Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
A recent federal law says prisoners' religious rights can be limited only when the government has a strong need to do that, and only as little as possible. The question is, did Congress go too far?
Tim O'Brien reports.
TIM O'BRIEN: The right to practice one's religion is one of the pillars of the Bill of Rights. But just how much of those rights does one retain in prison?
Fifty-two-year-old William Morehouse, who practices the Wicca religion, is serving a life term for murder at the Marion Correction Facility in Ohio.
WILLIAM MOREHOUSE (Inmate, Marion Corrections Facility): They would not allow me to have religious articles. They would not allow me to have books. They would not allow my high priest and priestess to come in and hold rituals for our religious holidays.
O'BRIEN: Morehouse claims he is being denied privileges routinely allowed other inmates because his religion is out of the mainstream.
MOREHOUSE: The Wiccan faith is probably the very first faith -- religion -- that was ever practiced by man.
O'BRIEN: Wicca, associated with witchcraft, has an estimated 200,000 followers around the United States -- most of them women -- and perhaps four times that many around the world, although there are no reliable worldwide estimates. Wicca is a polytheistic, earth-based faith that emphasizes feminism, the environment, and diversity of beliefs.