Bush Apologizes to Wiccan Widow

UPI ^ | Sept 2, 2007 | UPI

[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 husband’s 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.

[Polybius]

It seems to me that if she chooses to bury her husband in a private cemetery, she can put whatever symbol she wants on it. But this was a military cemetery. What's next? Different symbols for male/female? Black/white? Gay/straight? State symbols? Favorite college football team logos?

Does the First Amendment address football teams, gender, race, sexual orientation or states? No. All those points are a Straw-man Argument.

Are other religions allowed their symbols? Yes.

Was her religion treated differently than other religions by the Government? Yes.

Does the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America allow the Government to play favorites with religion? No.

End of discussion.

You have a problem with that? Repeal the First Amendment.

She sued on First Amendment grounds. She won on First Amendment grounds. Her position is the Law of the Land in accordance with the First Amendment.

Deal with it.

[BykrBayb]

You’re the one who said you preferred Satanists over Christians. You haven’t expressed any revulsion toward the disrespect shown to our troops by those defending satanism. You’ve falsely accused Christians of hatred as an excuse to voice your hatred of Christianity. I don’t know where you got the idea that I was going to banish you. Do you see the word “moderator” anywhere in my name? Grow up.

[BykrBayb]

Football is as much an established religion as wiccan is. But football isn’t built around the desecration of Christianity.

[Polybius]

The problem with that logic is, of course, admitted Nazis (neo-Nazis, white supremists, etc.) aren't allowed to serve openly in the US Armed Forces.

If some kook considers Hitler a god and nazzism a religion can therefore be banned from serving in the military ........ .

Nazis and neo-Nazis are not banned by the U.S. Armed Forces on religious grounds. They are banned on national security grounds as Nazism is openly hostile to the Constitution.

Even if a Nazi were to worship Hitler, he would still be banned on national security grounds, not his religion, so your issue is a red herring.

....then I guess there is a committee somewhere that makes legitimacy judgments on religions

During the days of our Founding Fathers, there were such committees in the Old World: the Inquisition, the British Parliament passing laws said that that Catholics were not allowed equal civil rights....

That is why the Founding Fathers drafted the First Amendment: To ensure that America never had those religious committees you want.

If you want such committees, convert to Islam and move to Iran. The Iranian mullahs have such committees.

[expatguy]

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush apologized to a Nevada Simpsonian who was left out of a presidential meeting with relatives of soldiers killed in combat.

Marge Stewart, who sued to have the Simpsonian symbol placed on her husband’s 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. Bart 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 Simpsonian symbol -- a silhouette of the Simpsonian prophet Homer -- on her husband's grave. She won the suit and the government added the Simpsonian symbol to 38 others that were previously recognized, including a symbol for Elsie The Golden Calf.

While other Simpsonians are known to be serving in the military, Stewart is believed to be the first to die in combat.

[expatguy]

How much longer before you and your ilk petition for erecting a golden calf in Arlington cemetery?

[GladesGuru]

All men are entitled to relate to their creator as they so see fit. That is probably one of the most basic ideas that form the intellectual core of the American experiment in government.

It follows that if one has the unalienable right to one’s beliefs about one’s creator, that one has the right to have one’s religion identified on one’s grave if one so wants.

[Polybius]

Football is as much an established religion as wiccan is. But football isn’t built around the desecration of Christianity.

To an Orthodox Jew, Jesus Christ is as divine as a football is and Christianity is a heresy at best and blasphemy at worst.

To many Christians, the Book of Mormon is as divine as a football is and Mormonism is a heresy at best and blasphemy at worst.

Who decides which religions qualify for First Amendment protection in America?

You?

Mitt Romney?

An Orthodox Rabbi who may think that Christianity is "a desecration of Judaism"?

The Westboro Baptist Church?

The Founding Fathers drafted the First Amendment because people who think like you do and try to limit the religious rights of others had caused too many religious wars back in the Old World.

[BykrBayb]

God, Satan, a football, Homer Simpson, and a tumbleweed are not all equal. A “religion” created for the purpose of mocking genuine religions is not a real religion.

[P-Marlowe]

If he wants to ban me for defending the right of a Wiccan soldier to be treated with the same respect that you demand a Christian soldier be treated, so be it.

As a Christian I will stand side beside you in that battle, radioman. I don't care what kind of weird religion a soldier has, if he is standing in the gap protecting me and my family as a soldier in our armed services, he is my brother.

When a soldier gives his life for his friends, then no matter what kind of religious beliefs or lack of them he has, then he has done as Christ did for us.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 KJV)

R.I.P. Sgt. Patrick Stewart

[BykrBayb]

people who think like you do and try to limit the religious rights of others

What a bunch of poppy cock. Religious rights are limited to the practice of religion, not the hatred of Christianity. If somebody started a religion based on hatred of Polybius, would that be a real religion, worthy of placing a monument at Arlington?

[Perchant]

That is why the Founding Fathers drafted the First Amendment: To ensure that America never had those religious committees you want.

It's not a question of what "I want", Polybius. There is obviously a standard, and someone or some committee would have to be the overseer of the standards, of what could constitute "religion or quasi religion that is also a security threat".

The determination must have therefore been made that Islam is not a security threat even though their religious texts clearly implore the Muslim to fight for Islam and against Christians and Jews.

[Starwolf]

God, Satan, a football, Homer Simpson, and a tumbleweed are not all equal. A “religion” created for the purpose of mocking genuine religions is not a real religion.

So which religion in this discussion are you saying is made up? I recall the church that was offering ordination as a tax dodge a many years ago, but that has not shown up in this thread yet. Bahai, Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Rastafarian are all recognized religions. Jedi is not.

[Starwolf]

God, Satan, a football, Homer Simpson, and a tumbleweed are not all equal. A “religion” created for the purpose of mocking genuine religions is not a real religion.

So which religion in this discussion are you saying is made up? I recall the church that was offering ordination as a tax dodge a many years ago, but that has not shown up in this thread yet. Bahai, Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Rastafarian are all recognized religions. Jedi is not.

[epow]

Wiccan is not satan worshiping any more than Buddism is

All "religions" are the creation of Satan, cleverly designed to deceive, ensnare, and condemn men and women to eternal separation from God and all that he promises to those who place their faith in his son Jesus the Christ for salvation and eternal life with Him.

Christianity is NOT a religion, it is a personal relationship with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made possible by the Son's willing, sacrificial, atoning death on the cross. Salvation comes by openly confessed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and belief in His resurrection from the dead, not by religious rituals and good deeds, per Romans 10:9, Titus 3:5, and other scripture passages.

Having said that, I can still respect the soldier himself who gave his life for our country even though I hate and thoroughly disrespect the demon-inspired pagan religion that he chose to practice.

[BykrBayb]

Why not Jedi? It’s just as qualified to be recognized as any other made-up religion.

[expatguy]

Rights by definition quite clearly represent objectivity and not relativity.

And as such, not everyone reads the Bill of Rights through the lens of relativity despite the fact that relativity seems to be de rigeur in the last thirty or so years.

[LilAngel]

As ridiculous as that will be, it’s still not as bad as what they already are demanding. I’ve seen a lot of hatred toward Christianity, even on Free Republic, but I’m suprised at the promotion of satanism.

[expatguy]

"So which religion in this discussion are you saying is made up? I recall the church that was offering ordination as a tax dodge a many years ago, but that has not shown up in this thread yet. Bahai, Wicca, Zoroastrianism, Rastafarian are all recognized religions. Jedi is not."

Having "religious" paganistic beliefs does not constitute a religion any more than two men living together constitutes a marriage.

Freedom to practice your religious beliefs does not however imply that either myself or society as a whole has to accept them.

Reprobates who practice the Jedi religion are equally as lost as those who practice any other paganistic belief.

Jedi Religion Grows in Australia