Onward Pagan Soldiers

On September 25th 2005, Army National Guardsman Sgt. Patrick Stewart, a member of the 113th Aviation Regiment from Stead, Nevada, died when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter crashed after being damaged by surface to air fire near Deh Chopan, Afghanistan. Sgt. Stewart, a mechanic from Fernley, Nevada, was a decorated eleven-year veteran of the National Guard, having served in Korea and during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.

Sgt. Stewart was also one of a growing number of Wiccans serving in the armed forces.

While the military has taken steps to recognize and accommodate pagan beliefs within its ranks, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been downright hostile. Since the mid-1990s, the National Cemetery Administration branch of the VA has routinely denied requests from families of eligible veterans to have a symbol of their faith–the pentacle–placed on a headstone or marker, citing a list of 38 “approved emblems of belief.” Most of the symbols on the list are of various Christian sects though some middle and far eastern based religions are represented. Even the flaming martini from my own UUA made the cut.

I submit that the sole reason for the VA’s denying recognition to pagan veterans is simply that of Christian bias. Without going into a rant on their inherent bigotry against homosexuals, women, earth-based religions, Hollywood, humanists, scientists, academia, the Teletubbies, or any other group or organization suspected of the crime of independent thought, our own American Taliban grit their teeth in righteous indignation at the thought of a pentacle appearing on the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s something the Christian right will ultimately have to get used to, however. The ACLU filed suit in separate cases in September, stating, “The government has no business picking and choosing which personal religious beliefs may be expressed. All veterans, regardless of their religion, deserve to have their faith recognized on an equal basis.”

Sgt. Stewart, a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom – including that of religion – will ultimately be accorded the honor due him despite the hypocrisy of the nation that sent him to war.