Religion Clause (the best source for religious litigation news) just posted some new developments in the numerous legal challenges that Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum had brought against the state of California’s prison system, and it looks like more bad news.

“In McCollum v. California, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13580 (ND CA, Feb. 23, 2009), a volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain claimed that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has not given him the same access to prisoners and facilities as it gives to chaplains of other faiths, and that it retaliated against him because of his complaints about the treatment of Wiccans in California prisons. The court held that plaintiff had not shown sufficient evidence of disparate treatment to support his equal protection claim. Nor had he proven that the temporary suspension of his volunteer privileges or the failure to hire him for a position for which he applied were because of his exercise of 1st Amendment rights. (See prior related posting.)”

This, along with McCollum’s loss concerning challenges to California’s “five faiths” policy, doesn’t exactly paint a rosy picture concerning the future of Wiccan/Pagan prison chaplaincy. No word yet on if McCollum plans to challenge these rulings to a higher court. One brief ray of hope here is that law professor Howard M. Friedman (author of Religion Clause) points to a recently-released ruling from last year that could help McCollum lauch a more successful challenge to the “five faiths” policy.

“While the Northern District of California denied standing to a chaplain to challenge the 5 Faiths Policy, a decision from last year has just become available through LEXIS in which the Eastern District of California finds that an inmate does have standing to challenge the policy. In Rouser v. White, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107199 (ED CA, Sept. 16, 2008), the court also found that plaintiff’s complaint alleges “plausible grounds” for relief in his Establishment Clause challenge.”

So if McCollum partners up with a Wiccan or Pagan inmate willing to challenge the “five faiths” he might get a bit further next time. This may also be true in issues concerning equal access of Pagan prisoners to chaplains. In the meantime, the ongoing mistreatment of minority religions in prison continues.

Religion Clause reports that a California district court judge has ruled against Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum’s Establishment Clause challenges to the California prison system’s “five faiths policy”.

In McCollum v. State of California, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11154 (ND CA, Feb. 13, 2009), a California federal district court held that a volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain lacks both traditional standing and taxpayer standing to bring an Establishment Clause challenge to the California prison system’s policy of providing paid chaplains for only five faiths– Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American. As to traditional standing, plaintiff is attempting to assert rights of third parties, i.e. Wiccan inmates. As to taxpayer standing, plaintiff is not seeking to stop the expenditure of state funds, but rather to increase or transfer expenditures to have Wiccan chaplains hired as well. Establishment Clause taxpayer standing extends only to cases where a taxpayer is attempting to lessen expenditures.

As you can tell from Howard M. Friedman’s synopsis, this case wasn’t decided by the merits of McCollum’s argument, but on technicalities concerning proper standing. I first reported on this case back in 2007, and McCollum, along with the Lady Liberty League, certainly thought they had proper standing to fight California’s policy of exclusion.

Patrick has challenged this policy stating that it is a violation of the United States Constitution for any government agency to discriminate in employment on the basis of religion, and that it is a violation of the separation of church and state for the state of California to favor or sponsor any religion over another. This case is the result of the state of California’s refusal to accept applications for employment from Wiccans, for open and publicly advertised clergy positions

There has been no word yet on if there will be an appeal to this ruling, or if McCollum will attempt to change his arguments in order to avoid these issues of standing. The idea that Wiccan prison chaplains have no standing to challenge the “five faiths” policy because they aren’t inmates strikes me as a bit of  judicial sophistry. The exclusion of minority faiths (except for Native American religions) from paid chaplaincy positions very much affects the lives Pagan chaplains who currently work for free, not to mention the lives of prisoners who are denied steady and regular access to spiritual guidance. For my readers out there who are lawyers or law students, what do think of this ruling? Was the judge correct? Or was he dodging a thorny issue?

As we reach the close of 2008, it is time to stop for a moment and take stock of the previous year. When you look at (and for) news stories regarding modern Paganism (and related topics) every day of the year, you can sometimes lose focus on the larger picture. So it can be a helpful thing to look at the broad strokes, the bigger themes, the events and developments that will have lasting impact on the modern Pagan movement. What follows are my picks for the top ten stories from this past year involving or affecting modern Pagans.

10. Parsing Pagan Numbers: 2008 was a very good year for folks who enjoy sifting through surveys and demographical data about Pagans. We saw some signs that Pagans might affect the political thinking of those around them, that liberals may be more likely to dabble in the paranormal, that Britain is shifting into a post-Christian reality faster than we imagined, and that Pagans overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for President. However, the big story concerning statistical data and modern Pagans comes from the groundbreaking Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, which gave us some new insights into just how many Pagans there might be in America.

“Finally, we have confirmation that modern Paganism is continuing to grow. The study found that 0.4 percent of Americans adhere to a “New Age” religion, broken down into “Pagan”, “Wiccan”, and “Other”. These figures don’t include those who described themselves as “eclectic”, “spiritual but not religious”, “other liberal faith groups”, or members of CUUPs who identified themselves primarily as Unitarian Universalists. Working then with the idea then that (at least) 0.4 percent of Americans are modern Pagans (according to the study), that means there are at least 1.2 million Pagans of one variety or another in America.”

The Pew survey’s large sample size (35,000 respondents) gives our movement some firm reasons to believe we are indeed steadily growing (though not as fast as some would think). It seems like the explosive growth patterns we saw around the world in the 1990s are past, and a healthy, maintainable, expansion has replaced it (look for further confirmation of this hypothesis when the UK and Australia take their next censuses in 2011).

09. Pagans in Prison: The issue of the rights of Pagan prisoners continues to be a big story. Two major stories were the Washington Department of Corrections altering its stance regarding a prisoner’s adherence to multiple faiths (which allowed for the existence of “Christo-Pagans” and other religious meldings), and the historic testimony of Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum before the US Commission on Civil Rights.

Wiccan Chaplain Patrick McCollum

McCollum described discrimination against American Pagan inmates as “endemic”, and called for a complete overhaul of the way in which prison chaplains and staff are hired, and the establishment of a independent grievance process which would include experts in non-traditional faiths. As Pagan populations around the world grow, so too will the number of Pagan inmates, the fight for equal and fair treatment is an essential struggle that will no doubt continue for several years.

08. The Ups and Downs of Christian-Pagan Relations: This past year saw two books from Christian publishers that claimed to forward dialogue and engagement with the Pagan community, but only one that actually seemed to back up those claims (that would be “Beyond the Burning Times”). While many Pagans are quick to point out that not all Christians are Pagan-hating Jack Chick-reading caricatures, we found that there is still a lot of skepticism and cynicism inherent in the process of building better relations. No doubt this skepticism and reluctance to reach out stems from the ongoing stream of alarmist propaganda, straw man arguments, and a long-standing resistance among some Christian organizations to allow us equal access to the rights and privileges enjoyed by the dominant monotheisms. But small progress is still progress, yes?

07. Animal Sacrifice and Santeria Rights: I have long argued that what happens to our religious “cousins” in the African diasporic religions (Santeria, Vodou, Candomble, etc) ultimately affects the rights and freedoms of modern Pagans. We ignore their legal struggles – whether due to ignorance, indifference, or abhorrence – at our own peril. 2008 saw the fight over the legal right for these faiths to carry out their rituals in peace, specifically animal sacrifice, intensify dramatically. Relations between practitioners of Santeria and local police forces are getting tense, and the legal case of Texan Santeria priest Jose Merced, who was prevented from carrying out private rituals after neighbors called the police.

“Santeria priest Jose Merced filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the city of Euless in December 2006 after officials told him he couldn’t sacrifice goats at his home for a ceremony initiating a new priest. Followers of the African-Caribbean religion consider animal sacrifice as essential to Santeria as Communion is to Catholics. Euless says the killing of goats for whatever reason would violate its city-wide slaughtering ban. Last year, the city proposed a settlement that permitted the killing of chickens – which is also involved in the ceremony and allowed under the city ordinance. Mr. Merced rejected the offer, saying that Santeria would cease to exist without the sacrifice of goats as well.”

Though Merced lost that case, it is currently being appealed. The problems being faced by Santeria and other related faiths (legal and cultural) is only intensified by ill-informed police and reporters who see dark magical rites whenever a dead animal surfaces in a street or graveyard. In fact, to some, all these diasporic religions are pretty much the same, and have little issue with casually mixing them up (which allows for utterly preposterous stories to be taken seriously). You can bet that 2009 will only see more coverage of these religions as they continue through their own version of the “Satanic Panic” years that Pagans endured.

06. Pagans and Litigation: This past year saw no shortage of the Pagan community in the courtrooms. Accusations of discrimination are no longer being tolerantly endured, instead we have witnessed more litigation over the rights/rites of Pagans (and other related matters) this past year than ever before. You had a Wiccan who successfully fought a ban on fortune-telling, a Reclaiming Witch who is fighting an unjust firing, a controversial custody case, the Supreme Court pondering the rights of a New Age syncretic religion, a religious displays case that involved Wiccans which fizzled out, a fight over religious graffiti, a bizarre “Satanic-Panic” criminal case involving Pagans in North Carolina, and a variety of cases involving public prayer. All that is only the tip of the iceberg, and you can bet 2009 will see even more courtroom struggles involving the Pagan community.

–

Tomorrow I will post the top five Pagan stories for 2008. In the meantime, I invite you to check out the top religion stories from some different perspectives. Time magazine’s top ten religion stories, the 2008 Top Religion Stories as selected by Religion Newswriters, The Revealer’s Best Religion Writing of 2008, Christianity Today’s top stories of 2008, and the Ten Worst Religion Stories of 2008 from Beliefnet’s Progressive Revival blog.

Heath Status of Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Patrick McCollum: We start off with the news that two prominent Pagans who have had recent health problems, Oberon Zell-Ravenheart and Patrick McCollum, are both doing much better. Zell-Ravenheart, who was diagnosed with colon cancer, has successfully made it through surgery, and doctors seem confident that the cancer hasn’t spread.

“His surgery was on Friday and it went well; they removed a large section of his descending colon and adjacent mesentery, his doctor is confident that he took out all the cancer and any pre cancerous lymph nodes. He said that he did not see any swollen or discolored nodes. The tissue was all sent to Pathology and we should have the results later this week since the Lab is shut down for the holiday. We will know that the surgeon successfully removed all the cancer when we receive that report. Until then folks the coin is, magickally speaking, still in the air.”

Meanwhile McCollum, who suffered from complications after back surgery, is now out of the hospital and beginning the slow recovery process.

“Patrick was released from hospital this evening, with brace and cane and orders not to leave the house for two days minimum. He will have a long recovery. He remains heavily medicated to relieve intense pain. In spite of these difficulties, Patrick’s recovery has been amazing, no doubt helped in great part by the workings and prayers of many Pagans.”

The friends and family of both McCollum and Zell-Ravenheart request continued prayers and healing work as they recover.

Starhawk and the RNC Police Raids: Since I first reported, more information on warrantless police raids and arrests has emerged in the Twin Cities (including the arrest of journalists). While the RNC has been muted due to Hurricane Gustav, around 20,000 people are protesting outside (and yes, occasionally damaging property). Starhawk continues to post updates on her web site about the protests.

“All day we’ve been getting news that the police have been raiding houses, breaking down doors, arresting people, with or without warrants or warnings. We hold the morning meeting in a public park, because our Convergence Space has been raided and closed the night before. Someone says, “We’re a community that includes children—we can’t clear them out of their own living spaces. Remember if the police raid your space it’s important to have someone negotiate with them to get the children out.” I am a tough person. I’ve been through a lot of these things and in spite of all my efforts to stay open I’ve grown something of my own protective scales. But those words pierce through them, and I find tears welling up in my eyes. It just hits me, that we’re standing here in the United States of America, in the liberal city of my birth, talking about how to protect children from armed police.”

For continuing updates about this issue, check out the Coldsnap Legal Collective web site, their Twitter feed, the Twin Cities IndyMedia site, and Pacifica Radio.

Ellinais Acropolis Protest: Since I first mentioned it a few days ago, Ellinais’s planned (illegal) ritual to Athena at the Acropolis has made international news. Being covered by CNN, ARTINFO, The New York Times, The Guardian, and several others.

“Dressed in crisp white apparel, the pagans gathered before the east wing of the temple’s imposing Corinthian columns and prayed to Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and patron of Athens, asking her to protect the Parthenon from further destruction. “Oh, goddess,” roared high priestess Doretta Peppa, her hands extending over an offering of water and olive oil. “We are ready to defend your grounds. “[But] we ask of you to protect this site, this city and its civilization, and to rid it of all evils such as the deconstruction of the Acropolis.” The Greek Culture Ministry forbids ceremonies of any sort at archeological sites. But in January, the pagan revivalists used a second century temple of Zeus in Athens to stage the first known ceremony of its kind in 1,600 years.”

In perhaps a sign that the gods approved, Athena’s father Zeus provided a thunderstorm for the 13-minute ritual. The protest-prayer comes in the wake of plans for a massive new Acropolis Museum which the remaining Acropolis statues will be moved into. Ellinais priestess Doretta Peppa calls the new structure an “architectural monstrosity” that will erode Greek culture.

“The new museum,” Peppa said, “is a monumental eyesore, an architectural monstrosity within the most traditional and archeologically-rich part of Athens. It is an insult to our heritage, and if we start deconstructing our monuments for the sake of filling up a museum, then what will we be left with?”

Greek officials are hoping the new space will boost tourist income and pressure the British government to release the Elgin Marbles, which they claim were obtained illegally, back to Greece.

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

We start off with a request for healing for Pagan chaplain and activist Patrick McCollum. Patrick recently underwent spinal surgery, and due to recent complications has been moved to the ICU.

“The reason I’m writing all this about Patrick — and I am only scratching the surface — is to tell you that he is dealing with a medical condition for which I’m asking your help. On August 15, Patrick underwent surgery for a long-standing problem with his spine. The surgery itself went well, but two days later Patrick suffered a complication that necessitated further surgery on August 18. He has been in ICU at Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, California since then, and remains there, although much improved. Patrick welcomes healing. Given what I’ve told you about him, and that you have a photo and know where is is, I ask that you remember him in your prayers and rituals, light candles, appeal to his Lady Brigit, and do whatever else you can to hasten Patrick’s relief from extreme pain and his ultimate recovery.”

McCollum, due to his extensive work with prison chaplaincy, recently appeared before the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington. A first for any modern Pagan. We here at The Wild Hunt wish him a speedy recovery.

Christian blogger and academic John Morehead, editor of the recently released “Beyond the Burning Times”, reviews the new book “Generation Hex: Understanding the Subtle Dangers of Wicca” so I don’t have to.

“…in a chapter where the authors discuss the surprises they encountered in their research for the book, one of the authors (Burroughs) addresses one of the surprises he encountered in terms of alleged links between Wicca, Satanism, sexual promiscuity, and child abuse: “I’ve found these assertions to be unfounded (at least in mainstream Wicca).” I italicized the last portion of the quote to draw attention to the issue I’m raising here. While Burroughs was pleased to discover that Wicca does not engage in the worst of its stereotypical associations, nevertheless, for Burroughs this appears to be the case with “mainstream Wicca,” which appears to leave room for non-mainstream or underground Wicca, whatever those may be.”

If you want to hear many of the routine (and often sensationalist) Christian criticisms of Wicca from “Generation Hex” co-author Dillon Burroughs, you can listen to an interview with him on Debbie Chavez’s Christian radio program (warning, this is a Christian echo-chamber, listen at your own risk).

An Irish and Canadian paper each run their own version of the standard “meet the Witches” article. The Belfast Telegraph interviews Sarah Cavanagh of Co Armagh about her journey into Paganism.

“Years ago, I would have worried about what people thought and would not have told anyone I was a witch. Now there are so many people like me, that I simply think that the people who matter don’t mind and the people who mind, don’t matter.”

Meanwhile the Nanaimo Daily News interviews the organizers of an upcoming Pagan Pride Day event.

“Anyone hoping to see animal sacrifices or disemboweling during Pagan Pride Day Saturday, will be greatly disappointed say two spokespeople for the Pagan church which is hosting the Nanaimo event at Kin Hut Park in Departure Bay. “One of the main reasons we hold Pagan Pride Day each year is to debunk myths like that,” said Kam Abbott of Nanaimo’s Temple of the Green Leaf Cauldron Church.”

So sorry folks, no disemboweling here, move along!

A double “witchcraft” slaying I covered back in January is finally coming to trial, and the prosecutors want to enter a Satanic bible and an affidavit from a Satanic high priest as evidence against Lawrence Harris, who murdered his two step-daughters.

“Prosecutors say Harris was practicing satanism and that the killings were part of a ritual from a satanic bible. Harris’ attorney, assistant public defender Michael Williams, said during a court hearing on Wednesday that prosecutors are seeking to link what Harris says and does to satanism. Casting spells and practicing witchcraft is not proof of satanism, Williams said. “(They) want shock value, sensationalism and knit-pick analysis of religious text in order to satisfy an inference,” Williams said.”

Needless to say, I would LOVE to read this affidavit from the alleged Satanic high priest (and know his identity). Lawrence Harris is pursuing an insanity defense. Trial is set for Oct. 14.

In a final note, medievalist and blogger Bo was shocked to hear Old Irish in the recently released Hellboy II.

“I went to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army last night, and to my slack-jawed disbelief, the elves were speaking Old Irish (or an awkward version thereof). It was like being a twitcher who draws the curtains one morning to see a pink flamingo standing on the windowsill. It was oddly accented (Balor was the best) and I’d need to see transcriptions to be sure that it was correct, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that they were trying to use the language … Nothing in all the film’s wonders moved me so much as hearing the meaningless preverbal particle no- with a 2nd singular Class A infixed pronoun (leniting).”

More proof of how awesome Guillermo del Toro is? Yes. Yes it is.

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

The San Francisco Gate reports on the annual conference of the North American Interfaith Network, and in the process gets a somewhat surprising quote from Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum.

“A landmark survey released in June found that 70 percent of Americans believe that multiple faiths can lead to salvation. It’s a striking deviation from religious dogma. Some believe it’s the result of a post-9/11 world. The Rev. Patrick McCollum, a Wiccan priest who is also director of the National Correctional Chaplaincy Directors Association, believes that it all started with President Bush.”

What McCollum means is that shortly after 9-11, Bush made a speech where he said “Islam is peace,” and in his opinion, this sparked a “dramatic shift” towards religious pluralism in America.

“There was a giant push for everyone to get along with everyone else and to acknowledge religions that weren’t mainstream,”

Of course if George W. Bush did indeed help foster a new religious pluralism benefiting religious minorities, it was in spite of the way his administration insulted and discriminated against Pagans (not to mention Bush’s personal views regarding Pagans). Perhaps it is a fitting irony that a Bush-era legacy will be more religious pluralism, considering how cozy his Presidency has been with strains of conservative Christianity that have historically viewed us as a sickness to be cured.

I’ve got some great links for any of my readers looking for some new online reading material. To start with, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, which recently heard the testimony of Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum on religious discrimination in prisons, has posted the full transcript of the proceedings.

“If the same standards that are being required of the Wiccans were applied to the Protestants, you guys would have to fire all the Protestant chaplains right now because they don’t have any ground to stand on at all in all the services that they’re getting.”

This is historic testimony on behalf of minority faiths before a U.S. governmental body, and should be required reading for any Pagan concerned about our religious freedoms.

Turning from political concerns, the comics/pop-culture web site Sequential Tart interviews Thista Minai about her Hellenic faith, and her recently published book “Dancing In Moonlight: Understanding Artemis Through Celebration”.

“And, of course, I’m nuts about animals and wilderness. I work as a veterinary technician, and I remember a rather amusing trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with my (very Catholic) father. There was a pendant on display showing Artemis as Potnia Theron, the Mistress of Animals, and I was explaining to my father (who by then was well aware of my obsession with Artemis and suspected that it was more than academic) exactly what all that meant. When I finished, he looked at me, looked at the pendant, then looked back at me and said, ‘So, basically, She’s the Goddess of veterinary technicians.’ And I said ‘… Yeah, dad.’”

An interesting and wide-ranging interview that provides a nice look into Pagan religion and ethics outside the Wiccan paradigm.

Finally, the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) has posted all the papers from its 2008 international conference. A wealth of academic papers on modern Paganism, the New Age movement, syncretic faiths, and several papers dealing with Aleister Crowley and Thelema.

“CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, was established in 1988 by a group of religious scholars from leading universities in Europe and the Americas … CESNUR’s original aim was to offer a professional association to scholars specialized in religious minorities, new religious movements, contemporary esoteric, spiritual and gnostic schools, and the new religious consciousness in general. In the 1990s it became apparent that inaccurate information was being disseminated to the media and the public powers by activists associated with the international anti-cult movement. Some new religious movements also disseminated unreliable or partisan information. CESNUR became more pro-active and started supplying information on a regular basis, opening public centers and organising conferences and seminars for the general public in a variety of countries. Today CESNUR is a network of independent but related organizations of scholars in various countries, devoted to promote scholarly research in the field of new religious consciousness, to spread reliable and responsible information, and to expose the very real problems associated with some movements, while at the same time defending everywhere the principles of religious liberty.”

Some interesting looking papers include “The Rise and Fall of a Public Witch Hunt: Changing Media Attitudes to New Religious Movements Since 1988″, by Suzanne Evans, “Online and Offline – Locating Pagan Community”, by Angela Coco, and “Minority Religions and Law Enforcement: A Human Rights Perspective”, by Alessandro Amicarelli. I recommend browsing the entire list.

Happy reading!

Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum appeared before the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC yesterday, to speak at a briefing focused on prisoners’ religious rights. His statement presented a chilling atmosphere of religious discrimination in the State and federal prisons that McCollum described as “endemic”.

Wiccan Chaplain Patrick McCollum

McCollum told the commission that the “Dominant Religion Lens Factor”, where every action is judged through the lens of the “normal” Abrahamic faiths, pervades throughout the State and federal prison systems. The only cure for this condition, according to McCollum, is a complete overhaul of the way in which prison chaplains and staff are hired, and the establishment of a independent grievance process which would include experts in non-traditional faiths.

“If we want to achieve religious equality in prisons, then we have to restrict the hiring of administrators, staff, and chaplains into gatekeeper positions for our nations’ correctional religious programs. Only individuals who do not see it as their duty to promote certain religious practices over others should be hired in such positions. This should be a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification. We must also educate those who do act as gatekeepers, about pluralism and the guiding principles of religious accommodation in general, so that all inmates will be permitted a reasonable and equitable opportunity to practice their faiths. And we need to establish a separate grievance process for religious issues, which gives inmates a direct line to action in these areas and protection from retaliation. This new grievance process should include experts in non-traditional faiths, so that the Dominant Religion Lens Process is avoided. And lastly, we also need to get rid of administrators and chaplains who believe that breaking the law by violating inmates’ religious rights is justified by faith.”

Never before has such an unflinching view into the treatment of minority faiths in our prisons been presented to an official US government body. One can only hope that the US Commission on Civil Rights’ report from this briefing is heard by our country’s lawmakers, and results in true reform. This moment in time should be looked back upon as a turning point in the growth and development of modern Paganism. A moment where the casual media stereotypes of modern Paganism were swept away, and in its place a striking moral and religious voice came forward to present the reality of how our incarcerated brothers and sisters are being treated.

Cherry Hill Seminary and the Lady Liberty League have released a joint press-release concerning Pagan chaplain Patrick McCollum’s upcoming presentation before the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC.

“The Rev. M. Patrick McCollum will be part of a six-member panel of experts presenting to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday, February 8, 2008, on Religious Discrimination and Prisoners’ Rights. The panel is being convened to shed light on the nature and extent of the problems which have arisen in this context and to discuss what can be done to resolve inmate grievances in United States prisons … ‘It is an honor to be invited to participate in the dialog and to share a Wiccan’s point of view,’ said McCollum in a recent interview. ‘Those in minority faiths are seldom [offered] the opportunity to be heard, even when the issue concerns their rights. I am hopeful that this invitation is indicative of what we can expect going forward; that there is truly a desire on the part of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to ensure that inmates receive equal treatment, and a willingness to better serve minority religions.’”

McCollum’s historic testimony comes at a time when the issues concerning minority faiths in prison have never been more visible. Lawsuits are being fought over the hiring of Pagan chaplains to service the growing number of Pagan inmates, the issue of Pagan syncretism and dual-adherence in prisons is becoming a heated topic, and numerous legal challenges are taking place as Pagan prisoners try to carve out more rights for themselves.

Issues of religious freedom in places like prison or the military, two places where Pagans have been making waves lately, are bellwethers for the eventual entry of modern Paganism into the social and political mainstream. The days of non-Christians feeling left out are slowly coming to an end. In its place will come greater visibility, political power and influence, and harsher scrutiny from those opposed to our growth. If you think Mormons and Muslims have it rough now, just wait till Pagans, Buddhists, and Hindus start making themselves heard.

So when McCollum swears to the Goddess to tell the whole truth, and gives his testimony on Friday, he will be talking about Pagans in prison, and the chaplains who want to serve them. But he will also be inching modern Paganism that much closer towards full inclusion and participation in deciding how America looks at minority faiths.

ADDENDUM: Speaking of Pagans in prisons, you might want to check out Get Religion’s coverage of the recent Christo-Pagan inmate story.

ADDENDUM II: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has released its own press release on Friday’s panel discussion, and has included a full list of scheduled speakers.

“Abu Qadir Al-Amin, Imam, San Francisco Muslim Community Center; Carolyn Atkins, Warden, Maryland Correctional Institution-Jessup; Frank Cilluffo, Director, Homeland Security Policy Institute, The George Washington University; Lane Dilg, Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief; Gary Friedman, Chairman, Jewish Prisoner Services International; Alex Luchenitser, Senior Litigation Counsel, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State; Patrick McCollum, Statewide Wiccan Chaplain, California Department of Corrections; Steven T. McFarland, Director, Task Force For Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice; Patrick Nolan, Vice President, Prison Fellowship; Joseph Pryor, Chaplaincy Administrator for the Federal Bureau of Prisons; and Gregory Saathoff, Executive Director, Critical Incident Analysis Group, University of Virginia.”

For info as I come across it.

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

I know I just did a Pagan News of Note a few days ago, but quite a few interesting articles and stories have popped up, and I didn’t want to ignore any of them. To start off, we have some coverage of last nights Pagan-led protest of the Miss Toronto Tourism Pageant. It seems the pageant’s board is trying to now deny religion had any influence in their decision to reject Stephanie Conover as a judge, and in turn paint the protesting Pagans and bullying thugs.

“But Miss Toronto Tourism board member Ainslie Baillie denied Conover’s rejection was tied to Wiccan beliefs. ‘This pagan conference was calling up our sponsors and threatening them,’ she said. ‘I was just told that she wasn’t qualified. A lot of it has to do with judging experience, not religion.’”

Religious bias will be a hard thing to deny since Conover has it in writing. It should be interesting to see how this shakes out once the snubbed Wiccan beauty queen files a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission next week.

Meanwhile, Chas Clifton reports that Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum will be a participant in an upcoming panel briefing for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

“He will talk about the differential treatment that Wiccans and Pagans receive in government institutions and programs, with the hope that our legislators will enact new policies to further pluralism and end religious discrimination. This briefing will be held in Washington, D.C .on February 8th, 2008 and will become an official part of the Congressional Record. This is obviously an incredible honor and it will be the first time in US history that a Wiccan has been selected to present a briefing to advise the United States Government. He reports he will also be sworn in to the Goddess, which is also an important first.”

This is a big deal, a milestone. You’ll hear more from me on this issue in the near future, be sure to check back to the USCCR site since they usually post reports on all briefings.

For a little theological exercise, check out the latest issue of Zeek, a Jewish journal of thought and culture, where author Jay Michaelson explores polytheism and nonduality.

“With this understanding, polytheism and polymorphism are more accurate, not less, than traditional monotheism, because they recognize that whatever the ultimate is, it cannot be expressed in a single manifestation. Again, this is not necessarily radical: the psalmist knew this, the ancient polytheistic Israelites knew this, and anyone who is willing to be curious about spirit can know it as well. The pious may label some of these instantiations of the divine as demons, or foreign gods, or worse, but to the nondualist, these are all, from the sublime to the sinister, pathways of knowledge of the one.”

It is rare that we get serious theological explorations of polytheism, so I urge my readers to head over there and take in the whole article.

The Times posts a book review of “AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State”, by Charles Freeman, the author of the controversial book “The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason”. AD 381 refers to the year in which the Emperor Theodosius required all his Christian subjects to believe in Nicene orthodoxy as opposed to Arianism (ten years later he go on to stamp out the last vestiges of paganism in the Roman Empire). According to the book, it was around 381 that Christianity became a “servant of an authoritarian state” and began in earnest the persecution and destruction of those who had once persecuted them.

“The Jesus of the gospels, poor, outcast, uncontaminated by worldly power, had been an apt figurehead for a persecuted religion. But he now seemed a less appropriate role model, and the church’s response was to upgrade his divinity, equating him with the angry, bellicose God of the old testament, who seemed likelier to prove an effective ally in the empire’s military engagements. The persecution not only of heretics but of all non-Christians was a natural result of Theodosius’s policy. The pagan gods were reclassified as evil spirits, and their shrines demolished. Synagogues, too, were destroyed, and it was decreed that no more should be built. Jews were debarred from all honours and dignities and from public office. The threat of eternal punishment in hell for heretics and unbelievers entered Christian doctrine, a refinement, Freeman notes, unknown to religious thought in the classical world. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, declared, when plague broke out in the city, that it should be welcomed because Jews and pagans would now be thrown into hell more quickly, while Christians would speed to heaven.”

The book is being released on Feb. 7th in the UK (I don’t have a release day for the U.S.), I’m sure it will be a big hit with the Christian book-buying public.

In a final note I wanted to plug the new blog, Women and Spirituality, which gathers a number of prominent members of the women’s spirituality and Goddess movements including Carol P. Christ, Charlene Spretnak, Donna Read, and Starhawk. The most recent entry is from Starhawk who discusses the festival of Brigid, and how it became a politically oriented ritual within Reclaiming.

“That tradition started back the year Ronald Reagan was elected, in 1980. By Winter Solstice a number of us were talking about our feeling of political despair. We decided to do a ritual about it, on Brigid’s feast, as she seemed to preside over things that were relevant to our fears about nuclear weapons and the erosion of care. We had a beautiful ritual, in which we all spoke of our fears and sense of powerlessness over bowls of salt water, transformed the energy, and then one by one lit candles at a cauldron and danced with them. The ritual also transformed us: a few months later we were deeply involved in a nonviolent direct action at a nuclear power plant. By the next year, we were blockaded a nuclear weapons lab. Had we been able to foresee the events of the next few decades, our despair might have overwhelmed us. Instead, we became activists, around nuclear weapons, then nuclear war and militarism, around issues of human rights and women’s rights and gay rights and anti-racism and AIDS and the environment and the list goes on and on…”

Certainly a blog worth checking out, and adding to your blogroll.

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