A Fallen Hero Finally Gets His Just Due & Civil Rights

Use of Wiccan Symbol on Veterans’ Headstones Is Approved

Back in July of 2006 I became aware of a civil liberties battle that involved a veteran killed while serving on active duty in Afghanistan as a member of the Nevada National Guard and the refusal of the federal government, by way of the Veterans' Administration, to allow a Wiccan religious symbol to be placed on his headstone and on a memorial plaque honoring our fallen heroes. In that post, An Unconstitutional Refusal To Honor A Fallen Hero, I noted that while on active duty myself, and being a practicing Buddhist at the time, I was not allowed to express my religious preference on official Navy documents while in Boot Camp.

As a veteran, and a civil liberties advocate, I was appalled by the continued preference afforded to only certain religious groups (the VA had previously allowed 38 religious symbols, many of which are different Christian symbols). Up until the 1980s, this list of "approved symbols" did not include a lot of religious traditions outside of the Abrahamic traditions and a few other major religions of the world. Somewhere along the chronology the list was expanded to include 38 symbols. However, alternative symbols have been stringently resisted while conservative administrations have held the reins of the executive branch. The fight to include a symbol for the Wiccan tradition took over 10 years. While I am pleased that this fight has finally allowed one of our fallen heroes to receive the recognition of his service and fulfillment of his rights, I am disgusted that it took over ten years to allow religious preferences to be acknowledged and allowed.

I am further appalled at some of the conditions set out as part of this settlement, including provisions that copies of e-mails, transcripts and memos, some of which come from George W. Bush when he was governor in Texas. Another particular of the case was that no reference to President Bush's involvement in the case can be asserted. While the civil liberties advocates that brought the suit never made such a claim, it is clear that President Bush (and possibly his administration and cabinet officers) holds unrestrained prejudice and has sought discriminatory practices against Wiccan practitioners in the past. I am not sure I could prove Bush's employed his bias and discrimination to influence these matters in a court of law, but it is not a far reach for a reasonable person to conclude that there was some sort of pressure to employ Bush's views on the subject.

To settle a lawsuit, the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.

The settlement, which was reached on Friday, was announced on Monday by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, which represented the plaintiffs in the case.

Though it has many forms, Wicca is a type of pre-Christian belief that reveres nature and its cycles. Its symbol is the pentacle, a five-pointed star, inside a circle.

Until now, the Veterans Affairs department had approved 38 symbols to indicate the faith of deceased service members on memorials. It normally takes a few months for a petition by a faith group to win the department’s approval, but the effort on behalf of the Wiccan symbol took about 10 years and a lawsuit, said Richard B. Katskee, assistant legal director for Americans United.

The group attributed the delay to religious discrimination. Many Americans do not consider Wicca a religion, or hold the mistaken belief that Wiccans are devil worshipers.

“The Wiccan families we represented were in no way asking for special treatment,” the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said at a news conference Monday. “They wanted precisely the same treatment that dozens of other religions already had received from the department, an acknowledgment that their spiritual beliefs were on par with those of everyone else.”

A Veterans Affairs spokesman, Matt Burns, confirmed that the “V.A. will be adding the pentacle to its list of approved emblems of belief that will be engraved on government-provided markers.”

“The government acted to settle in the interest of the families concerned,” Mr. Burns added, “and to spare taxpayers the expense of further litigation.”

There are 1,800 Wiccans in the armed forces, according to a Pentagon survey cited in the suit, and Wiccans have their faith mentioned in official handbooks for military chaplains and noted on their dog tags.

At least 11 families will be immediately affected by the V.A.’s decision, said the Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of Circle Sanctuary, a Wiccan church in Wisconsin.

In reviewing 30,000 pages of documents from Veterans Affairs, Americans United said, it found e-mail and memorandums referring to negative comments President Bush made about Wicca in an interview with “Good Morning America” in 1999, when he was governor of Texas. The interview had to do with a controversy at the time about Wiccan soldiers’ being allowed to worship at Fort Hood, Tex.

“I don’t think witchcraft is a religion,” Mr. Bush said at the time, according to a transcript. “I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made.”

Americans United did not assert that the White House influenced the Veterans Affairs Department. Under the settlement, Americans United had to return the documents and could not copy them, though it could make limited comments about their contents, Mr. Katskee said.