A few weeks ago, Wiccan Priestess and long-time affiliate of the Unitarian Universalist Church, Cyndi Simpson, applied to her local governing body, the Chesterfield County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors, to be included on the list of clergy available to lead the invocations at county functions.  Her request was denied by County Attorney Steven L. Micas, apparently without even allowing the Board members to investigate the issue.  Unfortunately, even after doing so, the Board agreed, and Ms. Simpson was not allowed to be added to the list.  The reason given was that this community, which was characterized as “predominantly Judeo-Christian” and “heavily southern Baptist” could not accommodate  “neo-pagan, polytheistic, pre-Christian” religions.

First of all, I'm not sure this characterization is correct.  I happen to live in this community, and if you drive a scant mile from my house and cruise down Buford Road, which is the heart of Bon Air, you will find a United Methodist Church, a Presbyterian Church, a Christian Church, a Baptist Church, and the Islamic Center of Richmond, not to mention that there are quite a few Pagan families in this neighborhood.  Secondly, even if the area is predominantly Judeo-Christian, does this mean that its Native American, Hindu, or Buddhist residents are unwelcome, as well?  Ignorance about Pagan paths notwithstanding, this decision is rank prejudice, and I, for one, am quite glad that someone is taking a stand against those on the Board of Supervisors for the County who choose to forget that saying a thing, or wanting it very badly to be true, just doesn't make it so.  My husband and I both, as civic-minded, voting residents of this community, wrote letters to the two most vocal (and downright disrespectful) members of the Board of Supervisors expressing our support of Ms. Simpson's request and reminding them that, contrary to their opinion that the County has an 'official' faith, this country was founded on the principles of freedom of religion. While we do not subscribe to the Jewish, Christian, or even Muslim faith (which was so graciously allowed a representative to give an invocation in the wake of September 11, the first and last time, to date, that this has happened,) we are still citizens of this community, and our rights have been violated, along with Ms. Simpson's, by their refusal to allow her even to be included on the list.  Further, our letters were never even given the dignity of a response.  Granted, these two Supervisors were the ones who thought it appropriate, as OUR elected officials, to make insulting references to “Glinda” from The Wizard of Oz in speaking of our religion and to call it "a mockery," so I hardly expected them to be supportive; however, as officials of the government of my community, I would have expected at least an acknowledgment of our input.  Politicians at every level, from the tiny Town Hall to the White House, know that government is a function of the people, and are ever trying to encourage voters to be a part of the governing process; yet, in this case, when concerned citizens take the responsibility of making their opinions known, these two, at least, weren't even able to see past their own ignorance and prejudice in order to encourage the civic responsibility of their own constituents who happen to disagree with them.

The most dangerous message that this situation communicates is not that the majority of the people in this community hate, fear, discriminate against, and/or refuse to acknowledge the validity of our spiritual path.  None of us is so blind as not to realize that some people feel this way; but those of us who are open about our beliefs will tell you that on an individual level, even people who subscribe to religions whose dogma teaches that ours is flatly wrong seem to understand that, wrong or not, we are entitled to believe and practice it.  The thing that disturbs me greatly is that we have somehow failed to elect officials who have even the most basic grasp on the concepts of freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and basic human dignity.  I live in this community; the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors is entrusted with the governance of my voting district.  They answer to me and others like me, as well as the supposed majority of Southern Baptists in the district.  We might not be the majority; we might not even seem a significant minority, in the area.  But it’s downright scary to see a governing agency decide out of hand that a minority group doesn’t have the right to be represented by virtue of the fact that their beliefs are different than those of the majority, or, even more distressingly, because this governing agency is ignorant even of the most basic tenets of such beliefs.  It scares me that Board members feel the freedom to be disrespectful, flippant, and downright malicious in speaking of the beliefs of a segment of their constituency.  And it’s indicative of the questionable nature of having prayer of any kind in public, government-sponsored forums, that, once in place, this practice can be used to establish one religion or set of religions as the “official” denomination of that governing body, or, at the very least, to legitimize certain religious traditions while labeling, publicly, another as a “mockery.”

Additionally, this whole situation bothers me on several more levels.  As a parent, it's a hard thing to explain to your children why we have the duty to be respectful of our elected officials, even though we may at times disagree with them, when they feel free to make disparaging comments about our faith.  I've taught my children to be tolerant and accepting of other people regardless of their race, religion, social status, sexual preference, or any other “difference.”  I made a point of explaining that as responsible citizens of our country, we have a right and responsibility to vote for candidates that we feel are right for a position, be it the President of the United States or a City Council member, but that if our candidate does not win the election, we have a further responsibility to respect the position and find positive ways to work with the administration in office.  It's a sad state of affairs, however, when five teenaged children have a more mature grasp of the American concept of equality and freedom of choice than do some of the adults responsible for the governing of the county in which they live. It is very difficult to defend those representatives of our government when they are acting like children on a playground than elected officials sworn to uphold the interests of all their constituent citizens.

Sometimes it’s hard to decide what to think about such issues of religion in government.  On the one hand, I can’t deny believing that our country was founded by spiritually minded people, and encouraging personal spirituality, of whatever form, isn’t a bad thing.  Sadly, however, the political climate to date is still deeply entrenched in the Judeo-Christian paradigm.  While so many of their constituents are of this path, we’re likely to see those in office cater to the voting margin rather than to the fair and just treatment those who are not of that belief system.  It comes to mind, however, that there are also people who prefer to have no form of spirituality at all; there are, in fact, atheists in this community.  And that is cause to wonder if those who argue for the removal of prayer in schools don’t have a point.  I agree with comedian Dennis Miller in believing that parents who are overly concerned about whether or not Johnny and Janie are mouthing their “Our Fathers” in the morning, before class, in the classroom should sit down after breakfast at home with those children and lead them in prayer, themselves, and this begs the question:  Why should it be necessary for schools, courts, or other government-run agencies to bring any form of religion into their official functions?

It’s obvious that our elected officials are not yet, as a whole, mature enough to handle overt spirituality in a balanced, tolerant way in the public arena; until this changes, there will need to be suits like this one to make sure the rights of believers and unbelievers of all paths are protected.  And there will be plenty of us who remember this fiasco come November, 2003, when the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors are up for re-election.