Coven and state clash, yet again

October 20, 2005 By

ALTAR2Maybe it’s just my church-state studies background, but this case about Wicca and public prayer strikes me as a major story and a sign of things to come. We may have heard the last of a witch named Cynthia Simpson at the U.S. Supreme Court, but the splintering of the old Judeo-Christian (and now Islamic) civil religion will continue. Here’s the lead from the Richmond Times-Dispatch story, the only MSM coverage that really mattered.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal yesterday from the Wiccan priestess who was excluded from giving the opening prayer at meetings of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. Cynthia Simpson, who calls herself a witch as do others of the Wiccan faith, sued because the county limits its list of clergy invited to pray at meetings to those of Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions.

And I loved this final detail:

Simpson is now studying for a master’s degree in divinity at a Pennsylvania seminary and hopes to be ordained in the Unitarian Universalist Church. She said that church’s beliefs are compatible with the Wiccan faith, which is based on unity with the Earth and the idea that humanity and all things are part of the deity.

A note to newcomers on the religion beat — I heard about this case (more than once, in fact) through journalists operating on the Baptist left. If you care about religious liberties issues, it pays to read Associated Baptist Press on the left and Baptist Press on the right.

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Filed Under: People, Politics, Social Issues
About TMatt

Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Scripps Howard News Service.

  • Stephen A.

    Yes, this is horribly unfair (I’m being serious here) but I suppose her ordination to the UU religion will take care of that, unless the Board has list of “acceptable” denominations it will allow to give prayers.

    One of the problems with WICCA – and I’m only talking procedurally here – is that they are so darned ecclectic. I covered a “Pagan Pride Day” a few weeks ago and every one of the attendees was utterly different in their religious practices.

    Recognizing it as a denomination or religious unit, while the IRS has done just that, is a difficult thing for some to fathom, since there’s no written Orthodoxy.

    However, as I noticed at the gathering, all of them were committed to the standard New Age beliefs, and almost all of them had the same theology, i.e., Goddess and Horned God. Ironically, it would be *Heresy* for someone to suggest that they put these similarities down on paper in credal form.

  • tmatt

    “Ironically, it would be *Heresy* for someone to suggest that they put these similarities down on paper in credal form.”

    Thus, the interest on the Baptist left.

    (cue: rim shot)

    It was a joke, people, a joke!

  • http://www.wildhunt.org/blog.html Jason Pitzl-Waters

    As I commented in my own blog, the developing legal status quo seems to be that you can exclude minority faiths so long as you don’t say “Jesus”.

    Also, for those looking for a good ongoing Pagan news source (besides mine that is) you can’t beat Wren’s Nest over at The Witches Voice.

    http://www.witchvox.com/xwrensnest.html

    Finally in regards to the UU comment. Most people know that there is a sizable community of modern Pagans in the modern UUA. A 1997 study claimed that 20% of the UUA held a “earth-centered” or “Pagan” spirituality. Many serious-minded and leadership oriented Pagans are going to UU seminaries to gain institutional training unavailable for the most part in Pagan communities.

    The chaos journalists encounter when covering Pagan events is (in my mind) the consequence of a “young” family of faiths growing far faster than we can often keep up with. Some traditions of Wicca are quite orthodox and creedal, but they usually aren’t the types talking to reporters.

  • Stephen A.

    Any credal orthodoxy I found was distilled on my own from past knowledge and observation, since each one of them SWORE they were utterly independent and totally ecclectic, but all who spoke with me expressed exactly the same core beliefs about diety, the environment and the nature of the universe.

  • tmatt

    JASON:

    What creed? What orthodoxy?

    Any particular URL you can point us to?

  • http://www.wildhunt.org/blog.html Jason Pitzl-Waters

    Orthodoxy: conforming to established doctrine especially in religion

    British Traditional Wicca:
    “The British Traditional groups view Wicca as an Initiatory, Oathbound, Magick-using, Pagan Mystery Priesthood celebrating the Mysteries contained in the Legend of the Descent of the Goddess and in the Charge of the Goddess.”

    http://www.wargoddess.net/essay/btw.php
    http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usxx&c=trads&id=3367
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amberandjet/

    Creed: a set of fundamental beliefs; also : a guiding principle

    The Charge of the Goddess:
    http://paganwiccan.about.com/library/texts/blgoddesscharge.htm

    Descent of the Goddess:
    http://www.controverscial.com/The%20Descent%20of%20the%20Goddess.htm

    Like I said before, “Trad” Wiccans are often in “the broom closet”, not the types to seek out reporters, and often oath-bound to not talk of any details of their tradition.

  • http://www.wildhunt.org/blog.html Jason Pitzl-Waters

    More:

    http://amberandjet.spiralpaths.org/

    “…the term “Wicca” refers specifically to the lineaged, initiatory mystery religion with roots in the New Forest region of Great Britain, manifested today through various “traditions” all linked with a common ancestry back to the New Forest area. “Wiccans” or “The Wica” are the properly lineaged, properly initiated members of those Traditions.”

    Many BTWs call most of the Wiccans of today, “neo-Wiccans” or refuse to acknowledge them as “of the Wicca” at all.

  • http://revelationisnotsealed.homestead.com Robin Edgar

    Hmm. I wonder if perhaps I should contact the Associated Baptist Press and Baptist Press. I expect that both would have a field day with what I am posting here. . .

    Most ironically UUs have their own serious problems with internal religious intolerance and bigotry etc. and Montreal Unitarians have even gone to great lengths to try tp trample all over my constitutionally guaranteed civil rights and freedoms. I should add that plenty of pagans have faced various forms of intolerance and bigotry within the Unitarian Universalist religious community. The worst offenders in my opinion, and indeed in my bitter personal experience, are the fundamentalist atheists within the “Humanist” subset of UUism.

    The following links go to publicly available news reports about a Canadian Unitarian church and it’s intolerant and abusive fundamentalist atheist “humanist” minister. This now retired/resigned UU minister was not guilty of sexual misconduct but committed other serious clergy misconduct which represented a flagrant breach of the UUMA Code of Professional Practices and made a complete mockery of most UU principles. His anti-religious intolerance and related clergy misconduct was and still is tacitly condoned and even effectively endorsed by the Unitarian Church of Montreal, the Canadian Unitarian Council, the UUA under Presidents John Buehrens and William Sinkford and the Ministerial Fellowship Committee under Rev. Diane Miller and others. The Unitarian Church of Montreal is still paying the price for its negligent and effectively complicit non-response to my legitimate grievances.

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1998/060498/news5.html

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1998/061898/letters.html

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1999/011499/letters.html

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/1999/122399/letters.html

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2000/120700/news5.html

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2000/121400/letters.html

    http://www.montrealmirror.com/ARCHIVES/2003/121103/front.html

    Just run a Google search on the Unitarian Church of Montreal and Rev. Ray Drennan for more info.

    A Google Groups search wouldn’t hurt either. Try “unitarian church”. . . Other search engines such as http://www.alltheweb.com may find some web pages that Google doesn’t index very well. . .

    My very public “critique” of the Unitarian Church of Montreal and the greater UU religious community’s condoning and effective endorsement of Rev. Ray Drennan’s demeaning and abusive behavior, and of the subsequent injustices and abuses that resulted from the negligent and punitive (towards me that is. . .) responses of the Unitarian Church of Montreal continues.