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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>