From a friend:<\/p>\n
Patrick McCollum<\/a> has just been selected to be on a special panel to be one of 6 people to brief the United States Commission on Civil Rights<\/a> — for presentation to the United States Congress and to the President of the United States — about the state of religious discrimination in America. <\/p>\n He will talk about the differential treatment that Wiccans and Pagans receive in government institutions and programs, with the hope that our legislators will enact new policies to further pluralism and end religious discrimination. This briefing will be held in Washington, D.C .on February 8th, 2008 and will become an official part of the Congressional Record. <\/p>\n This is obviously an incredible honor and it will be the first time in US history that a Wiccan has been selected to present a briefing to advise the United States Government. He reports he will also be sworn in to the Goddess, which is also an important first.<\/em> <\/p>\n More as I hear about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From a friend: Patrick McCollum has just been selected to be on a special panel to be one of 6 people to brief the United States Commission on Civil Rights — for presentation to the United States Congress and to the President of the United States — about the state of religious discrimination in America. […]<\/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":[],"tags":[10,6],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-fM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1311,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1311","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":0},"title":"BeliefNet Article Looks at Wiccan Chaplain’s Lawsuit","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"As mentioned here previously and at The Wild Hunt, Patrick McCollum, volunteer Wiccan prison chaplain in California, has sued the state to overturn a policy of hiring paid chaplains only from certain religions. A new article at BeliefNet summarizes the case. Excerpts:Supported by interfaith scholars and church-state separationists, the Rev.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"California\"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=california"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":860,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=860","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":1},"title":"VA Approves the Wiccan Pentagram","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The first message (from a Pagan staffer at the American Academy of Religion) hit my inbox at 12:28 today, and then the Colorado Pagan email lists lit up: The Veterans Adminstration approved the pentagram for veterans' grave markers. (Pentagram, pentacle, same thing as far as the news media are concerned.\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":492,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=492","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":2},"title":"Appeals court upholds Wiccan parentsAn\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 18, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Appeals court upholds Wiccan parentsAn Indiana appeals court has upheld the right of divorced Wiccan parents to expose their children to their religious practices, something that both parents wished to do.The Indiana Civil Liberties Union argued the case on constitutional grounds -- that the decree trampled on parents' rights to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2226,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2226","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":3},"title":"DADT Repeals Raises Issues for Wiccan Chaplains–Assuming that We Had Wiccan Chaplains, That Is","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Terry Mattingly at Get Religion, a blog about religion and journalism, looks at some of the fallout from the \"don't ask, don't tell' repeal for military chaplains. His main question is whether a new military policy on homosexuals serving openly (they have always been there clandestinely) will affect the ability\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":531,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=531","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":4},"title":"Survey for Canadian PagansUnlike the\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Survey for Canadian PagansUnlike the United States, Canada does collect religious information in its census, and Canadian Paganisms are growing quickly, says S\u00ed\u00e2n Reid, a social scientist at Carleton University in Ottawa.She invites Canadian Pagans to take her online survey.It is my intention to continue to collect information about neopagans\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":667,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=667","url_meta":{"origin":978,"position":5},"title":"Fight for Wiccan VA tombstone\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fight for Wiccan VA tombstone continuesThe widow of of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, killed in Afghanistan, is getting some political support in her fight for a military Wiccan tombstone.The Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration allows only approved emblems of religious beliefs on government headstones. Over the years, it has approved more\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","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=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}