Posted on 09/02/2007 1:34:34 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Bush apologizes to Wiccan widow
Published: Sept 2, 2007 at 10:16 AM
WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush apologized to a Nevada Wiccan who was left out of a presidential meeting with relatives of soldiers killed in combat.
Rebecca Stewart, who sued to have the Wiccan symbol placed on her husbands grave marker in a military cemetery, told The Washington Post the president called her to apologize. She said she explained to Bush the faith she and her husband shared.
Sgt. Patrick Stewart was killed in Afghanistan in 2005.
Stewart said she heard about the private meeting from her mother-in-law, who was invited. The president visited Nevada to speak at the American Legion convention.
Stewart told the Post she believed she had been excluded from the invitation list because of the lawsuit she filed to have the Defense Department place the Wiccan symbol -- a five-pointed star inside a circle -- on her husband's grave. She won the suit and the government added the Wiccan symbol to 38 others that were previously recognized, including a symbol for atheism.
While other Wiccans are known to be serving in the military, Stewart is believed to be the first to die in combat.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
In the chaplaincy, at least in my years in it, there was recognition of protection against expressions of religion that required the demeaning of other religions in its own practice.
This was upheld in a number of reviews.
Therefore, any religion that used anti-semitic symbols (white aryan religions) could not claim equal protection. The same with Satanism...so much of their practice was actually contra-Christian, for example, desecrated religious symbols of Christianity. There was no equal protection for it.
There is a very sharp eye out in the military for "movements" that are, on their face, absurd. Rostafarian claims of rites requiring reefer were not even considered valid for a moment, and would have been denied automatically.
Actually, Senor Jorge Bushovich lost his way long ago. This is just another moronic step he has taken. Man, I cannot wait till his time is up and he goes wherever the hell he is going to go. We desperately, very desperately, need a true conservative to save this Republic. Jorge weren't it. The only thing I can find that the Marxist's said that was true, was, that Bush lied. He lied that he was a conservative. He ain't, never was.
Does that include Catholics, Buddhists, and any other non-evangelical Christians? Would you be comfortable with someone putting the seal of their patron saint or the Vatican on their gravestone next to the cross?
Arlington cemetery isn’t a Christian cemetery - it’s a national cemetery. Your right to exclude people who disagree with your views isn’t more righteous than mine. If I decided that, as a hypothetical, only Catholic symbols belong on sacred ground, how would that go over?
Suppose I find your interpretation of Christianity to be inaccurate and a poor reflection on Christ. Given your interpretation, I should have a veto right on your free expression of religion. It doesn’t work like that here. If you want things to work like that, proceed at your risk, though I doubt you’ll enjoy seeing the American version of the European bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants.
“Wrong. It was exactly the right thing to do. The man’s religion (or his wife’s) has nothing at all to do with the fact that he gave his life for his country. It reinforces my faith in the President after a time where it’s been sorely tested.”
There’s no question about that. The issue is whether or not the President is willing to recognize the right of his enlisted men and women to freely exercise their religion as they so choose. If there was simply some mix-up with the paperwork or something, that’s one thing, but to laud an effort to undermine the right of man (who, I might add, died honorably for his country) to freely exercise his religion is an insult to this nation and the principles upon which it was founded. The First Amendment didn’t have a clause in it that excluded the free exercise of religions that other citizens find incorrect. That would give each citizen the right to veto one another’s free exercise of religion.
Oh give me one big, honkin' break.
The religious worship of Islam does not involve desecration of the Bahai, Jewish, or Christian faith.
Wicca is a relatively new phenomenon, and, as a recently created “faith,” it is subject to the whims of its many creators.
One cannot say that this, that, or the other is an historic Wiccan text, or practice, or ritual. It’s all made up recently.
Therefore, some of those doing the creating had a bent toward the dark side, and all of them had a bent toward the mystical/occult side.
You can argue all you want, but Islamic services do not take the items of worship of other religions and desecrate them as part of their practice.
I have not said at any point that those who disagree with one another, or who have a lesser opinion of one another, are denied equal protection.
What base, what town, is there a locally assigned chaplain priest, and is there a locally assigned chaplain imam?
I agree wholeheartedly. The contempt these so-called "Christians" show towards the family of slain servicemen who do not share their faith is deplorable. "Ilk" is a good word to describe these very small, insignificant, little people.
I now understand what you meant, my apologies for the confusion. My point was Islamic teachings vice worship services.
We have a single chaplain (O-4/Baptist IIRC) no imam or rabbi. Local jewish group is lead by a layman (if that is the correct term in Judiasm) who is a friend of mine with participation from the base and town. Islamic services are lead by a mid grade NCO with no participation of local civilians (no local muslims).
my mistake should have included radical islam
If this were an Army post, then first we’d have to acknowledge that it is a small post, and that the religious coverage is limited. In the military, the denominations of the assigned chaplains pretty well dictate the nature of the services that will be offered.
With just one chaplain, and that being a baptist, then you can have only these chaplain led services: A “General” Protestant service AND a Baptist denominational service. If he needs more than one of each of these, then there could be more, but of no different variety. A Baptist chaplain cannot run a Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, or Episcopal service....he is not of their groups, so it is impossible (and forbidden.)
His responsibility to those other groups is to arrange for them to have services. He can contract with local clergy, he can use reservists in the area, he can coordinate services if lay leadership request them and are approved by higher ups.
With no Catholic chaplain, I’d say the Catholics were moved to town, because the priest either changed his contract or no longer wanted one. The NCO Muslim is leading because he’s some variety of acknowledged lay leadership and has been approved by higher HQ.
wicca was the creation of Alister Crowley and Gerald Garner they took aspects of several earlier belief systems and blended them into wicca. There are only the two creators of wicca but each person sets his own path.Others who also wear the pentagram are Pagansand even early christains wore the pentagram to repersent the 5 wounds of christ. The symbol for the worship of satan is an inverted cross
I’ll bet twenty-five cents it’s Crayola.
Commanders in the military decide. The commander owns all religious programs that exist within his command. This is because in time of war, military necessity overrides religious necessity.
If you present an absurd notion to a commander, I guarantee you that if he doesn't laugh at you when in his office, he'll laugh after you leave. Then he'll deny access.
As I said, Rostafarian is an example.
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