"For Wiccan Nev. soldier, death brings fight"

by Scott Sonner (AP, May 25, 2006)

Reno, USA - Nevada officials are pressing the Department of Veteran Affairs to allow the family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan to place a Wiccan symbol on his headstone.

Federal officials so far have refused to grant the requests of the family of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, who was killed in Afghanistan last September when the Nevada Army National Guard helicopter he was in was shot down.

"Every veteran and military member deserves recognition for their contributions to our country," said Tim Tetz, executive director of the Nevada Office of Veterans Services.

<snip>

"It's unfortunate the process is taking so long, but I am certain Sgt. Patrick will ultimately receive his marker with the Wiccan symbol," he said.

Stewart, of Fernley, who was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize.

<snip>

The Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration allows only approved emblems of religious beliefs on government headstones. Over the years, it has approved more than 30, including symbols for the Tenrikyo Church, United Moravian Church and Sikhs. There's also an emblem for atheists — but none for Wiccans.

<snip>

"This is discrimination against our religion," Roberta Stewart said.

"The least his country can do is give him the symbol of faith as he would have wished," she recently told the Daily Sparks Tribune.

The Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of the Wiccan Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wis., is among those who have been pushing the federal government to adopt the emblem. She said the Veterans Affairs Department has been considering such requests for nearly nine years with no decision.

<snip>

Stewart enlisted in the Army after he graduated from Reno's Wooster High School in 1989 and served in Desert Storm and in Korea. After completing his active duty, he enlisted in the Nevada Army National Guard in 2005 and went to Afghanistan with Task Force Storm.

World Wide Religios News

I find this typical. People want prayer and religious symbols around until someone from a "different" religion wants their prayer and their symbols then suddenly they don't want so much religious freedom.

When I encounter (in public schools) people whining about wanting prayer in schoold (like it ever really left) I want to (but haven't, yet) ask them if they'd be okay if a Wiccan said the prayer!?! Then we'll see how much prayer they want

It isn't religious freedom people want, it is everyone agreeing with their version of what religion should be that they want.

Okay, done ranting. Give the guy his Wiccan symbol, already!

[QUOTE]Okay, done ranting. Give the guy his Wiccan symbol, already!
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I am from Reno and the widow is still fighting for it, but to no avail. Saturday there was a picture in the paper of her at the memorial with a place where the plaque was riped off. I think it was placed and then someone complained and it was removed. America's theocracy will not let us rest.

One way to measure the political strength of the religious right is to study voting patterns. A recent amendment added to a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, HR 2123, allows religious discrimination in Head Start hiring which is a blow to both religious liberty and civil rights.

210 Republicans and 10 Democrats voted for the amendment. 9 Republicans, 186 Democrats and 1 independent voted against the amendment.

We have a lot of work to do.

Isn't there some sort of cultural literacy test that we can make these peope take and pass before they are allowed to run for and assume public office ? I am just ashamed of this sort of behavior by some of the officials that manage the affairs of the state where I live.

Either the first amendment of the US constitution has real meaning in the world, or it doesn't. It's really that simple.

flow....

This is sort of the ultimate test ,isn't it, of how the powers that be view freedom of religion?? It's alright when it suits their interests. I'm sure if a student at some high school wanted to say a wiccan prayer, that would change in fundamentalist hands in a second.

I've heard that the "human rights" in other countries is now viewed by the state department in almost totally Christian terms. They are worried about Christians losing their human rights. So that in China, for instance, they are not concerned about Buddhists, only about Christians. In India they aren't worried about Hindus, only Christians.

I feel I have read enough of this to feel that they view themselves as almost a persuecuted minority.

The wiccan soldier deserves his proper respect.

--des

A much maligned and misunderstood religion/practice.



~A conservative Christian James Clement Taylor A Christian Speak of Wicca and Witchcraft

I agree.

Even though I was never technically Wiccan, I was (am?) pagan in that I deeply revere the earth. It is an embodiment of the divine. Starhawk's Goddess theology was probably what I was (am?) closest to.

AR:
Underneath all of our obfuscatory (love that word !), 21st century , abstract BS, I believe that more of us than we'd imagine are pagan in that we are beginning to care more for the causes of the earth than we do for so-called liberty, democracy, etc. My belief is that we are all desparately searching for something to unite us, and the place where we all live is the logical locus of such a unity for many of us. Pretty much, all of the rest of what is around us is some sort of crazed existence in an obsessive-compulsive, digitized, fantasy land.

There, I feel better now. Ommmmmmm, mani, padmi, ommmmmmm !

flow....

This topic makes me think of the way Jesus, is reported to have healed the man who was born blind. According to the gospel story ,Jesus spits on the ground and makes mud . He then spreads it on the man's eyes and tells him to wash it off to regain his sight. The method of healing used by Jesus, in this instance, sounds like shaminism or sympathetic magic .


MOW

I believe that it is also demonstrative of the perceived restorative powers of the earth itself, and the sacred waters that energize it.

Adam, the first human was made of red earth, and when finished, G-d breathed spirit (pneuma) into him and made him a living being. A divine resuscitation if you will

.Also, it is still the place where most bodies are interred after death so that the earth's restorative powers will be available when and if the final resurrection occurs as promised. Most living things depend upon the earth for support and sustenance, and this is also the cultural heritage of pagan beliefs that are universal worldwide and extend back to the beginnings of humanity, much earlier than shamanism and sympathetic magical practices. This is why the earth mother is a primary symbol of continuing human life and is known as Sophia (wisdom).

Earth is the important component of all life on this third rock from the sun, and it is made from the interaction of water, wind, and rock over eons.

flow....

I'm a liberal UU Christian, and I am if full agreement with Taylor's message. So, of course, is Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation fo Church and State. I'm on the AU e-list for alerts and news, and Lynn lambasted the military brass for this injustice in the email I just received today. It's good to know such groups as AU and the aCLU and so on are picking up on this.

And, you're right in that religious freedom is becoming more and more defined as the freedom of Right Wing Christians to determine what is right and good for the rest of us. When the rest of us resist their intrusions into the religious liberty of others, they cry "Foul!" See how Christians are being persecuted!"

This is the topic which helped bring me here. I'm a Christian married to a witch who is very involved with this fight. The blatant unfairness and bigotry of this denial is so obvious that Christianity Today (the evangelical Time magazine) recently published an editorial by the founder of the Rutherford Foundation (you don't get much more conservative than that) who approved of the granting of the symbol and said to deny it was to deny basic religious rights. . Now having that voice in favor of the widow's fight is big.