An Inclusive Litany

2/11/02

Mary LeBlanc of Houston, Texas, filed a $3 million lawsuit against a local Unitarian Fellowship that promised to welcome members of all religious beliefs. The Fellowship allegedly reneged on that promise once members discovered Ms. LeBlanc was a witch, subjecting her to indignant comments and close scrutiny. Originally encountering acceptance over her differences, Ms. LeBlanc ran afoul of the group after she refused to teach other members how to perform Wiccan rituals that she regards as sacred to Wiccans and closed to outsiders.

And a jury in Salt Lake City, Utah, awarded $290,000 to two women who were bilked of their savings by a fundamentalist church—the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of the Saints of the Last Days—whose leaders promised to produce Jesus Christ in the flesh. Voicing disappointment with the verdict, the wife of the church's founder said, "God's people have always been persecuted and right now is no different."