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First US Military Wiccan dies in Combat.....
 international |
rights, freedoms and repression |
news report
 Thursday July 06, 2006 04:27 by stand-in temporary assistant to the arch druid of barcelona - & environs
Sgt Patrick D. Stewart died last September 25th in Afghanistan while serving the US military in Afghanistan. He was attached to the Nevada national guard and the helicopter he was travelling in was target of a rocket-propelled grenade. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze star, a distinguished veteran who had served in the US military mission to Korea and active combat in Operation Desertstorm.
Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart like any other distinguished combat veteran gets a memorial in his home town, though his body was cremated and his ashes scattered by his widow Roberta Stewart in Reno.
Last May 31st she organised a memorial of her own to protest a decision by the US "department of Veterans Affairs" who have refused to honour her husband's wishes that a pentacle be put on his stone. This constitutes a breach of the 1st amendment, as Wicca has been accepted by Federal Courts as a religion since 1995.
 Mrs Stewart July 4th in Fernley Nevada addresses a crowd of supporters. "Whatever one's opinion might be about the Wiccan faith, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution provides for religious freedom for all individuals of all faiths -- whether they are Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, Wiccans and others," wrote constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead a noted figure in Christian evangelical circles in an online essay for ChristianityToday.com on June 5.
he went on to write "... The only way that freedom can prevail for Christians is for Christians to stand up and fight for the minority beliefs and religions of others."
At present a total of 37 "faith" symbols are used for War Veteran Memorials in the USA. The majority are christian based variations of the cross, Kathurlicks like to see the bloodied body of Jesus hanging there all in pain, whereas Protestants prefer a plain cross to symbolise resurrection. Jews and Muslims of course have the Star of David and Crescent Moon respectively. Mormons and Masonic symbols have long been accepted. Since Wiccans applied 7 years ago to see the pentacle included in faith based symbols on burial or memorial markers, the US war veterans department have moved to add a Buddhist wheel, a star with nine points for Baha'i believers and even invented a symbol for atheists which looks somewhat like an atom, but the pentacle has not yet been seen.
Sgt. Patrick Stewart's widow and mother to his two children (also wiccan) is quick to point out that his faith was registed on his military ID or "dog tags" as they are informally known. She insists everyone knew he was wiccan.
Speaking to a rally in support of her petition and her dead husband's wishes on US Independence Day she said :-
"Today, we have honored his memory and the freedom of all faiths in the manner in which he would have wanted,"
"In that spirit, we call for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to end its discrimination and be held accountable for upholding the freedom of religion ... (that has) been granted to all of us as unalienable by the rights of the United States' Constitution."...."In life, Patrick was my heartmate, my best friend and my confidante," she said before ending the service with a moment of silence for all of America's fallen soldiers....."He was a compelling and passionate man, a brave person who stood tall and proud. He was strong in his convictions, and he loved his country," she said. "He loved the freedom of the great outdoors, of the mountains and the wide-open skies. He loved the freedom that was the foundation of America"
A retired US military chaplain Rev. Maj. Bill Chrystal added :-
"Let us honor them by fighting for the rights they held so dearly," Chrystal said. "In Pat's case especially, may we never tire until all are free to worship as they please and, when the time comes, to rest under the symbol of the faith that sustained them in life and gave them hope in death."
There are some who believe that the US military is shy to include the symbol because of its association amongst fundementalist christians, (many of whom enlist) with devil worship.
Wiccans thought would be quick to discount such allegations. The Rev. Selena Fox is pastor and senior minister of the "circle sanctuary" one of the USA's oldest and most established Wiccan worshipper groups, and claims that 2 other Wiccan widows also wish see their husbands' markers bear a Pentagram. If so, Sgt Stewart was the 3rd Wiccan to die, but only the first to be officially dog tagged.
Jo Schuda a spokesperson for the Veterans Assocation has argued that lack of a central hierarchy (perhaps on the lines of an annual druidic meeting near lambay volcano) has hampered the religious denomination in its dealings with the US military. However the lack of a "wiccan pope" or "chief rabbi wicca" has been overcome she insists and claims 2 requests for Pentagrams will be honoured by October.
Wicca is a peace-loving religion and preaches pacific solution to conflict, except when dealing with left hand path insurgents who resist the emergence of democracy.
bless you all.
here endeth the lesson.
passeth the plate
.:.
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Comments (13 of 13)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13"Whatever one's opinion might be about the Wiccan faith, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the First Amendment to our U.S. Constitution provides for religious freedom for all individuals of all faiths -- whether they are Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, Wiccans and others," wrote constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead a noted figure in Christian evangelical circles in an online essay for ChristianityToday.com on June 5."
It's not the wicca faith that I've got a problem with....it's any people of faith serving in an imperial military that has illegally invade and occupied a country.
Read some Starhawk and practise radical paganism, reesisthe U.S. war machine......
www.starhawk.org
Kathurlicks like to see the bloodied body of Jesus hanging there all in pain, whereas Protestants prefer a plain cross to symbolise resurrection. Jews and Muslims of course have the Star of David and Crescent Moon respectively. Mormons and Masonic symbols have long been accepted
It is irony that an article protesting religious discrimination calls Catholics 'Kathurlicks' and gives a negative description of their symbol?
Of course the VA should give the widow the symbol she desires on her husband's tomb. It is the least they could do.
Is a Wiccan something to do with Startrek ? I've never heard of one before. (methinks this is a joke of sorts.)
Here's hoping that there are many many more headstones in arlington.
here here Leon. Funny that a pasifist religion allows joining the US imperial army to go terrorise the world for capitalism........
As for religious discrimination, whats the point, its all a load of man made fairy tale rubbish anyway. We all know absolutely nothing about what happens to our conciousness when we die so why waste time worrying about it, live for now, stop killing!
I dont want to see lots of more gravestones in Arlington. I dont want to see ecoonomic conscripts and national guard/reserve conscripts dieing.
No joy in that.
It looks like a reverse (colour-wise) Israeli flag.
Old religions used symbols too. The medicine wheel
was swastika- shaped until it was debased as a symbol of Nazism and still has not be reclaimed as a universal symbol of magic.
Strange, in what was a first world hegemony of cultural suppression that there is a resurgence of faith symbols. It's nice to see, given the preponderence of their use in current cultural and religious wars of dominance. It's almost medieval.
The optimist would see the preponderance of this symbology
as a resurgence of singularity and cultural identity from beneath
mass religious repression and the abuse of old faith redeeming itself from dogmatic perversion of simple truths.
Leon, that's just bloody-minded, immature ramblings. You look forward to people dying, you take joy in killing. Accepting that death is necessary let's say to resist an occupation is one occupation is one thing....but actually relishing in the spilling of American kids' blood is another, get some help
Memorials and unknown soldiers, arches & Arlington. & the religious side of the US war machine is a fetishised as you can get. For most of its history Arlington state cemetary segregated the dead. Its a very big place, and the relatives of the afro-american dead had their own entrace to get them to the back of the graveyard. This segregation continued even upto the war dead of Battalion 555 (the first racial integrated battalion of the US army which was knocked together for WW2).
Washington is a city of memorials. There really is nothing else much there for the tourist to see. Pierre l'enfant the architect to Washington laid out the plan of avenues and angles to reflect universal truths and harmonies, and thought the city would be filled with "public amenities" (parks, libraries, museums, schools). Instead it's a death trail. The largest monument is the obelisk (which like the statue of liberty they argued over the cost of, and finished it well late - which explains the different colour of the stone about half way up). After the obelisk the largest memorial is Abe Lincoln on his chair staring across at the pool of mosquito fetid water to the walls of names - Vietnam, Korea. Arlington over the river nestling to the north of the Pentagon is a phoenix park of homogenous stones, only interrupted by the occasional presence of a Hollywood film crew complete with fake rain machines.
Strange that a war machine which has technically fought more war than any other machine since Rome, uses as its symbology the pentagram and pentacle. Its supreme decision made in the largest building on earth which is also the largest source of employment in the USA - The Pentagon. If use the pentagon as the internal "five sides" of a pentagram, Arlington, Abe, the White House, the Space Museum, Blair House (the foreign dignatories residence on embassy row) all fall in its compass.
Strange that every US soldier wears the 5 pointed star and it appears on every USAF plane,
but when one man wanted this magic on his stone - they resist.
I am also interested in how the US armed forces have recently moved to cover "just war" and "ethical murder". They have based their arguments on nit picking interpretations of the laws of Moses. The chaplain at Fort Hood argues that Moses wasn't told by his God up the mountain "Thou shallt not kill" but rather "thou shallt not murder" & then explains to the young soldiers that following orders from the USA can never be murder.
I suggest you write letters.
Surely there is an arch druid somewhere in Ireland willing to take up this campaign or argue with the errant Wiccans of the USA who support their young enlisting?
I lived in the Catholic Worker hospitality house in Washington DC for 6 months. We saw a lot of memorials & statues while doing anti-war vigils or dishing out food to the many homeless living rough.
I was told the city is designed (road-wise) to repel invasion/occupation. I think I recall being told that in terms of the statues to war heroes on horses..1) if all the feet of the horse are planted on the ground the general (or whatever) died of natural causes), if the hose has one foot raised the person depicted had been wounded in battle, if the horse has 2 feet raised the person died in battle. s this true? Do you know anything about that?
I spent time wandering around Arlington cemetery..massive & sobering. An irish anti-war Catholic priest friend of ours buried the son of his first cousin last year. The som was ne of the highest ranked U.S. casualties of the war. His description of the military funeral was pretty amazing, complete with a flyover of air force jets during the service.
On the news in Louisiana a reporter informed us that the Wiccan servicemembers were not aloud to have a wiccan symbol at their burial site. I have written my congressman yesterday in Louisiana and I hope that this will change. All American servicemembers deserve to be recognized for their sacrifice and their patriotism and their beliefs. I feel that if i went to a National Cemetery and saw all the servicemembers and their different beliefs I would feel proud that they were all of different religions fighting for America's freedom and trying to help other countries who are in distress. I am a Veteran and my husband is still serving in the military. I hope that the right to religious freedom becomes extended to the Wiccan faith as well, as that is our Constitutional Right. Good Luck to you all.
Yes we now have a symbol for our graves when we, Pagan and wiccan soldiers, die but.......... our boys and girls are still dieing. To tell the truth Im a wiccan but Im sure someone in my family will put a cross on my grave. We won in that we were recognised but we lost one of our own. This man lived and died for his country and that lady had to fight to get her husband the symbol of his faith? A settlment, which means if this had gone on, they would have refused and the courtdate would go on. The 1st Ammendmant should have said something but even if that wasnt there, How bout the fact that the man was a war hero. He faught for a country that day after day after day allows his religious beliefs to be trampled and spit on by those who dont even understand it. This guy doesnt just deserve a symbol but a friggin statue. Be that as it may, this man only requested one thing and that thing was denied until it went to court. I love my religion and I love my country. Thats why I joined. I joined to protect the right of the USA and the freedoms it stands for. This courtdate should have never been aranged. They were wrong to deny them the right to their religion. Blessed be.
If I offened anyone I apologies but this is how I feel and what I believe in.
i to am a wiccan living in the uk and i am right behind this lady why shouldnt she have on her husbands grave what he wished to have would they have done this to any other relgion i dont think so
mind you one thing you have going for you at least in the usa it is a relgion here no one knows of it and are fearfull of it too
maybe one day we will get the same states as you in the usa
brightest blessing xx
caileach beara (wiccan name)