Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_rel.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 15:28:27+00:00

Document:
The word "religion" in North America is often associated with a centralized organization, local religious buildings, a minister preaching to a congregation, a single male deity, an extensive creed, etc. These factors are not really present within Wicca. This causes some people to conclude that Wicca/Witchcraft is not a religion. Being founded on beliefs and practices of a pre-Christian aboriginal religion, Wicca simply does not have a similar structure to more conventional religions. It bears many more points of similarity to Native American Spirituality and to Santeria than to Christianity, Islam or Judaism.
An important ruling of a state Supreme Court was in Georgia: Roberts v. Ravenwood Church of Wicca, (249 Ga. 348) in 1982. It was similar to Dettmer v Landon, below.
The District Court of Virginia declared in 1985 (Dettmer v Landon, 617 F Suup 592 [E. Dst. Va.]) that Wicca is "clearly a religion for First Amendment purposes....Members of the Church sincerely adhere to a fairly complex set of doctrines relating to the spiritual aspect of their lives, and in doing so they have 'ultimate concerns' in much the same way as followers of more accepted religions. Their ceremonies and leadership structure, their rather elaborate set of articulated doctrine, their belief in the concept of another world, and their broad concern for improving the quality of life for others gives them at least some facial similarity to other more widely recognized religions." 1 This was a landmark case.
Judge J. Butzner of the Fourth Circuit Federal Appeals Court confirmed the Dettmer v Landon decision (799F 2nd 929) in 1986. He said: "We agree with the District Court that the doctrine taught by the Church of Wicca is a religion." Butzner J. 1986 Fourth Circuit.
Wicca has never been considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, that court once ruled on the Santeria religion. The case was: Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. and Ernesto Pichardo v. City of Hialeah, 508 U.S. 520 (1993). This case involved the legality of animal sacrifices which are not a practice of Wiccans. Followers of Sateria often ritually kill chickens and other small animals, cook them and eat them in a feast.
However, the ruling did recognize the rights of a religion which is very different from Christianity and many other organized religions in America. If the legality and status of Wicca were ever to be challenged in court, the Santeria ruling would likely be considered a precedent for the court to follow.
Lamb's chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District: concerns the rental of school facilities after hours by a religious group.
Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc and Ernesto Pichardo v. City of Hialeah, (508 U.S. 520) in 1993: This concerns the right of a Santerian group to engage in animal sacrifice during their religious ritual. This ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court is of interest to Wiccans because it puts strict limits on laws that target specific religions or groups of religions.
Excerpts from state constitutions which deal with religious rights.
The text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The 1964 concurring opinion by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Douglas, in the case of United States v. Seeger, (380 U.S. 163), confirmed that the United States is a pluralistic nation, founded on the belief that religion must not be used to indoctrinate or coerce. This was also supported by the majority ruling in Lee v. Weisman, (505 U.S. 577) in 1992.
"The Pagan and the Pentagon," Wiccan Pagan Times, 2001, at: http://www.twpt.com/pentagon.htm This seems to have been taken offline. Unfortunately, their website seems to contain neither a "contact us" link or an internal search function, so we were unable to locate the essay if it is still available.
U.S. Department of the Army, "Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains," University Press of the Pacific, (2001). Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store. It received a rating of 4.3 stars out of 5 by three reviewers.

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