Curiouser and Curiouser

How curious. Americans United for Separation of Church and State have taken up for state approval of Wicca as a religion. The usually agnostic Steve Chapman is exercised:

It's not as though Wicca is any less of a religion than these others. The Pentagon, which says there are some 1,800 Wiccans serving in the ranks, allows Wiccan groups to hold services on military bases. The Justice Department treats Wicca as an authentic religion in the reference manuals given to federal prison chaplains. The IRS grants tax exemptions to Wiccan churches.

But some people imagine adherents to be a dangerous throng of witches, warlocks, devil-worshipers and virgin-sacrificers who huddle around cauldrons chanting, "Double, double, toil and trouble." Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which filed the lawsuit, suspects the VA may be fearful of provoking the religious right.

And who would want that? How frightening. I did have some memory of reading about Wiccan worshippers jumping over fires, which sounds a little frightening to me, and this site mentions cauldrons, but let us consult Wikipedia (no relation). Ah, how appropriate, Wicca was popularized by a British civil servant (not so frightening then):

He claimed that the religion, of which he was an initiate, was a modern survival of an old witchcraft religion, which had existed in secret for hundreds of years, originating in the pre-Christian Paganism of Europe. Wicca is thus sometimes referred to as the Old Religion. The veracity of Gardner's claims cannot be independently proven, and it is thought that written Wiccan theology began to be compiled no earlier than the 1920s.

Well, I have no quarrel with Wiccans and their faith. But I think some of this agitation on the Left arises from VA graves having any religious markings at all. They would deny all religions.