Mirror of Justice

A blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory.
Affiliated with the Program on Church, State & Society at Notre Dame Law School.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Do Werewolves Violate the Establishment Clause?

It seems that The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has sent a cease and desist letter to the U.S.Wolfy Secretary of the Navy demanding that Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 stop using the name “Crusaders.”  The Squadron had at alternative times in its history used the name “Werewolves” and “Crusaders.”  The MRFF claims that ”Crusaders,” as well as the symbol of a red cross on a white shield used by the Squadron, violates the Establishment Clause.  “The most logical purpose of the Crusader moniker is to convey a message of approval of religion.”

I disagree; indeed, I find the position obtuse.  There may be many reasons to use the epithet “Crusader,” and in a military context “[t]he most logical purpose” may well be to associate oneself with the fearsome, bellicose spirit of the Crusaders — who, after all, were warriors.  I don't find anything "most logical" about the interpretation offered by the MRFF.  "Crusader" is used commonly -- and it can have both negative and positive non-religious connotations ("He's a crusader for justice."; "Batman is the caped crusader"; "He's taken this misguided cause on as a kind of crusade.").

But set all that aside.  Why is MRFF not upset about the name ”Werewolves”?  Doesn’t “Werewolves” violate the Establishment Clause too?  Lycanthropy (humans turning into wolves), I think, was a form of spiritual, animistic belief held by the Algonquian Native Americans (see the Wendigo), and I also believe that certain varieties of Wicca believe in something like lycanthropy.  Animism generally holds that there is a spiritual power in non-human beings, including wolves.  An early expression of pagan belief in werewolves may be located in Book 1 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Ovid tells of King Lycaon, who is turned into a wolf by Zeus when he treats Zeus most inhospitably (“His arms descend, his shoulders sink away/ To multiply his legs for chase of prey./ He grows a wolf, his hoariness remains,/ and the same rage in other members reigns./ His eyes still sparkle in a narr’wer space:/ His jaws retain the grin, and violence of his face.”).  And, of course, werewolves are an integral part of that most pagan of holidays, Halloween.

At any rate, given these religious origins and the continuing association of werewolves with paganism, why should MRFF have a special problem with cultural symbols with Christian origins?  Let’s do this right, and get werewolves declared unconstitutional too.

https://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2012/04/do-werewolves-violate-the-establishment-clause.html

DeGirolami, Marc | Permalink

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I cannot tell from you post whether it is the name "Crusaders" or the red cross on a white shield that is causing concern. The term Crusader certainly can be separated from a religious meaning. It is much harder to separate the red cross on a white shield from a religious meaning. I wonder how a Muslim would feel about belonging to a squadron that specifically called itself after (and used the symbol of) a military campaign to kill Muslims and drive them from the land that they viewed as holy? How might a Christian feel in an outfit that called itself the Assassins and adopted a Muslim symbol of that group as its insignia?