I wish I could say I was surprised by this. Seriously. There are actually Wiccan organizations with standards for how people are trained, and AFAIK, this person belongs to not a one of them. The closest parallel I can offer is how it's sort of like how some "non-denominational" Christian clergy end up "non-denominational" because they'd never be allowed into any denomination with their backgrounds, issues and other shiat.

That's not to say all non-denominational Christian ministers OR Wiccans who belong to no ordaining organizations would fail a background check or a psych evaluation, just that if the state is going to pay...

You know what, fark it. I say this as a person with an ordination that took more than an internet click (although I do not currently serve in anything but an advisory status)...the state has no business paying a SINGLE chaplain to minister to people in prison. When you're in prison it's because you've done some shiat to have some of your rights abrogated. If a church/other group wants to send a volunteer in, fine, but it should count as a visitor. You should not be getting special privileges just because you have a religion...you don't need a priest there to pray, you can do that on your own.

Clearly typecast... what else could she do?

LabGrrl: When you're in prison it's because you've done some shiat to have some of your rights abrogated

I don't think anyone is going to disagree that you're giving up certain rights. For example, few people would argue a Wiccan in prison should have access to an athame (ritual dagger). But having *trained* clergy available for prisoners can be very good for them. My (UU) minister does some prison work, and on the whole, I think he has a very positive influence on their lives. If you think of prison merely as a place to punish, yeah it makes no sense. But if you're interested in creating people less likely to commit crimes in the future, spiritual counseling can be a part of a larger effort at reformation.

mendacem memorem esse oportet

Seems they should have chosen a man for this task.

But how do you KNOW??

Oshkosh, by gosh.

LabGrrl: I wish I could say I was surprised by this. Seriously. There are actually Wiccan organizations with standards for how people are trained, and AFAIK, this person belongs to not a one of them. The closest parallel I can offer is how it's sort of like how some "non-denominational" Christian clergy end up "non-denominational" because they'd never be allowed into any denomination with their backgrounds, issues and other shiat.

That's not to say all non-denominational Christian ministers OR Wiccans who belong to no ordaining organizations would fail a background check or a psych evaluation, just that if the state is going to pay...

You know what, fark it. I say this as a person with an ordination that took more than an internet click (although I do not currently serve in anything but an advisory status)...the state has no business paying a SINGLE chaplain to minister to people in prison. When you're in prison it's because you've done some shiat to have some of your rights abrogated. If a church/other group wants to send a volunteer in, fine, but it should count as a visitor. You should not be getting special privileges just because you have a religion...you don't need a priest there to pray, you can do that on your own.

I know MANY lumberjacks, only a few of which are transvestites...

Why am I not surprised this happened in WI?

She'll need more than drugs...



God(ess)'ll get you for that!

I live in Wisconsin. I am not shocked. But what happened to her eyebrows?

Wiccans are the New Age equivalent of the United Church of Canada with slightly fewer euchre and bridge clubs and slightly more robes. You could pretty much exchange services and except for the opening and closing noone would really notice.

Sadly, it would appear Nobody Loves a Witch.



Winsome, losesome.

Oznog

But how do you KNOW??

Wull she turned me into a newt!

/got better

Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

Team Jamyi

Ed Grubermann: Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

Haha - you're stupid. People like group activities and this gives the freaky-freaks an excuse to get nekkid in the woods and have sex. Why in the shiat would you try to interfere with that?

othmar: mendacem memorem esse oportet

Videam quid feceritis.

Oznog: I know MANY lumberjacks, only a few of which whom are transvestites...

FTFY.

Ed Grubermann: Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

They don't knock on your doors at 8:00 on a Saturday morning to tell you that you'll face eternal damnation for having differing beliefs. They don't sneak members into schoolboards to have the astronomy textbooks teach astrology as a competing theory. They don't demand that government ban marriages they find offensive or not sell alcohol on their holy days or ask for anything other than to be left the fark alone.

So can we have a little bit more of the libertarian "it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" and not resort to childish name calling? You have different beliefs. Great. Now be quiet.

ronaprhys: Ed Grubermann: Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

Haha - you're stupid. People like group activities and this gives the freaky-freaks an excuse to get nekkid in the woods and have sex. Why in the shiat would you try to interfere with that?

My knitting club does the same thing, without superstitions.

Sarah Palin's Conscience: My knitting club does the same thing, without superstitions.

No one cares about your wool fetish, freak.

ronaprhys: Sarah Palin's Conscience: My knitting club does the same thing, without superstitions.

No one cares about your wool fetish, freak.

Oh, I think you'll change your tune when I show you what I can do with two knitting needles, a ball of yarn, and a frisky sheep.

I get the impression that Witch was not the surname with which she was born, nor her married name, but that she had it changed.

It's "Yo mama so ugly...", subby.
"Yo mama so ugly...". Whatever happened to journalistic integrity?

They're just wiccan-for-tv.

Ed Grubermann: Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

"When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn't then believe in nothing. He believes in anything."

Yeah, ugly, overweight and deluded sounds about right for followers of "Wicca" the ancient religion invented yesterday.

ronaprhys: Ed Grubermann: Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

Haha - you're stupid. People like group activities and this gives the freaky-freaks an excuse to get nekkid in the woods and have sex. Why in the shiat would you try to interfere with that?

Why you you need any other justification for that?

That's like saying you need to invent a religion that condone alcoholism to enjoy a good drink. Just enjoy it, leave the sky-voyeurs out of it.

Mouser: Ed Grubermann: Wicca: the feel-good religion for people who realize that Christianity is a fairy tale, yet are too cowardly to admit to themselves that all religion is man-made crap. It's about time people grew up and realized that the universe doesn't give a cobra's cancerous colon about them.

"When a man ceases to believe in God, he doesn't then believe in nothing. He believes in anything."

Yeah, many well-known atheists like Adam Savage, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein have been notable for their amazing willingness to believe anything without evidence.

TFA was useless. How do they figure she drugged him? Why wouldnt he simply dark him then lie? How was this supposed to get them both transferred to another prison?

Fomby_Belcher: My cousin dated a Wiccan chick in high school. She was hot but she had scary eyes. She would stare at me and the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. Her and her "coven" would meet in the woods to put spells on songs in an effort to influence the Top 40 (1970s). They would also cast spells for "other stuff."

My cousin dumped the Wiccan and then married another girl. His first child was born with Downs Syndrome. His wife gradually became so crazy that she effectively ended his career as an Army officer. Years later, he divorced his crazy wife to get back together with the Wiccan chick. He ended up marrying the Wiccan, but that also ended in divorce. Soon after the divorce, he had a terrible motorcycle accident from which he has never fully recovered.

Coincidences?

Just to be safe, my advice is don't play with Wiccans.

As you still believe in black magic, witchcraft, etc. would you mind telling me which continent or century you would be posting from?

Party-sized bucket of flan: I live in Wisconsin. I am not shocked. But what happened to her eyebrows?

rubbed off on buttcheeks from too much salad tossing?

/my best guess

cynicalbastard: Yeah, many well-known atheists like Adam Savage, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein have been notable for their amazing willingness to believe anything without evidence.

So what?

Adam Savage hasn't done anything worthwhile since Happy Gilmore, Robert Heinlein is just posh bottled horse urine, and Isaac Asimov got the aids.

So she's the Wiccan Witch of the Midwest?

Fomby_Belcher: My cousin dated a Wiccan chick in high school. She was hot but she had scary eyes. She would stare at me and the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. Her and her "coven" would meet in the woods to put spells on songs in an effort to influence the Top 40 (1970s). They would also cast spells for "other stuff."

My cousin dumped the Wiccan and then married another girl. His first child was born with Downs Syndrome. His wife gradually became so crazy that she effectively ended his career as an Army officer. Years later, he divorced his crazy wife to get back together with the Wiccan chick. He ended up marrying the Wiccan, but that also ended in divorce. Soon after the divorce, he had a terrible motorcycle accident from which he has never fully recovered.

Coincidences?

Just to be safe, my advice is don't play with Wiccans.

Congrats, your cousin is a dipshiat.

/I have a few of those too
/very boring story, bro

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich:
I don't think anyone is going to disagree that you're giving up certain rights. For example, few people would argue a Wiccan in prison should have access to an athame (ritual dagger). But having *trained* clergy available for prisoners can be very good for them. My (UU) minister does some prison work, and on the whole, I think he has a very positive influence on their lives. If you think of prison merely as a place to punish, yeah it makes no sense. But if you're interested in creating people less likely to commit crimes in the future, spiritual counseling can be a part of a larger effort at reformation.

If you're providing spiritual counseling without any form of training in, say, psychology or social work, no overseeing body to say you're doing it wrong and no code of ethics, I'd say you're not reforming anyone...or that you're as likely to reform a person as random chance is.

LabGrrl: If you're providing spiritual counseling without any form of training in, say, psychology or social work, no overseeing body to say you're doing it wrong and no code of ethics, I'd say you're not reforming anyone...or that you're as likely to reform a person as random chance is.

Yeah, I love mindless credentialism as much as the next guy, but once in a while I get curious about whether there's any evidence that training is psych or social work or whatever actually helps.

watson.t.hamster:
Why you you need any other justification for that?

That's like saying you need to invent a religion that condone alcoholism to enjoy a good drink. Just enjoy it, leave the sky-voyeurs out of it.

I didn't say that I needed it. Some people need reasons. Quit being a douche.