Over the past several weeks, the Wiccan community has seen an amazing roller coaster of policy and debate concerning the practice of Wicca in the Military. I am very keen on this issue personally, becauseI was in the US Navy for six years, I served during the Gulf War, and I recieved an honorable discharge and several commendations during my time of service- I was also, as I am now, a Witch, and even though Wicca was recognized and protected, I was never able to practice my religion openly.  Now, at the center of this issue is the US Army at Ft. Hood, Texas- the Chaplains there recently made a landmark decision, among a torrent of protests, to allow Wiccans and Pagans to openly worship and hold services on base.  Following this decision, Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia has vehemently protested the move, stating the allowing Wiccans in the Military to worship openly was wrong, and that it sets a dangerous precedent.  Even though his reasoning is extremely flawed and shows that he knows nothing about either Wicca or the first amendment, he has gotten national attention lately over the issue, going so far as to send a letter to the commander of Ft. Hood, demanding that he "stop this nonsense now." .  Fortunately, at this time Ft. Hood has not changed their policy or indicated that they were reviewing it at all- at the writing of this, the Wiccans are still free to worship and plan a special celebration giving thanks to Lt. Col. Donald Troyer, the chaplain who has defended and supported the Witches.  We also salute Lt. Col. Troyer and all who support and defend Wicca, whether from within or outside of the Craft- it is people like you who make our world a better place to live!
Contact Congressman Barr and let him know how you feel at these addresses:
     barr.ga@mail.house.gov
     barrb@mindspring.com
                                                                         Blessed Be!!
                                                                           Chad A
 
 

    What do you do if a political witch hunt flops? If you're U.S. 
    Rep. Bob Barr, you set off on a real witch hunt. Only to discover
    the witches can do a little hunting of their own. 

    Barr, you likely recall, was demanding President Clinton's 
    impeachment long before Monica showed up to provide an
    excuse, arguing that if Congress just  looked long enough, it would 
    surely find some reason. Bitter that the Big Warlock
    got away, the congressman has had to settle for harrying the
    lesser witches. 

    About two dozen of them tracked the Georgia representative to a
    hometown constituent meeting recently in Marietta to protest his
    demand that the U.S. military stop sanctioning pagan religious
    services on its bases. Barr was set off by a story in the Austin
    American-Statesman about a spring rite performed by Wiccans
    -- or pagans, witches, nature worshippers: you pick one -- at the
    Fort Hood Army base in Texas. 

    Barr started firing off letters to the military sputtering about the
    armed services' condoning godlessness and indiscipline and letting
    standards go, more or less literally, to hell. 

    This being the very cusp of the 21st century -- the Wiccans'
    neodruidism to the contrary notwithstanding -- no one has so far
    been hustled to the stake for a little purgative auto-da-fé. Instead
    the matter has set off a Web site war. 

    The military pagans' site -- and, yes, there really is one -- argues
    for paganism's legitimacy and its rights under freedom of religion,
    all quite soberly. Barr, on his site, lumps homosexuality,
    witchcraft and ''other bizarre behavior'' together and wonders
    whether ''armored divisions will be required to travel with
    sacrificial animals for Satanic rites.'' 

    Why armored divisions, I don't know, but then if you are actually
    scared of people who say they are witches, I suppose it is not
    surprising that your worries could achieve a certain, oh, extruded
    quality. Is Barr indifferent to the prospect of the infantry leading
    goats to slaughter? Is he willing to forfeit the animal rights crowd?
    Does this man care nothing for re-election? 

    Actually, Wiccan practices have been recognized by the military
    chaplain's handbook for years, and the faith has had tax-exempt
    religious status in Barr's own state since 1981. 

    Rites have been carried out at numerous military installations --
    apparently without anyone, as Barr fretted in his constituent
    session, dancing naked around trees or bonfires. 

    It's fair to guess that at a meeting in which a preacher's invocation
    for ''Brother Barr'' got a huge round of applause and Barr got a
    standing O just for showing up, the witches of the Magickal
    Cauldron -- not even Lady Galadriel, high priestess and elder of
    the Grove of the Unicorn -- changed any minds, Barr's least of
    all. But at least the congressmen heard them out and shushed the
    audience's grumbles. Fair enough. 

    Hope, though, that the good witches will keep trying. Who
    knows? One might get close enough to Barr one day to kiss him
    and turn him into a prince. 
 
 

Rep. Bob Barr preached to the choir at a town meeting Saturday, but he still contended with a chorus of witches in between the "amens" that favored banning Wiccan religion on military bases. 

  The Georgia Republican fielded questions from witches, Christians and other constituents in a packed room at a Cobb County library in Marietta. Barr criticized the commander of Fort Hood this month for allowing a Wiccan rite on the Texas Army base. 

Wicca is a pagan, nature-centered religion, also known as witchcraft. It has tax-exempt status, as do mainstream religions, and is rooted in pre-Christian Europe. 

"Are you afraid of witches?" Amber Maeve Szmanski of Acworth, a high priestess in the Grove of the Winged Scarab, asked between interruptions from Barr supporters. "Our Founding Fathers had more intelligence than to try to establish a state religion. . . . If you remove the Wiccan, who will be next on your list?" 

Barr told the crowd of 120 that Wicca threatened to erode military discipline--a fear not uttered publicly by military commanders--and the  First Amendment needed to take a back seat to that concern. (My Emphasis- Chad)

He favored the free exercise of Wicca in civilian life or by military personnel off their bases. He claimed officially sanctioning Wicca would open the door to other religious practices, such as peyote use by Native Americans. The Department of Defense is drawing up regulations to cover the use of the hallucinogenic drug, he said. 

Barr would leave it to elected leaders to decide which religions could be practiced in the military, he said, adding that it wasn't unreasonable to ban Wicca services on a military base while permitting worship by Christians, Jews and Muslims. 

 "We are a nation that believes in God," he said. "It's on our money. It's on our documents." 

Most of the audience supported Barr, who received a standing ovation and testimonials to his character. Several giggled at the Wiccans or tried to shout down those who protested Barr's letter to Fort Hood's commanding officer, Lt. Gen. Leon S. LaPorte, asking him to "stop this nonsense." 

The Fort Hood celebration was described as a rite of spring marking the vernal equinox, with more than 50 witches, male and female, participating.

-Chad's Thoughts:  So here we are, a publicly elected official of the US Government, openly assailing the First Amendment and declaring in public forum that there are certain situations when a persons religious freedom just shouldn't apply- even for the people that are volunteering their lives in defense of those rights.  As a result of this, not only is Congressman Barr not removed from office in disgrace (A proposal I find very appealing) he is apparently given a standing ovation for his open religious intolerance and Bigotry.  I will say that I have to agree with many of the leaders of the Religious Right in one of their widely held opinions today- the United States is indeed in trouble today- but it isn't the Wiccans that are putting it there, it's you and people like you Mr. Barr.  I respect your Religion, but certainly not your opinion- in all the Bibles I've read and the religious beliefs I've studied, Jesus Christ was never a Bigot.

Please also check out a wonderful First Hand account of this meeting from the Magic Cauldron website.
 

Published: May 28, 1999 

Under a bright moon Saturday night, the witches of Fort Hood will honor a chaplain for supporting the right of Wiccans to practice their rituals on the Army post. 

At the same time in Atlanta, U.S. Rep. Bob Barr will face off with witches there over his demand that Fort Hood immediately stop allowing Wiccans to openly practice their faith on the post. 

Fort Hood, the first U.S. military installation  to sanction the neo-pagan Wicca religion,  became an object of national media attention  after an Austin American-Statesman story on  the issue earlier this month. Last week, Georgia Republican Barr turned up the heat  with a letter to Lt. Gen. Leon S. LaPorte,  Fort Hood's commanding officer, demanding  that the huge Army post "stop this nonsense  now." 

 Fort Hood officials say the witches stay, and  they have the support of U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, whose district includes the military installation. 

 "As a Christian, I have serious differences  with the philosophy and practices of Wicca,"  said Edwards, D-Waco. "But it would be  terrible policy to require each installation commander to define what is a religion and decide which religions can be practiced by  American citizens." 

 Following Fort Hood's lead, other U.S. military bases worldwide now are affording Wiccans the same right as Christians, Jews and Muslims to have services on base. 

In his letter to the Fort Hood commander,  Barr said that allowing witches to openly  practice their faith at the post may win praise from liberals, but "its effect on the combat  readiness of your troops may be far less spectacular, to say nothing of its detrimental  effects on our society more broadly speaking, which has heretofore looked to our  military as epitomizing the American spirit of  'for God and country.' " 

 David Oringderff, founder and high priest of the Sacred Well Congregation of Texas -- which sponsors the witches on Fort Hood and three other U.S. military bases -- sent Barr a response, asking the congressman to  apologize. Oringderff is a retired major who served 22 years in the Army. 

"As a psychologist and sociologist, I am painfully aware that, despite constitutional guarantees and protection under law, intellectual and  spiritual bigotry is alive and well in this country," Oringderff wrote. 

Witches, he told Barr, "are quite accustomed to naive notions and caustic rhetoric from zealots," but they are not used to "such remarks coming from a man of your stature." 

The mention of Wicca and its adherents, witches, conjures up images of women casting evil spells, making human sacrifices and selling their souls to the devil. Those images, introduced in ancient times by the Roman Catholic Church to describe heretics, have nothing to do with modern  witchcraft. Wicca is a reconstruction of nature worship, primarily from tribal  Europe; adherents believe in a god and goddess and celebrate cycles of  the sun and moon. 

Lt. Col. Benjamin Santos, a spokesman for Fort Hood, said the post has no official comment on Barr's letter. "It is inappropriate for us to discuss the contents of private correspondence from a member of Congress,"  Santos said. However, he added, the military installation has not changed  its policy on Wicca. 

 At home, Barr is in trouble with the local Wiccans. Witches, including active military, plan to confront him Saturday during a previously planned town hall meeting at a public library. 

"If anywhere there needs to be the freedom of religion . . . it should be  military bases," said the Rev. Candace Lehrman, founder and director of  the Ravenwood Church and Seminary of Wicca in Atlanta. "They are there  to protect our country." 

Saturday night in Killeen, the Fort Hood Open Circle -- the post's Wiccan  group -- will honor Lt. Col. Donald Troyer, the chaplain who has defended and supported the witches. "We're responding to the First Amendment . . .  and we're glad to do it," Troyer said in an earlier interview. 

Barr said sanctioning Wicca on military bases sets a dangerous precedent. 

"What's next?" Barr asked in his letter to the Fort Hood commander. "Will Rastafarians demand the inclusion of ritualistic marijuana cigarettes in  their rations?" 

In order for a religious group to be sanctioned by a military base, it must meet criteria including no participation in illegal activity and sponsorship by  a legally incorporated church. 

"Minority faith groups have been supported by chaplains for 20 to 30 years, and we follow the same regulations and follow the same rules as Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists, Mormons and any other minority faith groups," Oringderff said. "I find it ridiculous that we as a group are singled out for who we are and what we do and that we choose to express our faith in  ways other than what the dominate culture chooses to express theirs." 
 
 

                      Published: May 11, 1999 

KILLEEN -- The robed high priestess turned her back to the fire, faced a makeshift outdoor altar and blessed the essentials of life: water, bread and salt. 

"Great goddess Freya, bless this creature of   the Earth to your service," she recited, after placing the shiny blade of her dagger over a
small bowl of salt. "May we always honor the blessed Earth, its many forms and beings." 

The congregation, holding hands in a circle around the fire, replied in refrain: "Great Freya be you adored." 

 This Wiccan celebration of the vernal equinox  didn't take place in some secret spot in the  woods. The site was Fort Hood, and most of
 the witches were active-duty Army. 

 On the U.S. military's largest installation, more than 40 witches, male and female, celebrated the Rite of Spring on March 20, the day of equal daylight and darkness that symbolizes the witches' goal of perfect
balance. 

Their on-post ceremony was possible because three years ago, Fort Hood's top brass recognized Wicca as a legitimate faith, making it the first U.S. military base to provide space for neo-pagan rituals. 

The Wiccans, whose religion is a reconstruction of nature worship from tribal Europe and other parts of the world, had to meet the same criteria as other religions to conduct services on the base, including sponsorship by a legally incorporated church, in this case one in San Antonio. 

Fort Hood worked hard to understand and accommodate the Wiccans, said Col. Jerome Haberek, a Catholic priest and head chaplain of III Army Corps, which includes 75,000 soldiers stationed at Fort Hood and other posts worldwide. "We kind of struggled through," he said. 

Following Fort Hood's lead, other U.S. military bases around the world have sanctioned Wicca. The top chaplains at Fort Hood are considered the military's experts on the religion, fielding calls from base chaplains and even the chief chaplain's office at the Pentagon. 

Because of the volume of requests, the Fort Hood chaplain's office keeps a packet of information handy to mail out, said Lt. Col. Donald Troyer, a chaplain who oversees the post's Wiccan group, called Fort Hood Open Circle.
 

Thousands of witches

In the past two decades, Wicca's popularity has grown steadily, along with the Earth-centered spirituality of the New Age movement. 

The Covenant of the Goddess in Berkeley, Calif., one of the oldest incorporated Wiccan organizations, estimates there are 50,000        adherents in the United States. 

It's difficult to gauge the religion's reach in the military. Defense Department statistics on the religious preferences of members place Wiccans under the "other" category, which represents less than 2 percent of those in the armed forces. The category includes Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Christians and followers of American Indian faiths. But Pentagon officials said they believe many Wiccans are among the 28 percent who claim no preference. 

At Fort Hood, where 42,000 soldiers are stationed, the Open Circle has more than 300 members, about 100 of them regular attendees, said Army veteran Marcy K. Palmer of Killeen. Palmer is a deaconess in   the Sacred Well Congregation of San Antonio that sponsors the Fort Hood Open Circle. 

Fort Hood is so popular among Wiccans that some want assurances from recruiters that they will be stationed at the post. 

Pfc. Marion Lloyd of Alexandria, La., said he was one of them, though he does not advertise his religious preference. "I'm still not comfortable putting it on my dog tags yet," he said. 

Palmer and Sacred Well founder and high priest David Oringderff of San Antonio have helped set up congregations at Fort Polk, La.; Fort
Wainwright, Alaska; Kadena Air Base in Okinawa; and Fort Barracas in Pensacola, Fla. Sacred Well is opening congregations on bases in North Carolina, New York, New Mexico, Guam and Germany, said Oringderff, a psychologist who retired as an Army major in 1995 after 22 years of service. 

A touchy subject

From Fort Hood to the Pentagon, officials are reluctant to talk about how the armed forces are accommodating neo-paganists. 

"It's such a volatile subject," Troyer said. "It just sparks a fury." 

Troyer, a Seventh-day Adventist, has faced guilt by association from other military personnel and a cool response from some of the post's other 95 chaplains, he said. 

For almost two years, fundamentalist Christians from communities near
Fort Hood showed up at the Open Circle's ritual site at the post Boy Scout camp to protest. The chaplain's office responded by beefing up security, Troyer said. Parts of the 335-square-mile post are open to the public. 

"We were thankful when it was finally over," recalled Pfc. Michael Bourque, an Open Circle member. "They stopped coming in August or September." 

A letter-writing campaign to Fort Hood's commander also did not sway the post's commitment to accommodating the spiritual needs of its Wiccan soldiers. 

 "My God, the general got letters that were strongly orded," Troyer said. 

Most of the letters came from congregants at the Tabernacle Baptist
Church and School in Killeen, at the urging of their pastor, the Rev. Jack Harvey. 

"I have no tolerance for evil or people who do evil," Harvey said. "We don't  think anybody in the Army or otherwise should be in favor of witchcraft. The Bible states explicitly, 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' " 

Troyer said it's that kind of reaction, fueled by popular myths about
witchcraft, that he must combat. "I still get calls from people asking me if they kill babies out there." 

Navy Capt. Russell Gunter, executive director of the Armed Forces
Chaplains Board at the Pentagon, said the military is obligated to respect and make provisions for the religious needs of its members without passing judgment on their beliefs. 

Haberek, the III Corps head chaplain, agreed. 

"You know, I raised my right hand when I came in the Army to support and defend the Constitution, and that's what I'm doing, defending the constitutional right of soldiers and family members." 
 

Earth-based religion 

Wicca adherents celebrate eight major sabbats, festivals that mark the change of seasons and agricultural cycles, and believe in both god and goddess. There are many branches of Wicca, just like there are many
Protestant denominations. 

"One of the roots for the term Wicca means `to bend,' " said Derek Collins, who teaches a course on the history of witchcraft at the
University of Texas. 

"I think the reason they are interested in it is it's empowering and gives them a sense of control over their own lives," he said. 

But some conservative religious leaders, including the Rev. David Lucus of First Baptist Church of Oak Hill, warn of hidden           dangers. "People can be drawn in real easy to what appears on the surface as just another way for people to get together and have fun. Suddenly, it becomes a struggle to maintain one's own individuality from the spirits they are dealing with." 

Because Wiccans face so much opposition, some practice their faith alone. Others join covens or small communities of witches that are closed to the public. 

Many of the soldiers said they found Wicca after long spiritual journeys. Others said they stumbled into it. 

Retired Lt. Cols. Marie and Ron Smith thank a born-again Christian for leading them to Wicca. 

"It started out as a joke," Marie Smith said. "My husband has a friend who is a born-again Christian who was trying to convert everyone, so my husband came up with this story." 

Ron Smith told his friend he worshipped the hardwoods. "No softwoods," Smith recalled. "Just hardwoods." 

Marie Smith said her husband just kept making things up from there. "It
went on and on, and then another friend said if you really want to get her going, read this book." 

It was on Wicca. Ron Smith read it. "He says, 'Marie, read this. This is
us,' " she said. Now, Ron Smith is the Open Circle's high priest. 

A gathering of branches

One of the challenges of the Open Circle is that it brings together people from different branches of Wicca. To keep harmony, the group rotates rituals from different traditions. 

At the vernal equinox, for instance, it used a Nordic service. In April, the sabbat was celebrated in the Celtic tradition. On May 1 it celebrated the marriage of the god and goddess in the Greencraft branch, which comes from a newer tradition founded in the early 1960s. 

Palmer, a Celtic shaman who is the official high priestess for the circle,
appoints acting high priests and priestesses to conduct ceremonies. Palmer served more than six years in the Army and now is a civilian nurse at the Fort Hood hospital. 

Acting high priestess and priest Jennifer and Denson Flowers conducted the Nordic service that ushered in the rebirth of spring. She leaves for Army basic training May 12. He was medically discharged in 1994 after a drunken driver cost him a leg. 

Denson Flowers asked the witches to write their dreams on a piece of
paper. "So tonight they can be planted just like the seeds . . . and they  may grow true with time." 

He placed his dagger over the chalice of wine. 

We all come from the god and to him we shall return," Flowers recited.
"We all come from the goddess and to her we shall return." 

BARR DEMANDS END TO TAXPAYER-FUNDED WITCHCRAFT ON AMERICAN MILITARY BASES
From The House Website.

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Representative Bob Barr (GA-7) has demanded an end to the taxpayer-supported practice of witchcraft on military bases.  Barr's request came in response to  reports that chaplains at Fort Hood, and other bases, are sanctioning, if not supporting, the practice of witchcraft as a "religion" by soldiers on military bases. 

"This move sets a dangerous precedent that could easily result in the practice of all sorts of bizarre practices being supported by the military under the rubric of ‘religion.'  What's next?  Will armored divisions be forced to travel with sacrificial animals for Satanic rituals?  Will Rastifarians demand the  inclusion of ritualistic marijuana cigarettes in their rations?," said Barr, in letters to military and congressional leaders. 

 In support of his request, Barr noted the Supreme Court's decision in Goldman v. Weinberger, 475  U.S. 503 (1986), in which Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote, "[t]he military need not encourage debate or tolerate protest to the extent that such tolerance is required of the civilian state by the First Amendment; to accomplish its mission, the military must foster instinctive obedience, unity, commitment, and esprit de corps..." 

"A print of the painting, "The Prayer At Valley Forge," depicting George Washington on bended  knee, praying in the hard snow at Valley Forge, hangs over the desk in my office.  If the practice of witchcraft, such as is allowed now at Fort Hood, is permitted to stand, one wonders what paintings  will grace the walls of future generations," Barr concluded in his letters. 

Barr, a former United States Attorney, serves on the House Judiciary, Government Reform, and  Banking committees. 
 

Barr Wants Witchcraft Stopped In Military 
  Updated 4:24 AM ET May 19, 1999

 (WASHINGTON) -- Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr wants the Army to  stop allowing the practice of witchcraft on military bases by saying it's a religious practice.
 Barr has written letters to the Secretary of the Army and to the commanding officer at Fort  Hood, Texas where a newspaper article reported some soldiers took part in a Wiccan  celebration of the vernal equinox. 
 

 (KILLEEN) -- Republican U-S Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia is asking Fort Hood  Commander General Leon LaPorte to outlaw the practice of "witchcraft" on the sprawling  central Texas infantry post. Barr says he saw a T-V report indicating that soldiers at Fort  Hood were conducting "vernal equinox ceremonies." The ceremonies are part of the  trendy, New Age version of witchcraft known as "Wicca."

To contact Congressman Barr and let him know how you feel, his Email address is:
barr.ga@mail.house.gov