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Fifteen-year-old Katarina Keen won't sing along to "Silent Night" or "Listen to the Stars," two Christian songs planned for her choir's upcoming Christmas concert at Borger High School. But she will sing "Jingle Bells" and "A Carol in Winter." Katarina and her family are Wiccan. The Borger High choirs have given a concert every December, with traditional religious Christmas songs, but this is the first time in director Johnny Miller's 23-year career that any Borger student had issues with the religious themes in the music, he said. A concert at 2:30 p.m. Sunday will feature a ninth- and 10th-grade choir...

Last Halloween, Gina Uberti took vacation days to celebrate the Wiccan new year in Salem, Massachusetts, the town infamously known for the witch trials of 1692 that ended with the hanging of 14 women. Less than a month after Uberti took part in the festivities of Samhain, one of the holiest days in the Wiccan calendar, she was fired from her job as a district sales manager for Bath & Body Works.

A group of British witches is claiming religious discrimination after a Stockport Catholic church banned them from using its social club for their Crystal Cauldron Witches Ball. Sandra Davis, High Priestess at the Crystal Cauldron, had reserved Our Lady's Social Club in Shaw Heath, Stockport for her Pagan group's Annual Witches' Ball, the UK Telegraph reports. But when she rang to make payment arrangements she was told the event could not be held there and, despite already having printed tickets, another venue must be found. The Diocese of Shrewsbury have since confirmed witches are not "compatible with the Catholic ethos."

Like many other soldiers who took part in the Gaza operation, Omer, 20, occasionally took a few moments to pray, but he did not pray to the Lord of Israel. Omer considers himself pagan, and has sworn allegiance to three ancient gods. During combat, he says they appeared before him, giving him strength during the most arduous moments. Omer is still in the army, and therefore refused to be interviewed for this story. Yet he did say he belongs to a religion whose goal is to revive worship of ancient gods. In an online Hebrew-language paganism forum, Omer's accounts of...

Dylan Mortimer's "Public Prayer Booth" was the subject of a controversial report from National Public Radio. A pagan priestess runs into the president of the atheists in a phone booth in New York. No, it's not a joke — it's the start of a controversial report from National Public Radio — and your tax dollars may have paid for it. New York City officials this fall launched an art project called "Public Prayer Booth," which features a modified phone booth rigged up with a flip-down kneeler. Passers-by, if they're in the mood, can bend to their (padded) knee and say...

Police charged a third person Wednesday in connection with beatings and rape that authorities say were carried out by a satanic cult. Diana Palmer, 44, of Cottage Woods Court, surrendered to police Wednesday afternoon. She was charged with being an accessory after the fact of assault with a deadly weapon and was being held in the Durham County Jail under a $95,000 bond. Joseph Craig, 25, has been charged with kidnapping, rape, forcible sexual offense and assault in the case. His wife, Joy Johnson, 30, has been charged with aiding and abetting. Both were being held Wednesday in the Durham...

Another Democratic official charged in satanist sex crimes By Ray Gronberg : The Herald-Sun DURHAM -- Police say they've arrested and charged a third person in connection with an ongoing rape and kidnapping investigation. Diana Palmer, 44, is charged with being an accessory after the fact, Durham Police Department spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Wednesday afternoon. Palmer is first vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party. Her arrest came five days after police arrested the party's third vice chairwoman, Joy Johnson, 30, and Johnson's husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25. Craig faces three counts of second-degree kidnapping, one count of second-degree...

While Sen. Barack Obama struggles to keep the public in the dark about the nature of his pro-UN Global Poverty Act, a recent "Bay Area Interfaith Leaders' Luncheon" was held to lobby for Senate passage of the bill, whose cost has been estimated at $845 billion. An actual witch who spoke at a "Pagan Pride" festival in San Francisco was one of the listed participants. The witch, known as the "Elder Donald Frew" of the "Wiccan Community," was interviewed by the Reverend Don Lewis of "Witch School International" for a "reality" show called "Magick TV" and is shown talking about...

A nationwide manhunt is under way for a missing employee of an armored-carrier facility and his girlfriend after thieves stole more than $7 million dollars from the Ohio company earlier this week. Roger Lee Dillon, 22, of Youngstown, Ohio, is wanted for questioning by the FBI after not showing up for work at the Liberty, Ohio, after the robbery was committed. On the morning of Nov. 27, employees discovered the safes — containing $7 million in cash and checks — empty. The burglars also deactivated the alarm system and disabled a surveillance tape during the robbery. Special agent Scott Wilson,...

Wiccan is new state prison chaplain Some a bit bothered by hiring of Rev. Witch By NAHAL TOOSI of the Journal Sentinel staff Last Updated: Dec. 5, 2001 The new chaplain at Waupun Correctional Institution is a Wiccan. And a Witch. The Rev. Jamyi Witch, who has voluntarily ministered to Wisconsin inmates for at least two years, began her new full-time position at the maximum security facility this week. She is believed to be the first Wiccan chaplain in Wisconsin and one of only a handful nationwide. Department of Corrections officials on Wednesday defended the hire, saying Witch met the ...

No statutory rape charges filed even though man admitted sexual affair with 16-year-old girlfriend COEUR d'ALENE -- The 20-year-old man who admitted torching the Lake City Junior Academy might not spend a day in prison, but his underage girlfriend could spend 20 years there thanks to his testimony. Jason Howry pleaded guilty to first-degree arson as a part of a plea deal. He'll be sentenced on Nov. 8 in 1st District Court. Howry's 16-year-old girlfriend, Jacqueline Smith, is being charged as an adult. She's facing conspiracy to commit arson and first-degree arson charges. Her attorney, Doug Phelps, said plea bargain...

Elwood “Bunky” Bartlett says a New Age book store made it possible for him to become an overnight multimillionaire. Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: “You let me win the lottery and I’ll teach.”

Bush apologizes to Wiccan widow Published: Sept 2, 2007 at 10:16 AM WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush apologized to a Nevada Wiccan who was left out of a presidential meeting with relatives of soldiers killed in combat. Rebecca Stewart, who sued to have the Wiccan symbol placed on her husband’s grave marker in a military cemetery, told The Washington Post the president called her to apologize. She said she explained to Bush the faith she and her husband shared. Sgt. Patrick Stewart was killed in Afghanistan in 2005. Stewart said she heard about the private meeting...

The Wiccan pentacle has been added to the list of emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday. A settlement between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Wiccans adds the five-pointed star to the list of "emblems of belief" allowed on VA grave markers. Eleven families nationwide are waiting for grave markers with the pentacle, said Selena Fox, a Wiccan high priestess with Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wisconsin, a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The settlement calls for the pentacle, whose five points represent earth, air, fire, water and spirit,...

WASHINGTON — The widows of two combat veterans sued the government Monday for not allowing Wiccan symbols on their husbands' military headstones. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs allows military families to choose any of 38 authorized headstone images. The list includes commonly recognized symbols for Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, as well as those for smaller religions such as Sufism Reoriented, Eckiankar and the Japanese faith Seicho-No-Ie. The Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle, is not on the list, an omission that the widows say is unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by Roberta Stewart, whose husband,...

SALEM, Massachusetts (Oct. 31) - She brews potions, wears flowing black caftans and says she can speak with the dead and cast spells with a gentle wave of a wand. Laurie Cabot is a proud witch , and she's fighting for her civil rights. At age 73, the official witch of Salem says her craft is stronger than ever, as she sits in an overstuffed chair behind a pink table where she does psychic readings -- and where, she says, spirits of the dead often "pop through." "I can't see them with my eyes, I just know they are there,"...

Wednesday, August 11, 2004 NPR: Human Plant Life Is Sacred Here's a fitting juxtaposition of two stories NPR has run (so far) this week on "Morning Edition". The first, which ran on Monday, about "stem cell research", trumpeted science the technology industry's latest triumph: feeding embryonic stem cells with human placenta cells (instead of the industry standard of mouse skin cells). From such grisly irony new lines of stem cells have been produced, but, alas, these new lines will never receive federal funding (until Kerry is elected) because Bush decided on his own that killing human beings for personal...

Call any Tech Support line, or your bank for that matter. Do you get a fellow American on the other end? Or do you get someone in India that can't help you and just gives you the run around because they don't know any better (which doesn't matter because you can't understand them anyway!). This is not only happening in the Call Center field, but in Technology, Animation and other Media and so forth. This takes away millions of jobs from Americans and at the same time, we have millions of people coming from India who are getting grants to...

At the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in the small town of Fernley, Nev., there is a wall of brass plaques for local heroes. But one space is blank. There is no memorial for Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart. That's because Stewart was a Wiccan, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to allow a symbol of the Wicca religion -- a five-pointed star within a circle, called a pentacle -- to be inscribed on U.S. military memorials or grave markers.

FERNLEY, NV - A war widow who wants the government to put a Wiccan religious symbol on her husband's memorial plaque held an alternative service Monday as a protest, hours before an official Memorial Day ceremony nearby. "This is discrimination against our religion," Roberta Stewart said at the gathering of about 200 at a park east of Fernley for her late husband, Sgt. Patrick Stewart. "I ask you to help us remember that all freedoms are worth fighting for." A few hours later and a few miles away in this pastoral community east of Reno, official Memorial Day ceremonies were...

Reno, Nev. (AP) -- Nevada officials are pressing the Department of Veteran Affairs to allow the family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan to place a Wiccan symbol on his headstone. Federal officials so far have refused to grant the requests of the family of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, who was killed in Afghanistan last September when the Nevada Army National Guard helicopter he was in was shot down. "Every veteran and military member deserves recognition for their contributions to our country," said Tim Tetz, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services. The state's top veterans official said...

I know that this may be a long read, there's a lot of content here, but I think that many FReepers will find the information here interesting and disturbing. I will appreciate any help I can get with this situation. My wife and I have been homeschooling our children since they started schooling. We have 5th, 6th, and 8th graders. Recently, we made the tough decision to enroll them in a local Charter School. In Arizona, a Charter School is a privately run, smaller, more focused public school. It provides parents with school choice and some competition between the schools....

Toronto School Board Warns Against Offending Wiccans at Halloween Calls Halloween “religious day of significance for Wiccans” which “should be treated respectfully” TORONTO, October 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Toronto School Board warned its schools that Halloween as it is traditionally celebrated may offend Wiccans, even suggesting that to a Wiccan unuse to the event, it might be experienced as a “traumatic shock.”In a memo to teachers and principals, the board claimed, “Many recently arrived students in our schools share absolutely none of the background cultural knowledge that is necessary to view ‘trick or treating,’ the commercialization of death, the...

Wiccan beliefs and sexual preferences will take center stage in the trial of a North Carolina man accused of killing his wife, unless the defendant has his way before the start of his trial on Halloween. ADVERTISEMENT Earlier this week, Robert James Petrick asked a Durham County Superior Court judge to keep all references to his neo-pagan religion and "sexual habits" out of his first-degree murder trial for the death of his wife, Janine Sutphen, a cellist with the Durham Symphony Orchestra, in January 2003. Judge Orlando Hudson is expected to rule on the motions before jury selection begins Monday...

GREAT FALLS, S.C. -- The town of Great Falls plans to comply with an order to pay the lawyer of a Wiccan priestess who successfully sued the town over mentioning Jesus Christ's name in council prayers. The town will not appeal a court order to pay Darla Wynne's lawyer, Herbert Buhl, about $53,000. But town attorney Michael Hemlepp said officials aren't sure where they'll get the money. Hemlepp said the town can't simply afford to write a check. The town's annual budget is $870,000. Buhl said he's given the town an extension to pay without a specific deadline. But he...

A practicing witch who sought to have her prayers heard at government meetings in a Richmond, Va., suburb had no magic before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices rejected an appeal by Cyndi Simpson, a Wiccan priestess and member of the Broom Riders Association, who wanted to offer a generalized prayer to the "creator of the universe" in Chesterfield County, Va. "I wasn't going to talk about the goddess," Simpson said previous to today's decision. "I was going to call the elements, maybe offer up an invocation to the highest being."

A practicing witch who sought to have her prayers heard at government meetings in a Richmond, Va., suburb had no magic before the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices rejected an appeal by Cyndi Simpson, a Wiccan priestess and member of the Broom Riders Association, who wanted to offer a generalized prayer to the "creator of the universe" in Chesterfield County, Va. "I wasn't going to talk about the goddess," Simpson said previous to today's decision. "I was going to call the elements, maybe offer up an invocation to the highest being." Simpson had argued that Christians and members of other faiths...

Dutch witches may deduct the cost of their training in spells, magic potions and healing against tax, a court in the Netherlands ruled. The court, in the city of Leeuwaarden, confirmed a ruling by tax authorities that a woman's costs related to her 366-day course to become a certified witch are tax deductible, according to the Web site of the court, which made its ruling on Sept. 26. The unidentified woman, who works as an entertainer and an actress, trained in the town of Appelscha, intending to teach witchcraft, according to the court. The course includes instruction in magic spells,...

RICHMOND -- Civil liberties lawyers have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a Wiccan priestess to offer prayers before a public board's meetings. Cynthia Simpson was turned down in 2002 when she asked the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors to add her name to the list of people who customarily open the board's meetings with a religious invocation. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the suburban Richmond county. In their petition, received by the court yesterday, American Civil Liberties Union lawyers accuse the federal appeals court of trying to "obscure with legal smoke and mirrors" Chesterfield's...

RICHMOND -- Civil liberties lawyers have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a Wiccan priestess to offer prayers before a public board's meetings. Cynthia Simpson was turned down in 2002 when she asked the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors to add her name to the list of people who customarily open the board's meetings with a religious invocation. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the suburban Richmond county. In their petition, received by the court yesterday, American Civil Liberties Union lawyers accuse the federal appeals court of trying to "obscure with legal smoke and mirrors" Chesterfield's...

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision that allows the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors to exclude a local witch from leading the prayer at open meetings. The ACLU of Virginia yesterday filed its petition with the court seeking to reverse a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals decision, said ACLU attorney Rebecca K. Glenberg. "Our position is that the 4th Circuit did something really extreme in its decision," she said. "It held that it was acceptable for a government body to treat people differently because of religion." Cynthia Simpson, a witch who...

Harry Potter and the Paganization of Children's Culture The realm of human imagination is a God-given gift, a faculty of the mind that is intended to expand our understanding by enabling us to visualize invisible truths. In the modern era this zone of man's interior life has moved to the forefront of his experience. With the advent of film, television, and now the near-virtual reality of special-effects videos and other electronic entertainment, the screen of the imagination is stimulated to a degree (both in quantity and in kind) more than at any other period in history. This has prompted a...

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a Virginia county can refuse to let a witch give the invocation at its meetings by limiting the privilege to clergy representing Judeo-Christian monotheism. Lawyers for Wiccan practitioner Cynthia Simpson planned to file a motion this week asking the full court, based in Richmond, Va., to review the three-judge panel’s decision. While the U.S. Supreme Court has limited government entanglement with religion in the past, the 4th Circuit’s decision relies heavily on a case in which the high court carved out separate and broader boundaries and guidelines for prayer at legislative...

Boy suspended from school for wearing makeup and lipstick By Irma Lemus, Staff Writer SAN BERNARDINO - In what is shaping as a battle between conformity and self-expression, Pacific High School has suspended a ninth-grade boy for wearing lipstick and eye makeup. Officials are calling it a violation of school policy, which they seemed unable to find in writing... James Herndon, 16, repeating his second year at the school, and his mother, Valerie Wallace, say James has been wearing black lipstick and red eye makeup the entire time he has been enrolled at Pacific. He also wears his hair in...

RICHMOND, Va. - A federal appeals court Thursday ruled against a Wiccan priestess who argued she should be eligible to offer the opening prayer at a county meeting. Cynthia Simpson sued Chesterfield County after she was excluded from a list of religious leaders allowed to pray at the Board of Supervisors' meetings. In a letter to Simpson, the county explained the invocations "are traditionally made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition." Wiccans consider themselves witches, pagans or neo-pagans, and say their religion is based on respect for the earth, nature and the cycle of the seasons....

Wiccan boy booted for wearing lipstick Student claiming discrimination, violation of free-expression right Posted: April 14, 20052:53 p.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com James Herndon, a practicing Wiccan, plans to return to class with makeup, (photo: San Bernadino Sun) A California high-school student who practices Wiccan beliefs says his rights have been violated after being suspended this week for wearing lipstick and makeup. "If I can't wear makeup, then the girls or the staff can't wear makeup either," 16-year-old James Herndon told the San Bernadino Sun, believing his constitutional right to free expression is being violated. He says the cosmetics help him express...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) - A ninth-grade student has accused officials at a Southern California high school of discrimination for suspending him for wearing lipstick and eye makeup. James Herndon, 16, said the five-day suspension imposed Monday by administrators at San Bernardino's Pacific High School was unfair because females are allowed to wear cosmetics on campus. "If I can't wear makeup," he said, "then the girls or the staff can't wear makeup either." Herndon says his black lipstick and red eye makeup express the Wiccan religious beliefs he shares with his mother, a priestess in the neo-pagan faith. The suspension...

HAMMOND, La. (AP) A 16-year-old boy from a Christian prayer group and a 15-year-old girl who calls herself a Wiccan were booked with criminal mischief Wednesday for spreading rumors of death threats at a high school in Kentwood, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office said.

By PETER PORCO Anchorage Daily News November 26, 2004 ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sixteen-year-old Rachelle A. Waterman would appear to be any parent's ideal child - an honor student, an athlete, a gifted singer. But for months, she planned her mother's murder with two of her former boyfriends who are eight years her senior, according to Alaska State Troopers. Two weekends ago on Southeast's Prince of Wales Island, their plot ended in the death of 48-year-old Lauri Waterman of Craig, according to court papers. Lauri Waterman, a teacher's aide and community activist, was killed by one of the men using a...

(Great Falls-AP) Nov. 16, 2004 - The Town of Great Falls will ask the United States Supreme Court to overturn lower court rulings that prevents Town Council from using the name "Jesus Christ" in prayers at meetings. The council voted 6-1 on Monday night to appeal the case. Darla Kaye Wynne, a Wiccan high priestess, sued the town in 2001 after its leaders refused to open meetings only with nonsectarian prayers or to allow members of different faiths to lead the prayers. A judge's ruling last year banned reference to a specific deity in prayers at the town's meetings, ruling...

These Aren't the Druids You're Looking For "Two Episcopal priests who led Druidic activity will not be suspended, said a bishop, who blamed the local scandal on conservative groups out to destabilize the Episcopal Church USA," the Associated Press reports from Downingtown, Pa.

Wicca is a pagan religion that combines a number of elements, including earth worship, diversity, radical feminism, shamanism and Druidry. It is thoroughly anti-Christian. Wiccans, a synonym for witches, have had a history of popping up in the PCUSA and causing controversy.

Just thought I'd test the waters here at FR's religion board. Any other Pagan Conservatives here?

Woman Says Boy Targeted Because She Is A WitchTACOMA, Wash. -- Police are investigating an attack on a middle school student as a possible hate crime because the child's mother says she is a witch, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported. The 11-year-old boy was walking home from Jason Lee Middle School in Tacoma on Monday when a group of children allegedly called him a "Jesus hater", threw rotten apples at him and shouted profanities, said Kathie McKnight, the boy's mother. McKnight, who said she is a practicing Wiccan, said her faith made her son the target of a hate crime....

Sunday morning Christian worship replaced with Wiccan Witchcraft Ritual Read about Trinity United Methodist Church (PDF), which defines itself as supporting  "Creation Spirituality."Excerpts from this news article: New voices emerge in pulpit swap SundayWiccans included in interfaith exchange marking Sept. 11 anniversaryBy Eileen E. FlynnAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFMonday, September 13, 2004It's almost 9 a.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church on Sunday, and Tom Davis, a Wiccan, is looking for the sun.  In a few moments, he will cast the circle, pointing to each direction and invoking the four elements:  earth, air, fire and water.  He starts by facing east."By the earth...

<p>JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- An inmate who practices Wicca has filed a federal civil rights suit, claiming Bedford County jail officials are violating his religious rights by forbidding him to practice his religion.</p> <p>"If it has spells in it, I'm not allowed to have it," Charles Risenburg, 27, of Saxton, said in the lawsuit. He is not seeking any monetary damages, only to be able to practice his religion and receive vegetarian meals.</p>

Q. My 13 year-old daughter came home from boarding school last weekend and proceeded to announce at a family dinner that she is a witch and a Wiccan, which apparently is some witch religion. Then she told us she is an atheist. My mother, who was present and is a big fan of yours, told me you would advise me not to tolerate this. So, I took away my daughter's Wiccan books and forbade associations with peers who are Wiccans. In response, she rebelled, and the more I tried to control her, the more she rebelled. I recently have started...

The finished product The pattern (print out on 8"x11" paper):

<p>ITHACA -- With the right attitude and a bit of magic, another world is possible, according to a Pagan author and activist.</p> <p>Starhawk spoke to more than 200 people Wednesday, encouraging them to take an active role in changing the world for the better. Citing Dion Fortune's definition of magic -- "the art of changing consciousness at will," Starhawk asked people to be aware of "broken things" in today's society, such as increased corporate control and global effects of American policies.</p>

TESTING THE FAITH Cross-dressing Wiccan official sparks Christian mission probe Shelter serving homeless since 1939 accused of discrimination because of religious 'imagery'. A Christian mission serving homeless people since 1939 is under investigation for discrimination because its walls are adorned with crosses and other religious imagery. The probe was prompted by a city fair-housing investigator, who also happens to be a cross-dressing Wiccan openly contemptuous of mainstream religions, the Charleston, W. Va., Daily Mail reported. "Enough is enough," said attorney Dave Duffield, according to the paper. "How would you like them to come into your church and tear the cross...