Cops: Teacher accused of sexual assault ‘wed’ girl in pagan ritual
I read this and I can’t help wondering if they keep putting “wed” and “married” in scare quotes because it was:
a) same-sex
b) pagan
c) illegal cause she was 14 years old (age of marriage in MI is 18 without parental consent, 16 with).
I hope it was c).
Local pagans are trying to make sure people don’t get the idea that paganism is somehow all about sexual abuse, which is not that surprising cause the first article was pretty lurid about the whole pagan thing, with accusations of brainwashing and so on.
I didn’t even know West Michigan had local pagans till a couple of ’em moved in across the street from us, in an apartment formerly occupied by Mormons…
It could also be d) not legally married even if she was of age and of the opposite sex due to a lack of witness or any kind of attempt to make it legal.
Not that that would have been possible in this case.
For what it’s worth, there’s a Yahoo Group for West Michigan Pagans. I occasionally check it out when I’m feeling nosy.