WASHINGTON (ABP) — The widow of an American soldier killed in Afghanistan has finally gotten what she said her husband would have wanted: A pagan religious symbol placed on his government-issued gravestone.
Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, saw the grave marker dedicated Dec. 2 in a ceremony at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley. She had been engaged in a year-long battle with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs to have a symbol of the Wiccan faith placed on her late husband's headstone.
Patrick Stewart and four others were killed Sept. 25, 2005, when their helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. Stewart was one of a few hundred practitioners of Wicca in the armed forces. The neo-pagan faith incorporates elements of ancient European religions and Earth worship.
According to the Defense Department, there are around 1,800 practitioners of Wicca in the armed forces. While the department accommodates them with Wiccan chaplains, VA officials had not yet approved the Wiccan pentacle — also known as a pentagram — for use on headstones in military burial grounds. The symbol is a five-pointed star within a circle.
The VA already has approved more than 30 other symbols for use on graves. Most of them are variations on the Christian cross, but they also include the Jewish Star of David, the Islamic star-and-crescent symbol and a whirl that symbolizes atheism.
VA officials have reportedly said they were in the process of soliciting input for approving the symbol when Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington-based watchdog group, sued the VA in October to force approval of the symbol's use. But Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) short-circuited the controversy, getting the state veterans' affairs department to issue Stewart's gravestone with the pentacle. The state agency asserted jurisdiction in the dispute because it, and not the federal agency, maintains the cemetery.
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