patgund | Disturbing

Is your faith about to be demoted?

"A new amicus brief was filed this week by a group called Wallbuilders, Inc. The Wallbuilders brief calls on the court to state that the First Amendment itself does not cover Paganism. Or really, anything but Christianity or some other monotheistic faiths.

According to a statement from Patrick McCullum:

I originally sued on behalf of myself and Pagan inmates as their chaplain, but about a year later several inmates joined the lawsuit. Together, we claimed that it is unconstitutional for the state to deny the Pagan inmates their religious rights, their religious materials, and their religious services.

During the course of the case, the CDCR, [California Department of Corrections] other related defendants, and the Assistant Attorneys General who represents them have argued before the court that Pagans are not deserving of equal civil rights as are provided adherents of the preferred faiths. In one of their first arguments to the court, the defendants said that certain “traditional” faiths are first tier faiths and that those faiths were meant to have equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution, but that all of the other faiths, for example, Hindus, Pagans, Buddhists, Sikhs, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jains, are second tier faiths deserving of lesser rights, and therefore are not meant to have the same equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution as the first tier faiths.

Now, in an amicus brief filed in the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in support of the CDCR and the other defendants, an organization called Wall Builders,Inc, which is represented by the National Legal Foundation, has argued that Christianity is the only religion that should be protected under the Constitution or at the very most other monotheistic religions might also be included. They also argue that the term religion only applies to Christianity or monotheistic faiths, and that anyone else, including the Pagans, are not really a religion for the purpose of Constitutional protections.

Recent court cases have found Pagans and other members of minority faiths–Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and otheres–do in fact have First Amendment protection to practice their faiths."