BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Wicca Serviceman's grave blank because he is Wiccan

Lynn,

The thing that gives the knife in the back a little twist is our government is fine with you having your grave marked as agnostic or atheist. So if you believe that it's impossible to prove that Gods exists or you openly don't believe in a God, they are cool with you marking your gravestone as such.

But 80 approved religious and affiliative symbols later and they won't allow this one.....

and some of the approved ones are for very obscure religions too.

I've just gotten word via the Pagan grapevine that a rally is being planned for July 4th in Wash,D.C., over the issue of Wiccan/Pagan/Druid servicemen being denied the right to have a symbol of their faith on their headstones in military cemetaries.

I don't have more info than that right now but I wanted to let folks know so they could check their own info channels, esp if you are in the D.C. vicinity. I'll post back again if I find out more.

The latest development in the fight to get the pentacle inscribed on this soldier's grave.

A definite victory I think!

This still somewhat circumvents the problem, but at least the state stepped in... The Federal Gov't (VA) will just have to be dealt with again at a later date...

I'd call it a step in the right direction, but having just completed an article on this topic (which will now need a tad of updating), I think there's still some ways to go before declaring a victory.

It turns out, this battle has been going on longer than the year since Sgt. Stewart's death. Essentially, the government has approved about 6 new emblems for soldier's headstones, most within a few months, and they have been giving Pagans and Wiccans the blow-off for many years now.

there is definitely a long way to go! this is just the state of Nevada not the national VA