I wrote here about the Pagan Veterans Headstone Campaign and the now-almost-10-year struggle to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to approve the Wiccan pentacle as one of the religious symbols they will place on veterans' headstones.
This article is about a retired Navy guy who actually works for Veterans Affairs, who is Wiccan and whose son (also Wiccan) is currently serving as a medic in Iraq. He's trying to get the pentacle approved too, and even HE'S getting stonewalled.
What's interesting is that VA isn't specifically saying no-- they just keep finding excuses not to answer the question at all (usually "we're updating guidelines"). Most likely, they're smart enough to know that a hard "no" would precipitate a lawsuit and a lot of bad PR (and in a time of war, would YOU want to be the one accused of not honoring fallen soldiers?), whereas just stalling gives them a harder-to-fight soft "no" plus the out that the families of the deceased are free to order no symbol and then have the pentacle added at their own expense. (But-- you have to go asking about that, because the official page says that you can't add anything except "approved emblems of belief".)
You have to wonder if there isn't some lifetimer who's relatively high placed in Memorial Affairs who just really has it in for Wicca in particular-- not as high as the Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, which is a position that's changed hands pretty frequently, although it's interesting that the last person to hold it is the brother of a former ambassador to the Vatican and RNC hotshot. Considering that the DOD recognizes Wicca as a legitimate religion classed under "natural religions", the foot-dragging on the part of Veterans Affairs seems to me to suggest that there's specifically someone there who thinks their worldview is being offended by the existence of Wicca. (On a side note, great analysis here on Religious Tolerance.org of an anti-Wicca-in-the-military paper.)
Quoth the director of communications for the National Cemetary Administration:
Alford, with the National Cemetery Administration, said no emblems are being approved currently, because policies are being updated. Groups, including the Wiccans, will have to reapply under new guidelines, to be announced soon. "We want people to prove that there is a viable organization. ... We're not going to willy-nilly approve emblems until there is a need."
You mean like, a war? I mean, if the existing deceased Wiccan veterans whose families want the pentacle aren't good enough for you...
Asked about the long years of requests, she said the Wiccan groups started out with "a very scattered writing campaign. ... They never sent in an application from the head of the organization speaking for the Wiccans."
Pray tell, who is the head of Hinduism? How about Atheism? How about Judaism? See, this all gets into a big messy debate about what constitutes a religion, and you just can't fit all that into a neat government definition without the government setting criteria for what "counts" as a religion, which really isn't the place of government, so tell me why it's such a problem to "willy-nilly" add requested emblems to the catalog...?
Sometimes, it's enough to make you want to beat your head against a wall.
Recent Comments