WASHINGTON (ABP) — After a 10-year struggle, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs has approved placing a symbol of the Wicca faith on the grave markers of Wiccan soldiers buried in government cemeteries.
The decision is the result of a settlement — announced April 23 by Americans United for Separation of Church and State — between VA officials and attorneys for an array of Wiccan veterans and their relatives. It brings to an end a battle for recognition of their faith that Wiccan advocates say was prolonged due to government officials' prejudice.
The settlement ends two lawsuits over the right of Wiccan service members to be buried at VA cemeteries with Wiccan grave markers.
The VA previously had approved 38 other symbols to represent a deceased veteran's faith on his or her headstone. 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.
While the Department of Defense estimates that there are hundreds of Wiccans serving in the armed forces and 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.
Wicca is an Earth-focused religion that incorporates aspects of various pre-Christian faiths. While many conservative Christians equate it with witchcraft or Satan worship, Wiccans say their faith more closely resembles a kind of neo-paganism.
Barry Lynn, director of Americans United, called the settlement in Circle Sanctuary v. Nicholson “a proud day for religious freedom in the United States.” However, he noted that VA documents the plaintiffs' attorneys reviewed made it appear that government officials had intentionally dragged their feet on approving the symbol for fear that it would upset religious conservatives.
“Many people have asked me why the federal government was so stubborn about recognizing the Wiccan symbol,” he said. “I did not want to believe that bias toward Wiccans was the reason, but that appears to have been the case. That's discouraging, but I'm pleased we were able to put a stop to it.”
While other religious headstone symbols have received VA approval within a few months of initial requests, the Wiccan symbol languished for a decade without approval. Lynn said a comment about Wicca — made by George W. Bush when he was still campaigning for president — might have influenced the thinking of VA officials.
In a 1999 appearance on ABC's “Good Morning America” news show, then-Texas Gov. Bush responded to questions about a controversy — active at the time — over Wiccan soldiers being allowed to hold services at the Fort Hood army installation in Texas. “I don't think witchcraft is a religion,” Bush reportedly said. “I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made.”
Americans United officials said they found references to Bush's opinion on Wicca in internal VA communications on whether to approve the pentacle.
The lawsuit was spurred chiefly by the widow of an American solider killed in Afghanistan. Sgt. Patrick Stewart and four others were killed Sept 25, 2005, when their helicopter was shot down. His widow, Roberta Stewart, petitioned the VA for a Wiccan symbol on her husband's gravestone.
The department refused, and she filed a lawsuit along with several other Wiccan families and a Wisconsin Wiccan congregation, the Circle Sanctuary.
However, she saw the symbol placed on her husband's headstone in December, after Nevada state officials arranged for a new stone on Patrick Stewart's grave at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley. Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) short-circuited the controversy, getting the state veterans'-affairs department to issue Stewart's gravestone with the pentacle. The Nevada agency asserted jurisdiction in the dispute because it, and not the federal agency, maintains the cemetery.
VA officials were not available for comment by press time for this story. However, the New York Times quoted agency spokesman Matt Burns as saying the department “acted to settle in the interest of the families concerned” as well as “to spare taxpayers the expense of further litigation.”
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Read more:
Dead Afghanistan soldier's widow wins long battle over Wiccan grave symbol (12/5/2006)