Bay Minette, Alabama is the site of the latest Pagan uproar.
(Because, you know, anytime anything even tangentially religious happens on
television, certain pagans
go wildly hunting for a pagan connection.) The reason
for the uproar in a nutshell:
There was a law passed in the town that allows first-time,
non-violent offenders to choose between jail time or a year in church.
Naturally, anytime you say the word ‘church’ on TV, the
pagan folk get mad that they didn’t add ‘or covenstead/grove/unorganized coffee
shop witchy meet-up group thing’. Of course, our good friends at the
Wild Hunt are promoting the hell out of the idea that this is just another way to
pigeonhole minority religions, and link to all sorts of articles backing up
that idea. As a sociologist by education and training, I tend to want to see
more than just one side of the issue. What is the local make-up as far as
religion? What constitutes a church? What kinds of issues might lead a county
or city to pass such a law?
If offenders elect church, they're allowed to pick the place
of worship, but must check in weekly with the pastor and the police department.
If the one-year church attendance program is completed successfully, the
offender's case will be dismissed.
Let me read that to you slower, using bigger font and
capital letters: THEY’RE ALLOWED TO PICK THE PLACE OF WORSHIP. Now, a bunch of
pagan-y, outspoken-y folks are up in arms for a couple of reasons.
- This violates the rights of minority religions.
This seems to be the chief argument from the pagan side of things.
- This violates the rights of atheists and
agnostics who are given no choice but to compromise their beliefs (or lack
thereof) or go to jail. This I can see as a legitimate complaint.
No local reports have said that it shall be required of
offenders to attend a Christian church. I’ve seen that in pagan response
articles and various houses of spin, but not from news agencies dealing locally
with the issue. It’s made up. Fabricated. Not true, Rioters. That is not in the
ordinance.
Unless…
Unless the gripe is in the choice of local houses of worship in the jurisdiction of Bay
Minette, Alabama. I did a quick YellowPages search through the houses of
worship available in the area and found dozens of flavors of Christianity, but
little in the way of a Jewish Temple, an Islamic Mosque, or any other religion
other than Christianity. I saw a Jehovah’s Witness Hall. Possibly a
non-denominational offering or 3. No specifically advertised Unitarian
Universalist church. But, I wonder… Was anybody mad about the lack of selection
before this ruling? Were there Muslims or Jews or Pagans or…I
dunno…anyone…outraged that the only option for organized worship was Christian?
Probably not. I’ve not been able to find any news reports
that would back that idea up, nor does the Alabama census data seem to suggest
anyone having a problem with Christian churches. According to the
2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 80% of Alabama citizens reported as being
Protestant Christian with an additional 6% claiming the moniker Catholic. So,
already, we have an 86% Christian population. That is 16% higher than the
national average of around 70% Christian. An additional 11% claim to have no
relgious affiliation.
Ok… So that’s 80+6+11…. Carry the ‘Outrage’, subtract the
‘Sense’, and multiply by ‘Everything On the Internet Is Real!’ and you get 97%
of the population. 97% of the population of Alabama claims to be Christian or
Unaffiliated. Well, I can see where the non-religious have an argument, but
where are all the outraged Jews and Muslims and Pagans and Jainists and Hindus
and all the other religions? Ok… More math. 100% - 97% = 3% of the population
that would make up this group. If the 2010 census is to be believed, there are
4,779,736 people in Alabama. (By the way, there are around 9 million people in
Chicago and the surrounding suburbs. If you divided that number just about in
half you get the population of the entire state of Alabama. Just some
perspective, because 4.8 million people isn’t actually that many in the grand
scheme.)
If you find 3% of that population, you get 143,392. There
are 50,750 square miles in Alabama. That means that out of that 3% of the population
you get 2.8 people per square mile. Or, if you took a line-up of 10 Alabama
citizens, .3 of them would stand some chance of being one of these poor,
put-upon minority religions.
What I’m getting at is this: Where are all the minority
religions? Where is their outrage, and why do we - who don't live there - have to be outraged for them?
I get that the purpose of a Republic is so that the majority
of citizens cannot take away the rights of the minority. What I am telling you
is that the minority is not in trouble. This is but one of many options available to a judge. Community service. Probation. Making payments towards restoration of lost or damaged property. There are all sorts of options available to a judge. This is just another one. And, it's a choice! The judge can offer, but you don't have to accept. Also, you don't have to accept probation just because it's offered. You can choose jail. You can choose jail instead of rehab or being forced to go to AA or any number of options.
The case the Wild Hunt is making is that, by default, you
must attend a Christian church. I suppose that is a fair assessment, since
there really is no other alternative. But, let’s get real here…
Bay Minette, AL is 8 square miles. If basic math is to be believed, there are about 22 people
in the entire area that MIGHT fit into that 3% category. And, apparently, none
of them are causing any legal trouble.
Another question people seem not to ask is this: why did
this law come about in the first place? I’d conjecture 2 reasons:
- Prison overcrowding/tax burden. Sending someone
to prison for a year is a very costly endeavor to the tax paying citizens of
this country. Unfortunately, we have sent so many people to prison that many of
them are overcrowded and unable to take new offenders. Restorative programs
like this are sometimes used to alleviate that problem
- Church, as an institution, is lauded by many
sociologists as a great place to instill a sense of community, camaraderie, and
ethics into individuals. And, before you get all high and mighty, no…I’m not
talking about Christian churches specifically. Nor am I talking about
fundamentalist Christian ideologies like “God hates gays” or “maybe women
shouldn’t wear pants.” I’m talking about things like “keep your promises”, “don’t
steal”, “care about the well-being of others”, etc. It is an organization, not
unlike Scouts (Spiral/Boy/Girl/etc.).
If the pagan community or Hindu community or ACLU or
Pastafarians want to get up in arms that Bay Minette, Alabama is - by default -
forcing people to attend a Christian establishment for an entire year (and, of
course, give your soul to Christianity, as the Wild Hunt added), maybe they
want to look at a little something called the Totality of the Circumstances. The
Big Picture. There is no forcing. There is a choice. If you don’t like one
option, choose another. Before this choice, there was only prison/jail.
So…maybe this is a step in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, but much of
our judicial system isn’t.
How many people is this affecting, and are those people upset about the issue? If not, why not?
There are bigger fish to fry, folks. I would have loved to
see outrage by our big, bad, pagan media/blog/podcasting sphere over the recent
execution of Troy Davis, or this summer’s execution of Humberto Leal Garcia. I
would love to see coverage of news that is actually very seriously important to
our nation as a whole. Of course, you can’t put a pagan spin on Davis’ wrongful
execution, so it’s just not worthy. Also, this isn't a separation of Church and State issue! There is no set religious establishment one is required to attend, nor is there a financial kick back from the government to the church the offender chooses.
If, out of the 22 people who identify as being in a minority
religion in Bay Minette, AL, someone wants to start a Hindu house of worship or
a Pagan house of worship or a Jewish house of worship…maybe some of these
mighty and pissed off folks on the internet calling for the abolishment of this
law could send money and resources to build a house of worship, because 22 people can't do it alone. Then, of
course, hang around and jump through the hoops of helping them get legally recognized and tax exempt.
Then, Rioters, all the witchy criminals out there would have an option for
them, too. But, we have to decide... What's the real problem here? What's the real issue? The law...or the circumstances?
UPDATE: Some seem to think that community service is not an option. This is legally incorrect. Community
service has always been an option, especially for first-time, non-violent offenders. Offering the social community of a church is just one additional method of rehabilitative-like tactics now available to the judge.
Love and Lyte,
Fire Lyte
