I have no sympathy for Charles Jaynes. He’s a convicted child murderer and corpse rapists. The bastard needs to rot, nameless and forgotten, in some dank prison cell. The thing is, Jaynes wants to change his name because he’s adopted the Wiccan faith in an attempt at spiritual development and healing, and it seems the Wiccans don’t want him.
“The Covenant of the Goddess, a public not-for-profit organization representing Witches and Wiccans for 37 years, in no way views the actions of Charles Jaynes as being even remotely related to the religion that we recognize as Wicca,” said Heather Greene, National Public Information Officer for Covenant of the Goddess, in a statement on Tuesday. “Nor do we, as a religion, have any tenet that mandates a legal change of name for any reason.”
Read more: Convicted child killer pleads for name change, victim’s father calls him the ‘face of evil’
A made up religion is rejecting a murderer for crimes committed in 1997 because, well… they don’t like what he did. I thought the whole thing with religion was about spiritual transformation, rebirth, and atonement? A metamorphosis from who you were to who you are meant to be (under whatever faith you aspire too). Wicca is no different. They simply don’t want an evil manipulative and unrepentant murderer linked to Wicca. Go figure.
Let’s break it down:
“The Covenant of the Goddess, a public not-for-profit organization representing Witches and Wiccans for 37 years, in no way views the actions of Charles Jaynes as being even remotely related to the religion that we recognize as Wicca,”
Jaynes was not a Wiccan in 1997 when he brutally murdered a 10-year-old boy and then raped the corpse. Today, Jaynes is a transformed warlock looking for a little Wiccan love. The Covenant of the Goddess is using his past crimes to judge him today as if there were not transformation. Who are they to judge? Is this the way it works for all who convert? The is some kind of acceptable person test? What is the acceptable threshold for past crimes. If you murder a child but don’t rape his corpse, is that okay? If you rape but don’t murder, is that ok? I mean seriously now, there must be standards or people will think that the Wiccan faith is simply making this stuff up as it goes along.
Nor do we, as a religion, have any tenet that mandates a legal change of name for any reason.”
This is a just a technicality. I don’t know a Wiccan who does not go by their Wiccan name. Be it Malachite Rayne Ravynne, or Dandelion Fearless, or whatever bullshit made-up name practitioners adopt. I know a Wiccan named Carol who insists I call her Spider Faerie. The fact that The Covenant of the Goddess does not have a tenet supporting mandatory names changes is meaningless. The reason your organization does not call for mandatory name changes is that it is too burdensome to do so and you prefer secrecy, thus secret Wiccan names. Your faith encourages Wiccan names. At least be honest about it.
How can you be honest about something that is a complete work of fiction? Every word is a lie, even if you believe it to be true. When you try to apply standards of belief on others, it shows your faith in a bad light, don’t Wiccans see that?
