The controversy began back in October when police in the town of Richlands forced the owners of an occult shop to stop performing tarot readings for their customers.
Despite the fact that they had been doing the readings for free, the owners were informed that divination was prohibited because the zoning law didn't expressly allow such activity.
As such, one of the shop's owners, Mark Mullins, set about trying to change that and put forward a proposal to the town council that would allow him to resume performing the readings.
However, his attempt to rectify the situation was met with some surprisingly strong pushback from angry Richlands residents leery of legally opening the door to divination.
The debate came to a head in a town meeting last week where critics of the proposal expressed profound fears about how fortune tellers might impact their community.
Among their concerns were that legal divination would unleash "demonic realms" upon the town and that residents would be held responsible in the hereafter if they allowed the proposal to pass.
This religious opposition to Mullins' relatively simple amendment to the town's zoning laws has, clearly, complicated the issue considerably.
Likely knowing that they were apt to upset some segment of the community one way or the other, the board opted not to vote on the change, but may revisit it at some point in the future.
What they will ultimately decide to do remains to be seen, but perhaps Mullins can throw the tarot and see whether his quest will be a success.
Source: SWVA Today
