Wiccan Books Removed from Anti-Drug Display

Christian bigotry against minority religions like Wicca can take a variety of forms, some of them rather subtle. For some time. a glass case in the Sheriff's Department of Rutherford County, Tennessee, displayed books about Wicca and Celtic myths alongside drug paraphernalia. Now, without explanation, they've been taken out.

The Tennessean reports:

No labels explained why the bongs, pipes and drug-related items were in the case with books, including Living Wicca, Celtic Lore, The Witches' Almanac and Celtic Magic. ... "Is this supposed to be a message that these items are contraband?" asked Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, upon seeing the photographs. "The written materials are all accessible, available to the public and protected under the First Amendment. Don't they recognize they're legal and protected?"

It's great that the books were removed, but questions still remain about why they were there in the first place. Most of the time when we hear about government displays of religious books or ideas, it is in the context of promotion. This is the flip side: denigration. Any time the government is given the authority to pick out religious beliefs for support, it also has the authority to pick out other religious beliefs for dismissal - whether implicitly (by not picking them for promotion) or overtly (as in this case). Is there anyone out there, aside from those who favor theocracy over democracy, who think that the American government should have such authority? The separation of church and state is fundamentally about keeping such authority out of the hands of elected or appointed government officials.

Read More:

• Religious Right
• Christian Nationalism
• Religious Intolerance & Bigotry
• Separation of Church and State 101