Patrick McCollum & the "Five Faiths" Rule

by Shaker Michelle, a 21-year-old feminist/heathen/writer/recent transplant to Austin.

Via Jason at The Wild Hunt, I learned about Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum, who is currently engaged in a battle to overturn California's exclusionary chaplains hiring practice:

A case coming before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could end up having major legal ramifications for all religious minorities in the United States. Wiccan chaplain Patrick McCollum has been fighting for years to overturn the State of California's "five faiths policy", which limits the hiring of paid chaplains to Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American adherents. While McCollum has suffered setbacks in his quest, with a California federal district court ruling in early 2009 that he had no standing to bring his suit, he recently gained support on appeal from several civil and religious rights groups who argue that his case should be heard.

...While decisions made so far have focused only on whether McCollum has standing as a taxpayer or non-inmate to bring his suit, a new Amicus Curiae filed by the National Legal Foundation, on behalf of a conservative activist organization called WallBuilders, argues that McCollum has no standing because modern Pagans aren't guaranteed the same Constitutional rights and protections as Christian or monotheist citizens.

It's important to note that, even before the amicus was filed, the CDCR was making the same argument:

[T]he State's attorney general's office, has made the argument that religion in California is two-tiered, and that the five state faiths (the first tiered faiths) are afforded all of the equal rights and protections granted under the Constitution, but that all other faiths including Pagans, are second tier ... and are only afforded lesser rights, similar to one another. It is this concept that Pagans and other minority faiths are somehow less endowed, that I am fighting to overcome.

In the same interview, Mr. McCollum talks about some of the abuse he's gone through as a Wiccan chaplain, in government institutions and at the hands of government officers. Descriptions of some of the events may be triggering.

When I first encountered this story, my first thought was to spread the word a bit. I proceeded to post about the story on a forum I frequent, and the arguments I encountered are enclosed below, for your entertainment and head-desking.

The first responder proceeded to mansplain to me about how hysterical I was, along with telling me that he doesn't care if prisoners are discriminated against, and arguing that this is not a case of religious discrimination, despite all evidence to the contrary. Even aside from the treatment of the prisoners, the current ruling limits the hiring of paid chaplains to the "five faiths," so a chaplain outside of the five faiths cannot be hired, no matter how qualified they are.

Another poster said she thought this ruling sounded wrong, but she didn't know what paganism was, at all. I explained that paganism is extremely hard to define, as it's an umbrella term, but generally consists of religions that are not Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, that do have a reverence for the natural world, and that self-identify as being pagan; that pagans can be duotheists, monotheists, hard or soft polytheists, pantheists, animists, or people who regard the gods as metaphors for natural forces and changing seasons. Very broad term, is my point.

She responds with (paraphrased, but only slightly) "Oh. Well, now that I know that, why can't the Native American chaplain just do pagans too? They all sound the same."

You can't make this shit up. It's okay to have a different chaplain for Protestants and Catholics, but all those other weird religions? They're all the same!

Obviously, that's incredibly insulting to everyone involved. Even aside from the (I would hope) obvious issues with that statement, there's the existent tension between some practitioners of Native American religions and members of some pagan circles in which there has been rampant appropriation of Native culture.

And then there was my favorite, who started off with the argument that that theoretically Christian chaplains should be able to counsel pagans correctly (really? we all know how well THAT would work out in the majority of cases). There was also the "we should all just be able to get along and hold hands and sing kumbaya because aren't all of our religions really the same" refrain. Um, no, and also, way to miss the point.

When I mentioned the abuse Mr. McCollum suffered, along with the vandalizing of the Air Force Academy's worship center for Earth-based religions, she reponded by playing the "whoever treated him like that obviously weren't real Christians" card, followed by the "I have New Age, Wiccan, and Egyptologist friends!" card.

Yes, folks: Egyptologists. Obviously, here we have an expert. Also, this is after making it abundantly clear that pagan =/= Wiccan and that many pagans find that attitude that we're all the same frustrating. I need to make a bingo card, I think.

We are, thankfully, making progress in America with the acceptance of pagans. There's the aforementioned Air Force Academy worship center, as well as the New Jersey holiday ruling - but obviously & unfortunately, we have a long way to go.