The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/do-no-harm-act)
In this week’s Pagan Community Notes: The Roman Religion group in Rome, Associazione Tradizionale Pietas, rekindles the Vestal flame, Chery Hill Seminary names professor of the year, Cherokee nation changes constitution, and more news.
WASHINGTON — On what may be the eve of a landmark supreme court religious freedom decision, top democratic senators introduced a ‘Do No Harm Act” that seeks to revise the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. If passed, the amended RFRA language would, as the bill’s sponsors hope, prevent the RFRA from being used as a justification to discriminate. Senate bill 2918 was introduced May 22, led by U.S. Senators Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI). In a press release, Harris said, “The freedom to worship is a founding principle of this nation as well as the right to live free of discrimination or fear that one’s civils[sic] rights will be undermined because of race, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The Do No Harm Act will ensure we protect both these rights for all.”
The spirit behind the bill reflects, at the very least in words, a recognizable moral concept for many Wiccans and other Pagans: “An ye harm none, do what ye will.” The sponsors describe the act as a ” bill to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 to protect civil rights and otherwise prevent meaningful harm to third parties, and for other purposes.”