So today I see this story that the Department of Veteran's Affairs has so far
not approved a Wiccan symbol on a dead soldier's gravestone because the symbol is not on the VA's so euphemistically named, approved list of "
Emblems of Belief."
The Rev. Selena Fox, senior minister of the Wiccan Circle Sanctuary in Barneveld, Wis., is among those who have been pushing the federal government to adopt the emblem. She said the Veterans Affairs Department has been considering such requests for nearly nine years with no decision.
Officials for the National Cemetery Administration in Washington, D.C., did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.
Veterans Affairs Department spokeswoman Jo Schuda told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last month that the application was being processed but there was no new information on whether it will be approved.
Memorial Day is Monday, so this is especially poignant while America is honoring the sacrifices of our brave men and women. No one should be denied recognition of their faith, especially those who give everything for us. And to those who claim "there is no separation of church and state in the Constitution," I leave you with the wise words of Mr. Thomas Jefferson:
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.