Disturbing things in the News

Sometimes, I despair at the insidious behaviors of people who are allegedly interested in the good of others. Today, that despair is trumping my desire to show you pretty pictures of lace in progress.  Even though this is a knitting blog, sometimes, threats to our civil rights become more important. (Okay, I'm likely to come back later with knitting stuff, but this morning... I have to spread this word).

Evidently, in California, there is a case pending before the Federal Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit wherein someone has made the following "legal" argument:

" [C]ertain “traditional” faiths are first tier faiths and that those faiths were meant to have equal rights and  protections under the United States Constitution, but that all of the other faiths were second tier faiths, and were not meant to have the same equal rights and protections under the United States Constitution as the first tier faiths.”

This case in which a chaplain of a minority faith is seeking to require the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation should hire a paid chaplain for members of his faith (he now serves as an unpaid statewide correctional chaplain) since they hire paid chaplains for five other "major" faiths (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Native American). The case is before the 9th Circuit because a California District Court ruled that since his faith (and thus that of the prisoners to whom he ministers) is not one of the "first tier" faiths, and thus is not entitled to equal rights and protections, the chaplain doesn't even have standing to sue (and though it's not said yet, the prisoners aren't entitled to see chaplains in their faith).

Regardless of what your faith is, it should alarm you that a Federal Court is even considering the question of whether one faith gets the protections of the Constitution while another faith does not.  The constitution does not say anything about which faiths it protects.  Nor does it say that some faiths are excluded from protection.  It's not Jews this time, but this reminds me eerily of the way Jews went from slightly different citizens to endangered and hunted to massacred in Hitler's Germany.  Can this really be happening in America? 

If you're interested in more information, you can go to places like these:

The site featuring all of the amicus breifs

Patrick M. McCollum; et al., v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation; et al.

Defendants Concede That They Made Misrepresentations About The Application Of Any Criteria

Blog Post outlining more of the details (with many links)

Comments

[Jessica]

Ugh, this is truly disgusting news! It makes me proud to be a pagan!

[D]

I find it curious that Native American earth religions are fine, but others are not. That's just ridiculous.

[kmkat]

You're right. This is scary. First tier, second tier... faiths? groups? people?

We are all created equal but some are more equal than others, apparently.

[Colleen G]

I've been following that on the wild hunt on my own, watching this develop. It does worry me.

[NeedleDancer]

And exactly how are Native Americans earth based religions more
traditional or valid than other more earth based religions....?

[Dave]

There are already first tier and second tier people; it's not that far a stretch to tierrorize everything else.