Support grows for Wicca marker on soldier's grave

June 19, 2006

By NATE HERPICH
c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The space where the memorial marker of Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, a decorated American soldier who was killed last year in Afghanistan, should stand is empty because his Wiccan faith is not one of 30 approved for such designation by the federal government.

Stewart, a 34-year-old native of Fernley, Nev., was killed Sept. 25 by a rocket-propelled grenade. His body was cremated and he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

His widow, Roberta, held her own Memorial Day service this past May 31 to protest the government's policy. She has refused a temporary marker at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery until she gets a permanent recognition of her late husband's faith.

"I feel like my country has let me down," she said in a telephone interview. "I have two children who have no way to remember their father."

Now, several secular and religious organizations -- including Americans United for Separation of Church and State -- and a well-known constitutional scholar say Stewart's widow should be allowed to have the Wiccan pentacle placed on his marker.

In a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson and Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs William Tuerk, Americans United said Wiccans have been trying to get the pentacle, a five-pointed star in a circle, on the list of approved religious symbols to no avail. The group says this is a direct violation of the First Amendment and has asked the VA to respond within 30 days to avoid litigation.

"A brave man died in service to his country," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "The federal government has a duty to allow his widow to honor his chosen faith."

Stewart says her husband was always an accepted member of the military community, and said Wicca has been recognized by the armed forces; the Pentacle star was on her husband's dog tags.

In an opinion piece for the online version of Christianity Today, a respected voice for American evangelicals, constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead also has come out in favor of the Wiccan cause.

"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," Whitehead wrote in an online essay for ChristianityToday.com on June 5.

"... 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."

Currently, memorial markers can include a host of religious imagery, including several types of crosses, a Buddhist wheel of righteousness, a nine-pointed Baha'i star, the Mormon angel Moroni, the flaming chalice for Unitarians or the Islamic star and crescent.

The Rev. Selena Fox, the senior minister of the Circle Sanctuary, one of the oldest denominations of the Wicca faith in the United States, said Wiccan churches have submitted similar requests trying to get the pentacle approved for memorials by the VA since 1997.

Fox said two other Wicca widows have worked on the issue, including a Utah woman whose husband died during the Korean War, and another from Ohio who lost her husband in Vietnam.

Wicca is a nature-based religion that believes in supernatural powers -- often known as magic -- and in both male and female deities, with a special emphasis on seasonal observances.

The Wiccan pentacle represents the four earthly elements of earth, wind, fire and water, and the fifth element of "spirit."

Jo Schuda, a VA spokeswoman, said the Wiccan symbol was not traditionally accepted because the faith lacked a central headquarters or hierarchy. Those rules were relaxed in October, and Schuda said there are currently two applications under consideration.