Pagan Holidays Added to Excused Absences
Pastor Dale Morgan
Pagan Holidays Added to Excused Absences*
By TOM BREEN,
Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - When George Fain visits a grave to mark a pagan
holiday, she won't have to worry about the work she's missing in her
classes at Marshall University.
That's because her absence Thursday on the Samhain holiday has been
approved by the Huntington school, which for the first time is
recognizing pagan students' desire to be excused from class for
religious holidays and festivals.
The university with an enrollment of about 14,000 may be the only school
in the country to formally protect pagan students from being penalized
for missing work that falls on religious holidays, although others have
catchall policies they say protect students of every religious faith.
But as members of the eclectic group of faiths gathered under the term
"pagan" become more willing to publicly assert their beliefs, other
schools may follow Marshall's example, Fain said.
"I think we may have opened a door," she said. "Now that we know we can
be protected, that the government will stand behind us and we feel safe,
it's going to be more prevalent."
The decision to allow pagan students to make up missed work from classes
on holidays was simply an extension of existing university policy toward
members of other religious groups, said Steve Hensley, Marshall's dean
of student affairs.
"I don't think there are a lot of students here who have those beliefs,
but we want to respect them," he said. "It was really just a matter of
looking into it, and deciding what was the right thing."
Students are responsible for establishing that they are religious
believers and that the holiday in question is important to their
respective tradition by filing a written request with Hensley. The
university is aware of the potential for some students to falsely claim
to be pagan, he said.
Paganism experts say they aren't aware of any other university with such
a policy. A call to the American Association of Collegiate Registrars
and Admissions Officers was not returned Wednesday.
Some schools have blanket policies that allow students to be excused for
any religious holiday. Lehigh University in Pennsylvania has had such a
policy for about eight years, said Lloyd Steffen, a religion professor
and the university's chaplain.
Such an accommodation for pagan students is rare in Britain, the
birthplace of modern paganism.
"Nobody yet gets any holiday for pagan festivals in the United Kingdom.
It seems to be an American original," said Ronald Hutton, a history
professor at the University of Bristol in England.
By specifically including pagans, Marshall is taking an important step
toward recognizing the validity of their beliefs, said Jason
Pitzl-Waters, an authority on paganism who edits the Wild Hunt Web site,
a blog about religion, politics and culture.
"That's part of the struggle for modern pagans," said Pitzl-Waters, a
pagan. "Even though modern paganism has been in public since the 1950s,
a lot of people still see it as a rebellious teenage activity, not
necessarily something you do as a religious observance."
That's starting to change, according to Helen Berger, a sociology
professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
She cited the recent decision by the Department of Defense to agree to
pagan requests that the five-pointed star _ sometimes called the
pentacle _ be allowed on the gravestones of veterans in national cemeteries.
"That was a major win, and it's encouraged them to start looking for
areas where they can gain the rights and recognition that other
religions have," Berger said.
The term "pagan" encompasses a diverse array of faiths that can include
Celtic, Druid, Native American and various earth-centered and
nature-based beliefs.
"What binds us together isn't our theology, necessarily," Pitzl-Waters
said. "What binds us together is a sense of communal practice and
togetherness."
Marty Laubach, a sociology professor at Marshall and adviser to a group
of pagan students, said he's seen fliers advertising pagan meetings
ripped down by others.
But actions like the university's decision on absences encourage pagans
to be more vocal, he said.
"You'll have more people now who are willing to say, `These are my
beliefs,'" he said. "The American neopagan movement is a lot stronger
than you think."
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On the Net:
Marshall University: http://www.marshall.edu
Wild Hunt blog: http://www.wildhunt.org/blog.html