Texas mother loses child custody over humorous religion – Wikinews — These people live in a world of satire. Could this be a hoax? This is kind of the problem you have when your lifestyle is totally off-the-wall. And I’ve noticed that there are some pretty weird photos on that Sub-genius website that could lead a conservative Texas Judge to think these people are whack jobs. Apparently these folks have never heard of password protection.

That said there is absolutely zero (at this writing) coverage of this in any mainstream media. There are just a few blogs. I mention that because it’s got tabloid winner written all over it! Where is Inside Edition for this one? Ka-ching.

Rev. Mary Magdalen (Rachel Bevilacqua) of the Church of the SubGenius, a postmodern or parody religion, has recently lost custody of her child, seemingly due to her involvment with the church. Church members are touting the judge’s response to her involvment with the church together with his decision as religious discrimination, and the ACLU is examining the situation.

Judge James Punch (Orleans, NY) allegedly denied custody of the child Kohl out of anger, after seeing videos of Rev. Magdalen in a bondage “dress” and papier maché goat’s head [1] at the church’s X-Day celebration and performance art piece. Judge Punch repeatedly asked, “Why a goat? What’s so significant about a goat’s head?” When Rev. Magdalen replied, “I just thought the word ‘goat’ was funny,” he reportedly lost his temper shouted at Rev. Magdalen, calling her a “pervert,” “mentally ill,” “lying,” and a participant in “sex orgies.”

related links:
Salon Blogs it
Rachels Story

Church of the Subgenius Homepage

found by Ed Hines



  1. Scott Gant says:

    Wow, thanks for showing me to the site of that church! I’ve been shopping around for a new religion and belief system for a while. You know, the whole Judeo/Christian/Muslim thing was getting kinda old. Same old story over and over and over. Blah blah blah.

    Bah, who needs that! And hey, good times right?

  2. Jetfire says:

    Those people are nuts but that’s their right to be nuts. As long as the mother isn’t abusing her kids, she should be free to raise them as she wants. If the kid can have a stable home life who cares what the mother does. I’m a Catholic, Republican too.

  3. Simon says:

    Why are people upset about this specific case? There are 300,000 children in custody at any time in the USA, almost none of them for a good reason. 60% of them will be abused in custody, and 1 – 2% of them will be lost by the authorities and never see their parents again. Judges make up rules and impose lunatic conditions, parents and children are denied their rights and lives are destroyed by the whims of social workers. This case isn’t at all unusual, and if one of the parents has custody it isn’t unusually bad. Reading this is like reading that there may be a war on in the middle east – how can you not know about this sort of thing?

  4. Mr Fusion says:

    Ok, this has to be a hoax. I would need a good dose of hallucinogenics to conceive that this web site is on the level.

  5. Raff says:

    It used to be just an odd and funny site. I remember checking it out back in like 96. Looks like it grew and got really weird since I was there last.

  6. Alsatia says:

    Dood! Am I the oldest person here?? The Church of the Sub-Genuis isn’t just a website! It’s been around since the ’70’s. One of my co-workers bought the book allegedly written by/about good old Bob and his wife back when she was in college. (My co-worker was the one in college, of course. Not Bob’s wife.) Anything connected to it is highly postpostmod and satirical. Don’t take it any more seriously as religion than you would take a performance art piece. Actually, it’s like a lot of performance art in that it’s full of deliberate provocation and intentional obscurity. I hope this court thing turns out to be untrue. I’d hate to think that you might actually lose custody of your kid because of Bob. It is true that members of minority religions such as Wicca have had their kids taken away because the court doesn’t like their religion, which is highly discriminatory of course. Sheesh. What next? Am I going to lose custody of my cat because I have an ordination certificate in my email inbox from the Universal Life Church? (You too can be an ordained minister! Visit http://www.ulc.org for more such whackiness! ;-> )

  7. Eideard says:

    The Universal Life Church rocks, Alsatia. One of the few anti-war gigs that made it into legitimacy. I don’t know if they’re cool in all states; but, my honey and I were married by a ULC “minister” here in New Mexico.

    Out in the courtyard of our hacienda on a sunny September day, family, friends and dogs in attendance.

  8. GregAllen says:

    Alsatia >>Dood! Am I the oldest person here?? The Church of the Sub-Genuis isn’t just a website! It’s been around since the ’70’s.

    I think I remember first encountering it about 15 years ago or maybe a little longer.

    Didn’t they have an INSANE middle-of-the-night radio program on KPFA in the early 90s? It was totally non-linear and went on for hours and hours. I wish I’d recorded it.


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