Athiest 
Posted on 04/23/2007 2:45:32 PM PDT by presidio9
Adherents to the neo-pagan cult Wicca soon will be permitted to place their symbol the pentacle -- a five-pointed star inscribed inside a circle -- on headstones in military cemeteries, US officials said Monday.
After months of legal wrangling, the US Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to allow Wiccans to place the symbol on headstones, as do adherents to the Christian, Muslim and Jewish and other faiths. The policy change will go into effect in the next few months, officials said.
"VA will be adding the pentacle to its list of approved emblems of belief that will be engraved on government-provided markers," said Matt Burns a spokesman for the federal agency.
The Wiccans, which have tens of thousands of adherents across the United States, were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the rights watchdog group.
"It is deeply unfortunate that grieving families of deceased veterans were forced to undertake a bureaucratic struggle to have their loved ones' wishes honored," said Aaron Caplan, an ACLU attorney who represented the Wiccans in the case.
"All veterans, regardless of their religion, deserve to have their faith recognized on an equal basis," he said.
Won’t be long before that pentacle is place upside down...
There. Fixed.
This is America. These people fought and died for their religion, even though it isn’t my religion.
I think their religion should be represented as long as it doesn’t interfere with rights of others, and if it done so that the solemn nature of the cemetery is preserved. If it is cemetery of a particular religion, then no you don’t have a right to be represented. However, if it is a national non denomination noncemetery, then yes.
Which is why I made the comment about Jedi. Nearly as many people in England listed their religion as "Jedi" or "The Force" as did list it as "Hindu" on their most recent census. Should England therefore give the same respect to a sci-fi movie invention as Christianity?
If you think any of these people fought and died for Wicca, I have a bridge here in NY that you might be interested in taking off my hands.
Re read my post. If someone listed his Lord and Saviour as Bozo the clown, I don’t expect the cemetery to put up a “Bozo the Clown” head stone. It really doesn’t matter what religion they died for. If a soldier serves his country and dies, he’s entitled to be afforded a reasonably comparable funeral and burial as any body else.
What about us Sith?
I guess our disagreement is in where one draws the line at "reasonably comparable." I refuse to give Wicca the respect some of its practitioners seek, or to take it seriously. How many people on the planet do you suppose were practicing Wicca before the 1980's? I'm guessing that the are more Jedi than there are Wiccans.
No, Siths I’m OK with.
When you enter the military, you should be requested to put a religious affiliation in your file in the event that you are killed in action. If this soldier didn’t list ‘wiccan’, then his family doesn’t get to impose their religious agenda onto the US military via the corpse of a fallen soldier. Since there is no way to prove after the fact that this was the soldiers intent, this is basically appeasement after the fact.
To avoid this in the future, it should be unmarked unless the service person requests a specific religious symbol to be put on his/her headstone or dogtags. If the person changes faiths, or just loses their faith, then they should change in on their personnel file just like they would if they got divorced and wanted to remove their ex- from getting death benefits.
Will he later represent somebody else to sue the military because they allow a religious symbol (e.g. Wiccans') in a state property?
Jedi are cremated, though...
May the Farce be with you.
Athiest
Which is why I made the comment about Jedi. Nearly as many people in England listed their religion as "Jedi" or "The Force" as did list it as "Hindu" on their most recent census. Should England therefore give the same respect to a sci-fi movie invention as Christianity?
If the soldier gave his life on the battlefield for England and he requested a Jedi symbol on his tombstone, the answer is:
"You bet yer bloody arse England should!"
My point was that soon they, too, will be equally allowed - and from a legal standpoint, why not?
Satan's Graveyard - got a nice ring to it, eh?
Really? I was under the distinct impression that religious bigotry is de rigeur around these parts.
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