We know all about O'Donnell's "Dabblegate"... Who knows about Patrick McCollum?

[Zephie]

I am referring to the legal case of Patrick McCollum, who is fighting for the rights of Pagan inmates in California. It has been a long and hard past 5 years for Mr. McCollum, who has finally gotten his day in court today. He has been locked in combat with the state of California to change their "5 faiths policy" which limits the availability of spiritual leaders to Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, and Native American beliefs. He has even recently received the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism, however the coverage for this has been minimal at best and in fact it's so well buried that a search of Google will be hard pressed to come up with any coverage of the case except from Pagan news outlets.

California's assistant Attorney General is arguing that all other religions beside their 5 faiths should not be represented because they are "second tier faiths" that were not intended to be given equal rights under the constitution. This belief has been parroted by many Right Wing associated groups such as Wallbuilders, which goes so far as to say practitioners of Paganism and Witchcraft should under no circumstances have any expectation of constitutional protection under the religion clauses of the United States.

The best article I found about this is at the very well visited Pagan blog, The Wild Hunt. The article is linked below.

Thank you for your time, and blessed be regardless of your belief system.

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2010/10/patrick-mccollum-in-court-today.html