LA Times, 01/07/02: Wiccan chaplain may be ousted
9 Jan 2002
Wiccan Chaplain Brews Storm
Religion: Some taxpayers want the Rev. Jamyi Witch removed from
her state job counseling prisoners.
By STEPHANIE SIMON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
MOUNT HOREB, Wis. -- It started out as a simple job search. But
it turned into a witch hunt.
Make that a Witch hunt. For the person hired last month as Wisconsin's newest
prison chaplain was the Rev. Jamyi Witch--who said she long ago chose that last
name "because I am one." Witch is proud to be a witch and the first Wiccan
priestess in the nation to serve as a full-time state prison chaplain.
Yet her appointment has put some taxpayers in a tizzy. A state
representative--from, of all places, West Salem--is leading a drive to yank
funding for Witch's $32,500-a-year post, saying taxpayers "shouldn't be forced
to accept this hocus-pocus." Two other lawmakers have joined him in outrage; one
called Witch's appointment "morally dangerous." Meanwhile, callers have swamped
the prison switchboard, the state Legislature and radio talk shows with
pro-Witch or anti-Witch tirades. And they've contacted the new chaplain directly
too: One day she came home to 76 phone messages and 432 e-mails.
"It's been off the Richter scale," state Rep. Scott Walker, a Republican who is
lobbying to boot Witch from her post, said with a sigh.
Walker said his constituents are fiercely opposed to Chaplain Witch. But Witch
said she's received mostly supportive calls. Aside from a few death threats, she
said, "the overwhelming consensus has been: 'You go, girl. We're behind you.' "
She has cried, at times, in the tumult of the last few weeks. But mostly, Witch
has managed to keep her chin up. And no, there's not a wart on it.
Witch, 43, is accustomed to people looking around for the pointed hat and broom
when they meet her. To her, however, "witch" is simply a religious
description--like "Protestant" or "Jewish." It denotes a practitioner of Wicca,
a pagan religion that sees the divine in every element of nature. Exact numbers
are hard to come by, but religious scholars estimate there are at least 50,000
Wiccans in this country and perhaps as many as 200,000.
Wiccans--and Witch--do practice magic. But it's not eye-of-newt abracadabra.
Witch's brand of magic involves focusing psychic energy on a worthy goal, using
meditation to achieve good. It is, she said, just another word for prayer.
And it can be used only for healing. Wiccans are absolutely forbidden to use
magic to enact curses.
That prohibition disappointed some of the inmates Witch counseled as a volunteer
minister in several prisons before she got the chaplain job at maximum-security
Waupun Correctional Institution in southeast Wisconsin. "I lost a lot of men
when I explained it. If they didn't have the power to melt prison bars, they
weren't interested," she recalled with a chuckle.
Still, several inmates--sometimes a dozen or more--stuck with Wicca at each
prison she visited. "Those who felt the calling of Mother Nature and Goddess
Earth stayed," she said.
Witch stayed too, drawn to the volunteer work, feeling a "sacred duty" to help
the prisoners find a path to a better life. Although she changed her last name
(from Welch) in part to spark conversation about her faith, Witch insists she
never proselytizes. She works only with those who come to paganism on their own.
"I'm never out to convert, just inform," she said.
Her critics, however, don't trust her. And they have nightmares of her using her
chaplain's post to suck criminals into the "cult" of bizarre ritual that Wicca
represents to them. In their view, a chaplain should be showing inmates that
they're accountable to an almighty God, not showing them how to sprinkle herbs
as offerings to the goddesses of Mother Earth. "There isn't one study that I'm
aware of that shows that witches have reformed any prisoners," said Republican
Rep. Mike Huebsch, the lawmaker from West Salem.
Stung by the brouhaha that Witch's appointment has stirred, the warden at Waupun
declined requests for interviews. Last month, however, he defended Witch as the
best of nearly a dozen candidates he had interviewed--with the character to do
the job well. "Jamyi is an outstandingly approachable person, somebody that I
wouldn't mind approaching on spiritual matters myself," Warden Gary McCaughtry
told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In addition to her volunteer prison ministry, Witch has worked with battered
women in shelters and dying patients in hospices. A mother of two, she is a Girl
Scout leader and school volunteer here in Mount Horeb, an artsy town that bills
itself as "the troll capital of the world" because the main street is lined with
carved wooden trolls.
Witch earned her ordination as a Wicca priestess from a nearby congregation
called Circle Sanctuary. There is no formal theological curriculum--no seminary
for pagans--but High Priestess Selena Fox said Witch spent years studying the
Wiccan faith and counseling pagans in crisis in preparation for ministry.
"I'm a good person. I really am," Witch said, rubbing the ears of a sick old
greyhound she rescued after his racing career ended. "I have earned this
position."
State officials say Witch does indeed meet all the requirements for the job of
chaplain, and they point out that it would be illegal to deny her the post on
the basis of her faith. Members of hate groups or satanic cults are not allowed
to serve as chaplains. But in Wisconsin, Wicca is recognized as a religion on
par with Catholicism or Islam.
While several states, including California, allow volunteer Wiccan chaplains in
their prisons, Witch is the first to land a full-time, tax-funded post.
"Jamyi has made history," Fox said.
Critics point out that just 30 out of 1,200 inmates at Waupun identify
themselves as Wiccan. (There is one other full-time chaplain there, a
Protestant.) "Why are we paying a woman $35,000 a year to work with just 30
inmates?" asked Walker, the state lawmaker.
In response, Witch notes that a large part of any chaplain's job is to bring in
volunteer ministers of other faiths, so that all spiritual needs can be met. For
instance, she recently organized a religious feast, presided over by a visiting
imam, for Muslim inmates to mark the end of Ramadan.
Chaplains also are responsible for making sure all prisoners have the tools they
need to worship, be it a Bible or sacred crystals. In fact, Witch said, very
little of her job involves one-on-one spiritual ministry, although when called
upon, she said she can offer guidance to anyone of any faith. Without resorting
to witchcraft.
"They think I'm teaching all the inmates to chant spells," she said with a
rueful smile. "If I had one-eighth of the power that people are crediting me
with, I wouldn't be sitting in Waupun Correctional [Institution] working my butt
off. I'd have my patootie up on a velvet cushion with people throwing grapes at
me. Or cheeseburgers."
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