14 November 2006

"We are sorry madam but your husband died for an unrecognised faith. You may wish to bury him elsewhere."

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech..."
This seems like it ought to be an open and shut case to me but then GW has had six years to pack the federal benches with his kind of judge.

The widows of two American soldiers are suing the Veterans Department to force them to lift their ban on the pentacle, A Wiccan symbol, in Veterans cemeteries and memorials. While the department recognises crosses, stars of David as well as the symbols of many other minor religions such as Sufism Reoriented, Eckankar and Seicho-No-Ie it draws the line at Wiccanism, which many equate with devil worship. Even if it is devil worship the first amendment to the constitution would appear to be unequivocal to me.

The VA's current list of religious symbols that American soldiers are allowed to die for may be found here. They even recognise humanists!


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