Back in October we talked about a South Carolina middle school which was coming under fire for allowing a prayer rally to be held during the school day, featuring a youth evangelist and a Christian rapper. At the time, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of a student and his father.

Now, a federal judge has signed and entered a consent decree and order, which means the school district has admitted that they were in the wrong, and acknowledge that there have been some unconstitutional practices going on. I'm sure everyone is shocked.

The ACLU's Blog of Rights points out, "In voting to approve the consent decree, the Chesterfield County School Board should be commended for recognizing that its previous policies and practices promoting religion are simply not defensible. Nor are these policies and practices sustainable as a practical matter in light of the increasing religious diversity enjoyed by South Carolina's public schools."

The Cheraw Chronicle reports that over 200 people attended the meeting in which the school board signed the consent decree. A number of permanent injunctions will now be in place, including the following:

• School officials are permanently enjoined (forbidden) from participating in prayers for any school event within the district.
• School officials shall prohibit clergy or other religious leaders from offering a prayer as part of an event or program.
• School officials shall not include prayer, whether or not it is noted in a printed program, in conjunction with a school event.
• School officials shall not encourage, solicit or invite any person to offer a prayer during a school event. However, this provision does not bar school officials from including a moment of silence within school events, provided that school officials do not direct, encourage or imply that students or others should use the moment of silence for prayer.
• If school officials select persons to make an address during a school event, they shall do so by a selection process that is neutral to religion and in compliance with written policy.
• School officials are permanently enjoined from planning, organizing, financing, promoting or otherwise sponsoring in whole or in part a religious service.

Victoria Middleton, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, said, "The district has done the right thing by acknowledging that school officials cannot use their positions of influence to persuade students to devote themselves to one particular religion... We're glad that the school has agreed to a reasonable settlement."

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You know, it's so easy to laugh at Newt Gingrich it's like we don't even have to try anymore. His latest ridiculous statement, brought to us courtesy of HuffPo, is that gay marriage is kind of as bad as paganism from back in old-timey Biblical days.

Newt, who has several marriages under his belt and a whole lotta infidelity, thinks that letting two people who love each other get married is Just Plain Rong, and that's why he's supporting the Defense of Marriage Act. He said, "It's pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it's a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization."

That's right, because while it is okay to hold the rest of America to a bunch of very restrictive sexual standards, it is not okay to expect Newt and his current wife, Callista, to follow those guidelines. Callista, who is pretty vocally anti-gay marriage herself, prides herself on being a staunch Catholic - so staunch that she had a six-year affair with Newt while he was married to his last wife. But whatever! Commandments are only for politicians to break, not you voting gay Pagan people!!

But seriously, Newt Gingrich, in addition to being a homophobe and a bigot, seems to use the word "paganism" as a catch-all to define Anything Newt Doesn't Approve Of.

In a statement supporting the Iowa Family Leader's controversial "Marriage Vow" pledge, Gingrich said, "I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others." Which apparently was a typo, because it should have said "I also pledge to uphold the institution of marriage through personal fidelity to my spouse and respect for the marital bonds of others as long as they are totally heterosexual and Christian." There you go, Newt. Fixed that for you.

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Thanks to MeanerSchnitzel for sending this one in -- it's a tradition in Austria that I had never heard of, but seems really cool. Apparently there's an event called the Mullerlauf held every February near Innsbruck, and it includes men and boys dressing up in elaborate masks, rattling bells and banging sticks together. Brass bands play, thousands of people turn out to watch the procession, and it's all done with the intent of driving away winter. Oh, and there's Schnapps, too!

Witches use brooms to sweep away winter, a Kloetzler clacks together bits of wood to scare off evil spirits, Melchers invoke Spring by dancing a waltz, and the Spiegeltuxer wears a giant wooden mask representing the Summer. It's all very steeped in pre-Christian fertility rites, and sounds like wonderful fun.

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One of the perks of writing the About Pagan/Wiccan page is that people tend to share with me things that I might not have known about otherwise -- and this is an example of one of those cases. I got an email from a reader who says, "I practice a Roman version of Paganism, and thought you might be interested in this. Today is the festival of Sementivae, which is a planting festival that honors Ceres and Tellus. Ceres, of course, is the Roman grain goddess, and Tellus is the earth itself."

This festival was held in two parts -- the first part was held from January 24 to January 26, honoring Tellus, and was a season of sowing the fields. The second part, which began a week later on February 2, honored Ceres as the goddess of agriculture.

So, although it may be chilly and snowy right now, try to keep in mind that eventually, the planting season will begin, and things will warm up again. And a huge thanks to the reader who sent this in, for educating me on something new!

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