Veterans Affairs agrees to allow Wiccan symbol as grave markers

WASHINGTON — After a 10-year struggle, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs has approved placing a symbol of the Wicca faith on the grave markers of Wiccan soldiers buried in government cemeteries.

The decision is the result of a settlement — announced April 23 between VA officials and attorneys for an array of Wiccan veterans and their relatives.

While the Department of Defense estimates that there are hundreds of Wiccans serving in the armed forces and accommodates them with Wiccan chaplains, VA officials had not yet approved the Wiccan pentacle, also known as a pentagram, for use on headstones in military burial grounds. The symbol is a five-pointed star within a circle.

Wicca is an Earth-focused religion that incorporates aspects of various pre-Christian faiths. While many conservative Christians equate it with witchcraft or Satan worship, Wiccans say their faith more closely resembles a kind of neo-paganism.

Barry Lynn, director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, called the settlement in Circle Sanctuary v. Nicholson “a proud day for religious freedom in the United States.” However, he noted that VA documents the plaintiffs’ attorneys reviewed made it appear that government officials had intentionally dragged their feet on approving the symbol for fear that it would upset religious conservatives.

While other religious headstone symbols have received VA approval within a few months of initial requests, the Wiccan symbol languished for a decade without approval. Lynn said a comment about Wicca — made by George W. Bush when he was still campaigning for president — might have influenced the thinking of VA officials.

In a 1999 appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” news show, then-Texas Gov. Bush responded to questions about a controversy — active at the time — over Wiccan soldiers being allowed to hold services at the Fort Hood army installation in Texas. “I don’t think witchcraft is a religion,” Bush reportedly said. “I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made.”

Americans United officials said they found references to Bush’s opinion on Wicca in internal VA communications on whether to approve the pentacle.

The lawsuit was spurred chiefly by the widow of an American soldier killed in Afghanistan. Roberta Stewart, the widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, petitioned the VA for a Wiccan symbol on her husband’s gravestone. The department refused, and she filed a lawsuit along with several other Wiccan families and a Wisconsin Wiccan congregation, the Circle Sanctuary.

However, she saw the symbol placed on her husband’s headstone in December, after Nevada state officials arranged for a new stone on Patrick Stewart’s grave at the Northern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Fernley. The Nevada agency asserted jurisdiction in the dispute because it, and not the federal agency, maintains the cemetery.

— ABP