INTENT

Join us to celebrate a major victory for Pagan Religious Rights, now that we have secured the Veterans’ Pentacle! Help us voice a further agenda for Pagan Religious Rights: We want a Pagan chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces. And we need to keep the focus on the Department of Veterans Affairs to accept Thor’s Hammer, religious emblem of the Asatruar, and the Druids’ Awen symbol.

We waited for ten years for the Department of Veterans Affairs to add the Wiccan Pentacle, a five-pointed star within a circle, to the roster of symbols approved for use on veterans’ memorial markers, gravestones and plaques. During that ten years, several other religions’ emblems of belief were added to the approved list in a matter of weeks or months, while the requests to include the Pentacle continued to languish.

It took endless advocacy by diverse Pagan groups, considerable national and local media coverage in support of the Veterans’ Pentacle, and finally, litigation by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union, before our soldiers received the right to express their religious faith from the VA.

In the federal lawsuit that settled the quest for the Veterans’ Pentacle, Circle Sanctuary vs. Nicholson, attorneys for Americans United for Separation of Church and State found evidence that the VA stonewalled the Pentacle approval process for political reasons. Americans United attorneys worked with Department of Justice attorneys representing the VA to settle the case out of court, and add the Pentacle to the VA approved list of religious emblems without further delay.

A department of the federal government used its authority to suppress free expression of a minority religion for political reasons. This is in opposition to the ideals of religious freedom Americans hold dear.

While we have won the quest for the Veterans’ Pentacle, the Pentacle is a single victory in the longer campaign for universal religious freedom. We need to hold a clear intent: we want to further the free expression of all religions, Pagan and otherwise. And we need to send that message now, while America still remembers that a department of the federal government systematically denied Wiccan soldiers their full rights.

It is our task to educate the Department of Veterans Affairs so that they can understand that we have different denominations within the family of Pagan religions. Now that the Pentacle has been approved, we are working to establish Thor’s Hammer and the Druids’ Awen symbol as emblems of faith for use on veterans’ memorial stones and plaques. Thor’s Hammer is the symbol used by the Asatruar, the Germanic and Scandinavian Pagans. The Druids’ Awen is an important emblem of faith among Druids. Both symbols are currently before the Department of Veterans Affairs for approval.

And our Pagan soldiers, whatever their denomination, need a Pagan chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces. We are simply asking for parity with other religions in the matter of a chaplain. There are many chaplains from other minority religions in the U.S. Armed Forces. It is time for the door to be opened to a Pagan chaplain.

So please join us on the Glorious Fourth of July in front of the White House, and add your voice to the chorus: We will not accept another ten years of stonewalling and denial. We want full Pagan religious rights. And we want our rights immediately.

This rally and ritual is organized and sponsored by Caroline Kenner and Chesapeake Pagan Community.
For more information, email: caroline@paganreligiousrights.org