expertise

Music: American Analog Set: Set Free (2005)

Admittedly, my professional life sometimes startles me by the turns it takes. Who knew my studies would lead me to Washington DC, Minneapolis, Baton Rouge, and then Austin, Texas? I've only had two official jobs, but the first semester of each is always rough: there were evenings when I couldn't sleep, awoken by fears and worries that I was incompetent and didn't know what I was doing. "WTF am I doing here? Why am I here? What am I doing?" No beautiful home, house, or wife (props to David Byrne), but there is some sort of something "flowing underground" that seems to carry me along.

The preface is to set-up another unexpected turn: today I signed a contract with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a consultant and expert. I never thought in my line of work that I would be consulting (that seems to be the province of my Organization Communication colleagues), but that's the newest thing for my professional life. "Consulting on what?" some readers may be asking. The answer: occult religious practices.

Apparently a year ago a federal law was passed to help protect the religious needs of prisoners. The law was ideologically buoyed by more evangelical Christian interests, I'm told, but of course cannot only apply to Christians. Consequently, some states are having trouble complying with the law and attempting to meet the needs of Wiccans, Pagans (Odinists), Satanists, and other non-mainline religious practitioners. If you give a cross to a Christian, then you need to give a Baphomet medallion to the Satanist, and so forth. I've been asked by the state to advise on these more unusual cases because more and more inmates are bringing suit. Some of the cases coming up will require me to research them (my familiarity is with the clandestine traditions, such as Gardnerian Wicca and Thelema, not so much the Nordic systems), but I know where to go and who to ask.

In any event, I'm intrigued by this new adventure and excited to do it. So far just talking with the folks that work on these cases is fascinating. They also know I'm dedicated to religious freedom; I'm not being asked to do this or that; I just give my opinion. I'll have to ask how confidential these cases are; if I can post about them, I might try to do that. Of course, there is a potential conflict of interest so I'm just not sure . . . .