Asatru prisoners sue Kansas prison

WINFIELD, Kan. — On July 23, 2018, nine Ásatrú prisoners in Kansas filed a religious discrimination suit. The named defendants include the Winfield Correctional Facility, the Kansas Department of Corrections, and the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections. The suit also named eight individual guards at the Winfield Correctional Facility. The nine prisoners charged that correctional officers had seized religious and other materials.

Column: Doing the Gods’ Work – a Conversation with Ben Waggoner

Pagan Perspectives

Back in 2013 and 2014, when I was getting ready to start gathering sources for my masters’ thesis in Old Norse Religion, I realized something: while the vast majority of medieval Norse-Icelandic sagas were readily accessible in Old Icelandic, quite a few of them were hard to get a hold of in translation. Sure, I could have soldiered on, armed with only my trusty Old Icelandic-English dictionary and go through every single saga in the original language, but it would have taken such a long time that, had I done so, I’d probably still be at it today. What I needed were more general editions and translations, with enough notes and index-entries to quickly find relevant information. When it came to the more popular sagas, such as the so-called “family-sagas” (Íslendingasögur), I had little problem finding good versions. In my excessive exhaustiveness, however, I found a severe lack of material related to the more obscure sagas.

Why does white supremacist Odinism thrive in prisons?

TWH – Some people believe that religious beliefs necessarily transform people and eliminate bad qualities such as prejudice. However, prejudice forms one of the core beliefs of white supremacist Odinism. Mass incarceration has provided white supremacists a place to recruit alienated white prisoners, which has created a toxic mix. Recently, The Wild Hunt interviewed Rory Bowman about white supremacist Odinism in prison. Bowman is the chaplain liaison for Heathen Prison In-Reach Services of the Troth, an international organization that promotes inclusivist Heathen traditions, or those that do not endorse such prejudice or similar beliefs. What is white supremacist Odinism?

Wiccan inmate seeking religious accommodation gets viral attention

POLKTON, N.C. –A Wiccan inmate has sued for to a long list of religious accommodations including both a vegan diet and ice cream as a ritual food for one sabbat. Jennifer Ann Jasmaine is also seeking more time to practice her religion, including time outside with a fire. According to one prison minister, that’s not going to cut it in any facility. The fact that Jasmaine is a transgender woman figures prominently in the original story, although her gender identity is not mentioned in her initial filing in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Rather, she focuses on remedies which would enhance her religious practice.