It's been a very strange, surreal week, so much so I've wondered if I mussed news of sunspots or some unusual conjunction of planets...

Florida has yet another entry in what seems to be a never ending string of Church-State entanglements, a tax law that went into effect this month and grants a tax exemption to any non-profit enterprise engaged in bibliolatry- that is, bible exhibits, bible-themed parks, bible-based musicals, and the like. I wonder just how creatively this law can be tested?

If you have such "dark" proclivities such as dressing up at Renaissance Faires or hanging about with Wiccans, chances are you won't be on the jury for the upcoming trial of accused murderer Scott Dyleski, as prosecutors are anxious to remove from the panel anyone potentially sympathetic to the "Goth subculture" or anything they associate with it. I'm not sure why the guardians of the Public Trust here seem to feel the best jury is an ignorant one. (Or what, specifically, they find "dark" about dressing up as a seventeenth-century peasant wench a few weekends a year?)

Another paper ventures out to profile a local Wiccan. This one is a typical example of the style of coverage that seems to be dominating, with pagan practices described with such generalities you could be talking about a liberal Christian denomination- here we have a 'Reverend' (complete with clerical collar) with a 'congregation' who 'prays' to a "God and Goddess.' This article seems so geared toward avoiding anything that could be received negatively that if you didn't know what Wicca was about before reading it, chances are good reading it won't change anything. (Unless perhaps you were one of the three literate people left alive on earth who haven't figured out that Wiccans don't worship the devil.)

Speaking of Wiccans, the Wiccans vs. the VA story is still getting coverage, and the VA is still keeping mum. It seems pretty obvious at this point that someone weighed the consequences of upsetting Wiccans with that of upsetting the much larger group of Bible-belters who would be offended by pentacles. Unfortunately, their seeming choice to duck down and hope the "Wiccan fad" passes isn't a good long term plan. On a related note, a reader has helpfully pointed out the new location of the VA's "approved symbols" list.

Is "Eclectic" the religion of the future? I have to say I think "roll your own" makes a much beter catch-phrase than the old "cafeteria" chestnut. "Spiritually hyphenated" is good, too. We'll be seeing a lot more of this as the world continues to get smaller....who doesn't have a Christian-Wiccan or Gnostic-Buddhist friend these dyas? (I've even met Mormon Thelemites, Hindu Neopagans and "Goddess Christians.")