Court: Calif. may have to hire Wiccan chaplain
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An appeals court has ruled that Wiccan prisoners may be entitled to the services of a salaried chaplain.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has overturned a lower court decision that tossed out a lawsuit from two prisoners at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
The appeals court says the failure of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to hire a Wiccan chaplain may unconstitutionally show preference to five other religions represented by full-time chaplains.
The department pays chaplains to minister to Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Protestant and Native American inmates. It reported 183 Wiccan prisoners in 2007 after recording about twice that number in 2002. There are about 150,000 inmates in California prisons.
The appeals court ordered the trial judge to reconsider the lawsuit.
Comments
Teaching Witchcraft in the schools will be next.
Wicca (English pronunciation: /ˈwɪkə/) is a modern pagan religion focused around witchcraft.
So there going to have to hire a full time individual (can't call him a Chaplin) for 183 prisoners. No wonder California is in the state it is.
At least the useless atheists won't need a person to confide in, for they believe in nothing.
So now we only respect a persons religious rights if we like their religion or lack of it.
http://www.ffrf.org
Freedom From Religion Foundation
lt.
I respect anyone's religion, but this isn't religion It's witchcraft.
The word "religion" in North America is often associated with a centralized organization, local religious buildings, a minister preaching to a congregation, a single male deity, an extensive creed, etc. These factors are not really present within Wicca. This causes some people to conclude that Wicca/Witchcraft is not a religion. Being founded on beliefs and practices of a pre-Christian aboriginal religion, Wicca simply does not have a similar structure to more conventional religions. It bears many more points of similarity to Native American Spirituality and to Santeria than to Christianity, Islam or Judaism.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic...
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that Wicca is indeed a Religion. Therefor those prisoners who are Wiccans should have access to practice their religion.
I have to admit I find it funny but sometimes perplexing at the sheer amount of hatred for Atheists that Christians have.