you cannot be a pagan Christian,” [Rev. Tom Suss] said. “As a state chaplain, I must endorse state policy. I have to be willing to endorse this inmate’s freedom to be both religions at the same time, but my own convictions being a Catholic priest don’t allow for a Catholic to be a pagan at the same time … Why should we allow them to be in prison what they can’t be on the street?”

Much hand-wringing and editorializing ensued. The Washington state Senate unanimously approved a bill including a provision explicitly stating that prison chaplains don’t have to perform actions contrary to their faith, even though no chaplain would be forced to do such a thing under the new guidelines. After that, things seemed to calm down. Chaplains opposed to dual-adherence were protected from hypothetical improprieties, and prisoners wanting to claim allegiance to multiple faiths could do so. But the new status-quo seemed to be too much for Tom Suss, who has resigned from the chaplaincy position at McNeil Island prison.

“The Rev. Tom Suss spent Monday afternoon at McNeil Island prison loading the contents of his office into his Hyundai Elantra. His last official day is today … He’s leaving because he disagrees with new rules that allow state inmates to simultaneously chose multiple religious affiliations with the flick of a pen … Suss knows that even with the new rules, he would not have to perform any priestly duties that went against his faith, such as giving Communion to someone claiming to be both pagan and Catholic. But the principle of inmates being allowed to claim multiple and seemingly contradictory faiths was not something Suss could get past.”

Rev. Suss leaving is most likely for the best. If he couldn’t let go of the fact that chaplains don’t have the authority or right to control a person’s conscience, then he shouldn’t be overseeing the spiritual well-being of these prisoners. Further, it is high time the Washington Department of Corrections appointed a Pagan chaplain, since Pagans outnumber Catholics (and are second only to Protestants) in the state prison system. The removal of Suss, who had been accused of anti-Pagan actions, and the appointment of a Pagan chaplain would be a good start to remedying the “endemic” discrimination against modern Pagans in our state and federal prisons.

The Theological Necessity of Goats: A Santeria priest who challenged the animal slaughter laws in Forth Worth, Texas has lost his lawsuit against the city.

“At the end of the one-day trial, U.S. District Judge John McBryde said Euless was protecting the public’s health by banning animal slaughtering in the city limits but that Merced could do the rituals elsewhere … Euless officials said they were pleased with the judge’s ruling, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on Monday. “Public health is one of the most compelling interests that cities protect,” said Mick McKamie, the city’s attorney for the case.”

Of course, their appeal to public health is completely arbitrary since the city does allow citizens to slaughter chickens in their homes. An animal just as capable of transmitting pathogens as a goat. Jose Merced is currently considering an appeal to the ruling.

Even Intolerant Fools Deserve Free Speech: Repent America founder Michael Marcavage has been found guilty of disorderly conduct by a judge in Salem. Marcavage was arrested on Halloween night, while spouting hellfire at the crowds of Pagans and merry-makers that converge on the “Witch City” every year.

“A Pennsylvania preacher who was arrested on Halloween night after defying police orders to stop using a bullhorn was found guilty of disorderly conduct yesterday and fined $200 by a judge, who said Michael Marcavage used “poor judgment” that night … ‘Halloween in Salem is a unique day of the year,’ said Salem District Court Judge Michael Uhlarik. ‘It’s a very small community, and you have 60,000 to 80,000 people crammed into a very tight space. In this day and age, we have to be very careful of controlling crowds. It’s not a question of depriving anyone of their free speech rights,’ said the judge. ‘It’s an issue of public safety.’”

According to police, the decision to shut down bullhorn use by protest groups was made because of concerns for keeping the peace amongst an increasingly hostile and drunk crowd. Police also testified that the Repent America group were using the bullhorn in an aggressive and provocative manner (something that didn’t make it into their self-serving YouTube video). Repent America promises to appeal the ruling, and has hinted that they may file a civil lawsuit.

Can You Be a Christo-Pagan in Prison: The Washington state Senate has unanimously approved a bill designed to study in-prison programs so they can more effectively build “moral character”. The bill also contains a provision that seemingly protects prison chaplains from performing actions contrary to their faith, a response to a controversy created when the Washington Department of Corrections changed their policy to allow for multi-faith allegiance in prison.

“A Page One story in The News Tribune in January explored the conflict that a Catholic priest who works as a chaplain in the state prison system faced in complying with a new rule allowing inmates to select multiple religions. A bill aimed at addressing that issue has cleared the state Legislature and is headed to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. Senate Bill 6400, sponsored by Republican Sen. Mike Carrell of Lakewood, contained provisions to protect chaplains after hearing that Tom Suss, a longtime chaplain at McNeil Island, took a leave of absence rather than be put in a position of having to provide religious items to an inmate who claimed both Catholicism and a pagan religion simultaneously. Doing so would have gone against the tenets of his faith, Suss said.”

This crowd-pleasing Republican-sponsored bill is, of course, a redundancy, since no chaplain was being forced to perform ecclesiastical duties against their wishes. In fact, Tom Suss, the chaplain this bill was designed to help, is well known for his anti-Pagan views, and his “leave of absence” tantrum stems mainly from Pagan inmates being allowed to buy Christian trinkets. The Bill is currently on the Governor’s desk awaiting a signature.

Some great Pagan and Pagan-friendly content has been popping up lately in the blogosphere, so I thought I would take some time to highlight some posts that I found particularly interesting.

To start off, Mollie at Get Religion takes a look at recent press coverage concerning the entheogenic plant ayahuasca, and the surge in popularity of shamanistic therapy sessions among upper-class suburbanites in Southern California.

“Piccalo explains that ayahuasca, meaning “vine of the soul” has been used for hundreds of years or more by tribes in Central and South America. In countries where it is legal, pilgrims flock to ceremonies. She notes that Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs introduced the plant concoction to pop culture in the 1960s but that it has remained a largely underground phenomenon – until now. A community shepherded by shamans is emerging in the United States … Unfortunately, the religious component of ayahuasca isn’t really explored. Most of the piece deals with Truenos, who comes off more Elmer Gantry than devout believer. He has a shady past and can’t answer Piccalo’s questions in a straightforward manner. In an area where New Age practitioners have found fertile ground for preying on the wealthy, he seems perfectly Californian.”

Mollie and I both share the sentiment that journalists should further explore the religious ties to this plant and its usage. You can read the original Los Angeles Times article, here.

An the artistic front, classics professor Mary Beard reports on the opening of a new show of neo-classical sculpture at Tate Britain called “The Return of the Gods”.

“Highlight of the show, but not for me (I actually think it’s a bit irritating), is Canova’s Three Graces. I decided to talk about some of the less well known pieces. The aim was to explain why what may look like slightly insipid white marble, recreating some serenely voluptuous male and female flesh, is actually a lot cleverer and a lot more intellectually engaged with the Greco-Roman sources on which it is based than most people ever imagine.”

Meanwhile the Treadwells blog announces a new exhibition at the Transition Gallery (in London) entitled “Sex and Witchcraft”

“A sinister beauty pervades the work of seven artists from London, Manchester and Budapest in Sex and Witchcraft. Working across media, often incorporating the use of found materials and tabletop techniques, the artists engage in a disturbing alchemy. Dabbling in the chemistry of first sighting and the magical fusion of opposing elements, the artists reveal a dark underbelly to the world of love and flowers, white horses and watercolours.”

The “Sex and Witchcraft” show also features a specially commissioned essay from punk-pioneer turned occult historian Gary Lachman.

Over at MetaPagan, Cat Chapin-Bishop notices a “spontaneous blog carnival” concerning interactions between Paganism and Christianity.

“It must be something in the aether…Discussions of Christianity are breaking out on Pagan blogs everywhere. It’s odd, but whenever I post anything related to the subject of Christianity at my own blog, the number of hits and comments–from Pagans–goes way up. Maybe I’m not the only person to have noticed this, because over the last few days, numerous members of the Pagan/Heathen blogosphere have posted entries on the topic of Christo-Paganism and related topics. Some bloggers are concerned, some are puzzled, and some are embracing at least some Christian concepts, if not Christianity, per se.”

My coverage of Christo-Pagan inmates is included in this accidental blog carnival, as are entries from Gus DiZerega and Chapin-Bishop’s own Quaker Pagan Reflections.

Over at Paganachd Bhandia, Kathryn Price NicDhana points to updates on direct action protests taking place in Ireland in a bid to save Tara from further development.

“We still need bodies on the line, supplies sent to the camps, and fierce magic in support. See my earlier posts for more details if you’re new here.”

For this blog’s previous coverage concerning the fight to preserve the Hill of Tara, click here.

In a final note, author Erik Davis reviews the book “Romantic Religion” by R.J Reilly, and explores romanticism, sacred plays, the Inklings, and what really attracts him to religion.

“I have also begun to suspect that, a lot of the time, what has really attracted me to religion was less the glimmer of supernatural knowledge, of some answer to the irascible longing in my heart and the mercurial confusion in my mind, than the creative imagination that channels so much of this stuff in the first place. At root, my spirit resonates with to aesthetic dimension of religion – the pungent bite of frankincense, the swelling gallop of Mozart’s requiem mass, the comic book arcana of cosmological maps, the turn of phrase in a lost gospel, the spare decor of the zendo. It is not that I am interested only in aesthetics, or story, or figurative art – I have spent tons of time with doctrine and history, and I love the experience of some model or argument about the nature of existence or God or the afterlife worms its way into my quotidian mind. But the real alchemy happens when the creative imagination soars beyond itself, towards matters of final import. I cannot imagine an awakened genuine religion without flavor and taste, without vivid figures and surprise. I rarely read wisdom books unless they are engaging as literature.”

To find more great Pagan-friendly blog content, check out Blog Elysium for an extensive list of blog links, and MetaPagan for a human-edited look at content from other (Pagan) blogs.

That is all I have for now, have a great day!

The News Tribune, who recently published a story about the Washington Department of Corrections’ new policy regarding a prisoner’s ability to claim adherence to multiple faiths, weighs in with an editorial opinion on the resulting controversy.

“James Madison would have had nightmares trying to sort this one out. Such is the muddled backdrop of a new Department of Corrections policy requiring the accommodation of prisoners who profess bizarre hybrids of belief systems. The policy was forced by a lawsuit filed by an inmate who demanded to be accommodated both as a Seventh-day Adventist and a Native American practitioner. The court decided he possessed that right.”

While the paper acknowledges the philosophical bind this puts some clergy in, they also point out that the government won’t judge the merits or sincerity of a religious claim, even if that claim defies “logical scrutiny”. The editorial suggests an ever-evolving “muddle” of a compromise between clergy made uneasy by the new procedure, and inmates wanting to profess adherence to multiple faiths.

“The state would be smart not to push this policy too hard on chaplains who, like Suss, cannot accept it on principle. An explicit conscience exemption to the general rule would be in order. The best solution would be to accommodate the beliefs of inmates and chaplains alike, finessing the potential conflicts on a case-by-case basis – like finding someone else to provide the crucifix. The First Amendment is something of a muddle in prison. So the best way to deal with it there is probably to muddle through.”

While we all “muddle through” this issue, I wanted to mention a a comment made on this blog by Al Billings. Billings, who did prison ministry work with the McNeil Island prison, heard plenty about Tom Suss, the Catholic chaplain interviewed for the initial story (and referenced in the above editorial). According to him, Suss isn’t the type of man who will work towards an agreeable compromise on this issue, especially if Pagans are involved.

“Suss was *hated* by the Wiccan and Asatru inmates (the latter were forced to meet for holy days with the former as Suss didn’t recognize their group). I was constantly getting reports of Suss’ snide comments about paganism from the inmates and covert (and sometimes) overt pressure on them from him. Now, inmates bitch a lot about things that are minor but it was pretty clear at the time that Suss took his role as a Catholic priest to be far more important than wearing the impartial “Prison Chaplain” hat. Everyone is better off with him and his ilk gone from prisons that have to serve people who aren’t simply Christian.”

Which makes me wonder, how founded are the complaints made by Suss? The original article included a quote by Dick Morgan, assistant deputy secretary for the Corrections Department’s prisons division, who made it clear that clergy wouldn’t be forced to perform services for any inmate.

“Morgan pointed out that the department’s policy doesn’t require anyone to perform ecclesiastical duties that run contrary to the tenets of their religion. A Catholic priest, for example, would not have to give communion to an inmate who had not been baptized, thus violating Catholic tradition.”

So what this really boils down to is purchasing religious supplies. Something any free person can do with no impediment. I, for example, can walk into any Catholic supply store and buy a vast array of religious items without a second glance (in fact, I have done this). No doctrinal investigation required at the register. In fact, I know of no doctrinal impediment to allowing the purchase of a crucifix or a rosary, many of which are manufactured by non-Christian hands in places like China and Taiwan.

Is the “controversy” here real, or does it arise from a personal distaste at these new freedoms granted to prisoners?

In the wake of a lawsuit, the Washington Department of Corrections has altered its policy regarding a prisoner’s adherence to multiple faiths. Under the old rules, an inmate had to get written permission from each faith before being able to claim dual adherence. Now, those barriers have been removed, and any inmate may simply declare their involvement in multiple religions.

“It used to be difficult for state prison inmates to belong to multiple faiths. The offender had to have written permission from each religion saying it was OK to be a member of both simultaneously … That changed Dec. 12, when the Corrections Department started allowing inmates to simply profess to belong to multiple religions simultaneously. The change was part of a settlement of an inmate’s lawsuit. The inmate had contended the state was violating federal law by prohibiting him from worshiping as both a Native American practitioner and as a Seventh-day Adventist. The department eventually relented, gave the inmate $1,500 and changed its policy. Not long after, Suss said, an inmate at McNeil Island decided to become both Catholic and Asatru, a movement harkening back to the pre-Christian paganism of Europe and Scandinavia.”

The article interviews a Catholic prison chaplain who is taking a leave of absence due to this new development, and may not return because his traditionalist stance on faith makes dual-adherence a logical impossibility.

“Common sense says you cannot be a pagan Christian,” he said. “As a state chaplain, I must endorse state policy. I have to be willing to endorse this inmate’s freedom to be both religions at the same time, but my own convictions being a Catholic priest don’t allow for a Catholic to be a pagan at the same time.”

Before we go deeper into the priest’s problems, we need to take a moment to discuss the question of “Christo-Pagans” (Pagans who adhere to some form of Christian belief). Most Pagans don’t claim to have the “only” or “one true” way of relating to the divine. In theory, there is nothing preventing a Pagan from practicing within multiple faiths (though wild eclecticism is frowned on in some quarters), the problem arises when one of the claimed faiths has an exclusionary view of truth and conception of the divine (many forms of Christianity, for example). This can create hostility and criticism from both sides when it happens.

Outside of a prison environment, these dual-practitioners usually settle into a comfortable compromise of their own that rarely confronts the traditionalists within exclusionary faiths (or other Pagans). Often these dual (or multiple) faith adherents gravitate towards the more “liberal” manifestations of the traditional monotheisms, or simply create their own private or group practice. As a result you can find Quaker Pagans, Jewitchery, Morwics, and a wide variety of Christopagans (not to mention syncretic faiths like Santeria and Voodoo).

Inside of prison, where just about every activity is regimented and overseen, true religious freedom has been harder to come by, sometimes due to security concerns, but often due to rigid and often discriminatory views of how faith should be handled. But since 2000, when the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act was passed, inmates have been winning wider freedoms, including the right to belong to more than one faith. A prospect that stymies some officials in Washinton.

“State Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, heard of Suss’ situation and is adding language to an existing prisons bill aimed at protecting the jobs of chaplains whose duties come into conflict with their faith … ‘I don’t know how somebody can be a pagan and a Catholic,’ Carrell said. ‘That’s like being partly pregnant.’”

But this new freedom to engage in a multiple faiths is hardly a major burden on traditionalists. No Catholic, for example, will be forced to give communion to someone he feels has transgressed against the faith. In fact, the only real complaint comes down to buying religious supplies.

“If I stayed, the individual who identified himself as Asatru/Catholic could come in for religious items and if I refused, he could sue me,” Suss said. “And the department would not defend me because I refused to endorse state policy.”

When it was pointed out that a different clerk could sell the items, the disgruntled Catholic chaplain then displayed how out of touch he truly was with the modern world.

“Why should we allow them to be in prison what they can’t be on the street?”

Of course “on the street” people are free to believe (or disbelieve) whatever they want. Their religious and spiritual options are virtually limitless. They engage in several religious traditions with little to no negative repercussion. Perhaps it is time for Father Tom Suss to retire, after all, Pagans outnumber Catholics in Washington prisons (they are, in fact, second only to Protestants), and I haven’t heard of any official Pagan chaplains being hired to service that population. Perhaps lawmakers in Washington should deal with that issue before arguing over whether Christo-Pagans can truly exist.