If I ever go to prison, I think I'll dig up the most obscure religion I can find and make that my faith. Then I'll pitch a fit when I'm not allowed to practice it, like these guys did. Their religion of choice was Theodism. Raise your hand if you've ever heard of it. Anybody?
It can't be easy accommodating all of the religions that prisoners want to practice. Heck, you've got enough variations on Christianity, Judaism, and Islam to make your head spin. Add in every other big and small religion out there and it's enough to create a nice little side business for an attorney or two.
It makes me wonder how many of the prisoners are serious and how many just want to stir the pot. There's no good way to know for sure, of course. It's a good test for our society's limits on "freedom of religion". I'll bet a solid majority of Nebraskans would tell the Theodians to go take a hike. Determining where our collective "line in the sand" is located for "unusual" religions would be a lot of fun. I suspect some grad student somewhere has asked that question.
Is there a listing somewhere of all of the religions being practiced in Nebraska's prisons? I looked around a bit but I couldn't find a good source. If there is such a thing, add two to the Theodism column.
Comments
See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.
I knew a guy back in the day who had done a couple of long prison stints. He told me how, during a particular stint, the warden had made a rule that prisoners would have to shave their beards. There was no particular reason for the rule. My friend sued via the ALCU, claiming that his chuch, the Church of the New Song (C.O.N.S.—look it up, it’s a real “church”) forbade shaving one’s beard. And he won!
Theodism: worshipping of Theo Huxtable?
Share your thoughts with the community.
Commenting is no longer permitted on this post.