Bryan Lankford, first officer for the Texas Council of the Covenant of the Goddess (let's just do what the Dallas papers are doing and call him a Wiccan, or neopagan, priest), was invited to give the invocation at the Dallas City Council meeting last week. But after the mayor's office received several calls in protest, he was disinvited. That led to an apology by the mayor and an invitation back. "We are not in the business of choosing religions," Dallas mayor Ron Kirk has said repeatedly. But Christians in the area are still upset. "I want to encourage the City Council to do as our founding fathers did—to fear the one true God," Cathie Adams, president of the Texas Eagle Forum, told the council (the City Council, not the Covenant of the Goddess one). "And I'm asking that you consider the fact that just like it would be unwise for the American Jewish Congress to invite the American Neo-Nazis to address them, it is unwise for you to invite witches to pray before you." The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's report of the prayer sounds like it was the same one published in The Dallas Morning News last week after the rescinded invitation. (See also UPI's coverage of the invocation. Though The Dallas Morning News has been covering the controversy in detail thus far—see this story about Lankford's conversion to Wicca from being a Baptist—Weblog couldn't find anything on the paper's site about yesterday's meeting.)

American artist Robert Wilson says his "14 Stations" installation, located immediately behind the Passion Play Theater, is based on Christian themes, especially Quaker ...