More on the chaplaincy issue

Terry Mattingly of the GetReligion blog has two entries (first and second on the issues raised by the Contra Costa Times that I referenced yesterday.

So if this is the case, what set of universal standards or laws might U.S. military officials cite in order to limit the religious rights of witches, druids, wizards and other pagan folk?

Yes, indeed. The bureaucratic machinery is groaning and creaking as it attempts to deal with the fact that there is more to American religion than the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam).

In fact, even though the United States does not count religious affiliation on its census, it may prove to be the military that does, thus providing us with some way of extrapolating affiliations in the larger population. Maybe, contrary to what I wrote earlier, Wicca will turn out to be "the fastest-growing religion" after all. Right now, who can say?

Meanwhile, as a former newspaper reporter, I continue to enjoy Mattingly's attempts to get the religion stories (and religion angles on other news stories) that the mainstream "pack journalists" miss.