Court Opinion

ID: 9589033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:41:10.027867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:22.494607
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
While concurring fully with the majority opinion, it should be observed that an assembly place for adherents of the Wicca “faith,” *108qualified by the Supreme Court as a religion,1 may be exempt from state taxation, Roberts v. Ravenwood Church of Wicca, 249 Ga. 348 (292 SE2d 657) (1982), but neither the place of Wicca “worship” nor the Wicca adherents are exempt from the criminal code of the State of Georgia. The defendants in this case got what they deserved: observance of all their due process rights but a conviction nonetheless.
Decided July 3, 1986.
Larry B. Mims, for appellants.
David E. Perry, District Attorney, for appellee.

 Defined now as including non-theistic religions as well as theistic religions in the case of Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488, 495, n. 11 (1961). (Beliefs in absence of, as well as existence of, a creator). While we are bound by the Georgia Supreme Court, the writer does not believe the U. S. or Georgia Constitutions mandate providing tax exemptions for non-theistic religions. Wicca witch-warlock worship was not within the original intent of the founding fathers. See Chief Justice Jordan’s dissent in Roberts v. Ravenwood Church of Wicca, supra.