{"id":193,"date":"2004-05-31T14:56:00","date_gmt":"2004-05-31T14:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=193"},"modified":"2004-05-31T14:56:00","modified_gmt":"2004-05-31T14:56:00","slug":"193","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Accommodating polytheists . . . and who else?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This commentary<\/a> from USA Today<\/em> got under my skin. When the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye won its court case a few years ago, I was pleased overall, although the “leaving dead chickens under bushes” part seemed pointless to me. A number of my students have cited the case in papers as evidence of the expanding boundaries of American religious freedom. Likewise, we have frequently discussed the Smith<\/em> case, when the Native American Church <\/a>collided with the state of Oregon, leading to new federal legislation . . . that was overturned as unconstitutional<\/a> (see final paragraphs).<\/p>\n

But, indeed, how far should courts go in the name of religious freedom? The part about beating the puppy to death as part of a shamanic ritual: from a detached (let’s say Martian) perspective, is that any different than the Santeria sacrifice? But it bothers me so much more.<\/p>\n

And don’t get me started on people like this<\/a>. I don’t feel like cutting them any slack at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accommodating polytheists . . . and who else? This commentary from USA Today got under my skin. When the Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye won its court case a few years ago, I was pleased overall, although the “leaving dead chickens under bushes” part seemed pointless to me. A number of my students have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-193","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":600,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=600","url_meta":{"origin":193,"position":0},"title":"Misunderstanding religious freedomThe Christian Science\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Misunderstanding religious freedomThe Christian Science Monitor observes the anniversary of the 1786 Virginia Statute Establishing Religious Freedom with the observation that many Americans have an imperfect idea what \"freedom of religion\" means.Dr. Haynes, who advises schools on these issues, offers a vivid example of the misunderstanding found not just among\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2390,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2390","url_meta":{"origin":193,"position":1},"title":"Another Case of ‘Sacred Prostitution’?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In Phoenix, Arizona, the Phoenix Goddess Temple is offering erotic massage, etc., in return for \"offerings.\" Women at the temple take names like Magdalena, Shakti, and Devima. There's also a high priestess named Gypsy, and a tall, lithe blonde named Leila, who advertises her measurements (36-26-37) on her page at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7100,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7100","url_meta":{"origin":193,"position":2},"title":"Wicca Again as the “Designated Other”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Pasque flowers blooming in a thin layer of pine duff atop a boulder. I love them for their precarious and improbably habitat. Spring is slowly coming to the forest, and within it the offer of new chances, a feeling that you might get it right this time. Travel and editorial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"pasque flowers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/pasque-flowers-206x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":620,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=620","url_meta":{"origin":193,"position":3},"title":"Supremes uphold entheogenic churchEarlier post\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Supremes uphold entheogenic churchEarlier post here.The Supreme Court has upheld the right of followers of Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), a religion born in Brazil that uses ayahuasca as its sacrament, to use ayahuasca in the United States. The feds argued that preventing use of a \"controlled substance\" was more important\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5070,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5070","url_meta":{"origin":193,"position":4},"title":"Should Pagans Show “Solidarity”?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 14, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At The Wild Hunt, you can read a second group of excerpts from various Pagan writers and bloggers on topics of community and solidarity, but this post is different. If you scroll to the bottom, there are links to everyone's full remarks in PDF form. Yes, one of them is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13830,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13830","url_meta":{"origin":193,"position":5},"title":"Animal Sacrifice: Are They Doing It Wrong?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A possible animal sacrifice location in the Howard Beach area. J.C. Rice (New York Post) The New York Post had two articles recently on apparent animal sacrifice in the Jamaica Bay area of Long Island (politically in both Brooklyn and Queens). \"Animal Sacrifices on the Rise in Queens with Chickens,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"African religion\"","block_context":{"text":"African religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=african-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}