At times there are certain claims of workplace discrimination or harassment that can fail to inflame the passions of the larger Pagan community. Indeed, some instances can end up being brutally skewered by certain online Pagan communities, if the alleged harassment isn’t deemed serious enough. However, sometimes seemingly frivolous, or at least contentious, accusations can illustrate the importance of a larger struggle. Enter Milo Shiff, a Kemetic Witch and grocery-store greeter in California.

“He told them from the start they were hiring a witch. Milo Shiff had to tell them. He had to make sure they wouldn’t require him to cut his curly, gray-white hair. He had to tell them he couldn’t mutilate the flesh of mammals or birds—which didn’t turn out to be a problem, since they weren’t hiring him for the deli counter. He had to let them know he couldn’t use Microsoft computers—Bill Gates’ ethics conflict with those of Shiff’s deities—and he needed to warn them he used cannabis regularly for religious purposes.”

Shiff is accusing the Ralphs grocery chain of creating a “hostile, intimidating and offensive work environment” for putting up a green-skinned animatronic Halloween witch (among other things, you can read his full complaint, here). Now, the issue of whether folkloric representations of witches should be considered slanderous and offensive to modern religious Witchcraft practitioners is often a contentious one. Some, most notably Laurie Cabot, have long fought  against such representations, while others revel in them, or think they are a bit of fun and nothing more. Shiff doesn’t really help make his case any by seemingly being offended at just about everything non-Pagan at work, and asking for religious exemptions that strain the limits of fair accommodation.

“The Halloween witch decoration is the most egregious example, but Shiff was also asked to set up displays for St. Patrick’s Day, a holiday named for someone who, he says, was sainted for killing pagans. When he told a manager he didn’t want to complete the task because of his religion…”

For the record, no matter what your ultimate opinion is of St. Patrick, there is no evidence he killed anybody (he certainly wasn’t sainted for killing pagans). So in that instance he was asking for an exemption based on an provably incorrect assumption regarding a historical figure. In fact, most of what many Pagans believe about Patrick is incorrect. But that’s a whole ‘nother issue.

But before we get into a debate over whether Shiff’s complaint is valid, or whether folkloric green-skinned witches truly defame modern Witches and Wiccans, there’s another aspect to this case that illustrates the importance of Patrick McCollum’s current fight against the State of California.

“Shiff called the [California Department of Fair Employment and Housing] department’s Santa Ana office in September 2009 to file his complaint. He says he was told by two employees that because witchcraft is not a “religious creed” or “established religion” under state law, they couldn’t do anything. A few weeks later, Shiff says, they reconsidered, thanks to his repeated urging. The department won’t comment on the dispute or on Shiff’s account of his dealings with the department, but spokeswoman Annmarie Billotti confirmed Shiff had filed a complaint. Speaking in general terms, she said she didn’t know whether there had ever been a complaint to the department like this before—with a witch objecting to some stereotypical depiction of the religion. But “visual harassment”—an employer subjecting employees to images they find offensive—has been grounds for department action in the past, she says.”

Wicca/Witchcraft isn’t an “established religion” in California? Have they been to the Bay Area lately? What they mean, of course, is that it isn’t one of the acknowledged “five faiths”. Yes, the policy for prisons that Patrick McCollum is fighting applies to all state institutions. It not only affects prisoners wanting fair and equal treatment, it can also impact someone filing a complaint against their employer. It’s the logical result of establishing a two-tier system of religious freedom within a governmental institution. It’s very likely, with a slight difference in personnel at the DFEH, that Shiff’s complaint, valid or not, would have never been filed. We couldn’t have a debate over whether Shiff was truly harassed, because no one would have ever heard about it.

So whether you think Schiff is the victim of harassment or not, he should at least be granted the right to file a complaint and be treated with the same deference that the “established” faiths in California are. He shouldn’t have had to repeatedly badger officials in order to do so. It makes you wonder how many people with beliefs not on the “five faiths” list have been discouraged from seeking legal redress for harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.

As for Schiff’s case, at least one law professor thinks he’s got a valid complaint.

Catherine Fisk, a professor at UC Irvine’s school of law who teaches classes on harassment and discrimination law, doesn’t see it that way. From the way it sounds, she says, Shiff just might have a case. “In the ordinary harassment scenario, if you intend to force the employee to engage in conduct, even if you don’t know that it’s humiliating to them because of their status or their religion, there’s liability,” she says. “The employer who says, ‘Sure, I make young women dress up in wet T-shirts; I didn’t think that it bothered them’ doesn’t have a defense. So if you analyze the case that way, it seems clear that he has a claim.”

Meanwhile Ralphs is considering hiring a cultural specialist, which, if it happens, could lead to them scrapping their animatronic witches. A turn of events that certainly wouldn’t have happened if a formal complaint had never been filed.

An interesting story, with some pre-Christian overtones, has been simmering in the back of my mind since I first saw it yesterday. The Brooklyn Museum of Art is going forward with a show that will highlight the fact that one third of their Coptic sculptures are fakes.

“A third of the Coptic sculptures at the Brooklyn Museum of Art are modern fakes. Its collection of late Egyptian sculpture was, until now, the second largest in North America. Brooklyn curator Dr Edna Russmann, who is concluding a study of the works, warns that other museums which acquired Coptic sculptures in the past 50 years are likely to face similar problems.”

The “Coptic” era generally refers to the time of early Christian dominance in Egypt (and the decline of pre-Christian religion), from the 4th century until the Arab invasion of the late seventh century. Works from this era are highly prized for their insights into early Christianity and the transitions between Christian and pagan eras of Egypt. It is because of this eagerness by curators for early Christian treasures that a presumably large number of fakes were easily distributed and sold in the sixties and seventies. Many of them placing a heavy (and often historically incorrect) emphasis on Christian imagery.

“The fakes were mainly bought in the 1960s and 70s, and can be traced back to major antiquities dealers in New York and in Switzerland, to where they were shipped from Egypt. Dr Russmann believes that the dismissal of these works will encourage scholars to “re-evaluate Coptic art”. What is striking about the fakes is that they place a greater emphasis on Christian iconography than the authentic works. This reflects market demand for such imagery in Europe and North America.”

In addition to the ten outright fakes, several other authentic pieces show evidence of modern alterations. Fewer than ten works seem wholly untouched. Worse, scholars have known about these fakes since the seventies and this is the first time the general public will hear about the “Coptic controversy”.

Why the secrecy? Reputation mainly. Many museums in the past have dealt with Coptic fakes by quietly “retiring” them from display, avoiding scandal and bad publicity for their curators. Another motivation (largely left unspoken), is that if a large number of Christian-oriented Coptic sculptures are found to be fakes, it could spell trouble for the current narrative about the cultural dominance of Coptic Christianity in Egypt, and the decline of Egyptian paganism. While the pagan temples were closed in 384 ce, it is known that Egyptian paganism was active well into the sixth century. Indigenous Egyptian religion was still troubling to monotheists (Muslim, this time) in the 10th century, and the remaining physical remnants still trouble some extremists today.

Whatever the reason for the hush-hush, this is a brilliant example of how bad ideas and forgeries manage to survive even in the supposedly hostile environment of a museum filled with academics and scholars. An eagerness to fulfill a desire for a certain sort of object, or to validate a theory, creates a blindness to the possibility that what we have obtained is too good to be true. Perhaps this openness by the Brooklyn Museum could open the floodgates of related fakes and “alterations”, and could cause some scholars to reevaluate the Coptic era in Egypt.