Well, there's always the Arab version of Islam...if you happen to be a woman, anyway. Not exactly "new." -David On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Steve Schear wrote:

At 09:09 PM 3/29/01 -0600, you wrote:

...

http://www.sightings.com/politics6/dwbb.htm

There have been a few discussions on this list of possible means for defeating such systems operating in public places. I recall suggesting a new religion, whose worshipers are encouraged to appear with veils and masks, might make an interesting legal challenge to anti-mask laws in effect.

steve

Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com> wrote:

At 09:09 PM 3/29/01 -0600, you wrote:

...

http://www.sightings.com/politics6/dwbb.htm

There have been a few discussions on this list of possible means for defeating such systems operating in public places. I recall suggesting a new religion, whose worshipers are encouraged to appear with veils and masks, might make an interesting legal challenge to anti-mask laws in effect.

steve

Just make Halloween a year long celebration. Regards, Matt- ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, 2175 Bayfield Drive, Columbus, OH 43229 (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************

At 09:53 PM 3/29/01 -0800, Steve Schear wrote:

...

Just make Halloween a year long celebration.

I doubt it would get strong consideration from a religious standpoint.

...

Regards, Matt-

In some places, yes, but we have a constitution that prohibits favoring one over another. Theoretically.

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Steve Schear wrote:

At 09:09 PM 3/29/01 -0600, you wrote:

...

http://www.sightings.com/politics6/dwbb.htm

There have been a few discussions on this list of possible means for defeating such systems operating in public places. I recall suggesting a new religion, whose worshipers are encouraged to appear with veils and masks, might make an interesting legal challenge to anti-mask laws in effect.

You can start a new religion which upholds anonymity as holy (like all those monastic brothers who gave up their worldly identities and names), but to pass it in reaction to this sort of thing would identify it, in most courts, as something that was done for temporal considerations rather than as a "sincere" religious movement. The whole "temporal considerations" thing wears off after a while, but don't expect to get any respect in courts of law until you've been at it for at least a dozen years and have a solid and well-documented position in some kind of philosophy and, optionally, theology, which devotees of your new religion have written and published. Performing works that benefit the public (such as operating charity kitchens, crisis lines, or shelters for the persecuted- but-not-prosecuted masses) can add a bunch of credibility to a religious movement; That's the sort of thing that seems to have elevated the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in San Francisco from being a joke to being taken seriously enough to be declared a "heretical sect" by the catholic pope.*1 In short, establishing a new religion - and doing it properly - would be hard work. Possibly very fulfilling work, but hard. I think to do it with integrity, you'd have to put serious effort into caring for the spiritual needs of the members. And the masks would have to mean something, personally, that tied in with the philosophical/theological position you espoused. I have from time to time wistfully considered the calling of a "Holy Man", but, well, Whatever my religion is I'm pretty sure I'm the only one and I don't really believe that missionary work is respectful. Puts a damper on the whole "ministry" idea. ;-) Bear --- *1: For those who are *not* students of religious history, charges of "Heresy" are the Big Guns of the Catholic Church. It gets used about once or twice every three or four centuries, and in the past has only been leveled at groups which are a clear and present danger to the continued existence of the Catholic Church. Whole countries used to go to war over such pronouncements, to protect the church from impending annihilation. Groups that do not pose a clear and present danger to the continued existence of the Catholic church, in all previous centuries, have been considered to be merely "in Error" rather than "Heretics". Everybody's wondering if the pope knows something we don't about the fragile infrastructure of the Church and the nearness of its possible demise, or if he's just overreacting because the SOPI involves openly gay men dressing in vaguely catholic-looking nun's habits and performing good works.

At 07:30 PM 3/29/01 -0800, Steve Schear wrote:

At 09:09 PM 3/29/01 -0600, you wrote:

...

http://www.sightings.com/politics6/dwbb.htm

There have been a few discussions on this list of possible means for defeating such systems operating in public places. I recall suggesting a new religion, whose worshipers are encouraged to appear with veils and masks, might make an interesting legal challenge to anti-mask laws in effect.

I've pointed this out before, but many randoms (esp females) wear false hair and facial camo. Add some Jackie-O accoutrements and you've got your 'religious worshippers' (and some *are* religious about wearing this, tithing significant fractions of their income) on the streets already. ..... The red-light-camera folks don't send a ticket if they can't make out your face (judges demand it); one of their staff commented that they toss out pictures with low baseball caps (etc.) obscuring the faces, but they didn't think people do that *intentionally* to beat traffic cameras. (LA Times story last week or so) ..... Personally I like Subcommander Marcos's Subgenius/Terrorist look... pipe and ski mask..