{"id":860,"date":"2007-04-23T23:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T23:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2007-04-23T23:43:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-23T23:43:00","slug":"va-approves-the-wiccan-pentagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=860","title":{"rendered":"VA Approves the Wiccan Pentagram"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first message (from a Pagan staffer at the American Academy of Religion) hit my inbox at 12:28 today, and then the Colorado Pagan email lists lit up: The Veterans Adminstration approved the pentagram for veterans’ grave markers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

(Pentagram, pentacle, same thing as far as the news media are concerned. Personally, to me the “pentacle” is a disk with a pentagram engraved or drawn on it, but I won’t quibble.)<\/p>\n

Credit for the heavy legal lifting goes to Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who report the news here<\/a>. Credit also to Circle Sanctuary<\/a> for serving as the plaintiff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The litigation charged that denying a pentacle to deceased Wiccan service personnel, while granting religious symbols to those of other traditions, violated the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis settlement has forced the Bush Administration into acknowledging that there are no second class religions in America, including among our nation\u2019s veterans,\u201d said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. \u201cIt is a proud day for religious freedom in the United States.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

From what I heard last November from the spouse of one of the lawyers involved, Americans United pretty well had the VA nailed for violating their own regulations and were counting on the potential embarrassment of a court trial to scare the VA into doing the right thing. It looks like that legal strategy worked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first message (from a Pagan staffer at the American Academy of Religion) hit my inbox at 12:28 today, and then the Colorado Pagan email lists lit up: The Veterans Adminstration approved the pentagram for veterans’ grave markers. (Pentagram, pentacle, same thing as far as the news media are concerned. Personally, to me the “pentacle” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10,5,6],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-american-religion","tag-paganism","tag-wicca"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-dS","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":719,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=719","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":0},"title":"Wiccan soldier’s plaque to show pentagram","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The memorial plaque for Sgt. Patrick Stewart, who died in Afghanistan, will display a Wiccan pentagram.[Nevada] state officials said they had received a legal opinion from the Nevada attorney general's office that concluded federal officials have no authority over state veterans' cemeteries. They now plan to have a contractor construct\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":626,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=626","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":1},"title":"No marker for Wiccan veteranA\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"No marker for Wiccan veteranA Wiccan sergeant from the Nevada National Guard was killed in action in Afghanistan. Now his widow runs up against the Veterans Administration's refusal to permit a pentacle marker on the graves of Wiccan veterans, notes the Las Vegas Review-Journal (Link may expire, so I will\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=724","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":2},"title":"Americans United threatens suit over veteran’s pentacle","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Americans United for Separation of Church and State is now threatening a lawsuit against the Veterans Administration for its foot-dragging over a Wiccan soldier's memorial plaque.Previous post here. Right: artist's rendition of what Sgt. Stewart's plaque should look like.From the news release: Americans United for Separation of Church and State\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":765,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=765","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":3},"title":"CNN polls on pentacle veterans’ markers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This won't last, but CNN is polling viewers on whether the Veterans Administration should do the right thing and create a Wiccan grave\/memorial marker.So far the Yes votes are far ahead. I suspect that that is because Americans mostly think that (a) religion is a personal matter and (b) anyone\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5365,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5365","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":4},"title":"Pentagram Pizza: An ‘Apocalypse’ for Witches","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 From Scarlet Imprint, Peter Grey's Apocalyptic Witchcraft. In its review The Daily Grail said, Grey sets out to explicate a perspective on the familiar symbols and stories of witchcraft in the West which has little truck with the formalities of scholarship, the sensibilities of the Wiccan paths or the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"pentagrampizza","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/pentagrampizza.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":875,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=875","url_meta":{"origin":860,"position":5},"title":"If I Had a Hammer . . .","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that the Veterans Administration has granted the Wiccan pentacle as a grave marker, the quest for Thor's hammer begins.Pesky polytheists!","rel":"","context":"In \"polytheism\"","block_context":{"text":"polytheism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=polytheism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}