It was an usually busy Week in God, so let’s get started. First up from the God machine is an update on a story we’ve covered a couple of times.
Army Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart was killed in Afghanistan on Sept. 25, 2005, when his CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by enemy fire. A member of Nevada’s Army National Guard, Stewart was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Stewart’s widow asked to place a Wiccan symbol, the pentacle, on his memorial plaque, but the Veterans Affairs Department said the symbol isn’t on the list of “approved” religious symbols.
Several officials came to Roberta Stewart’s aid, including Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.), the chaplain of her husband’s National Guard unit, and her husband’s battalion commander, Lt. Col. Robert Harrington, who said the nation’s soldiers are “from every walk of life and every faith. We are all accepted in our community.” As of this week, the VA is still dragging its feet.
[A]pplications from Wiccan groups and individuals to VA for use of the pentacle on grave markers have been pending for nine years, during which time the symbols of 11 other faiths have been approved.
Department spokeswoman Josephine Schuda said VA turned down Wiccans in the past because religious groups used to be required to list a headquarters or central authority, which Wicca does not have. But that requirement was eliminated last year, she noted.
“I really have no idea why it has taken so long” for the Wiccan symbol to gain approval, Schuda said.
The department declined repeated requests from The Washington Post to speak to higher-ranking officials about the issue.
In the opposite kind of church-state problem, a school district in Louisiana is in trouble again, not only for promoting Christian prayers, but for doing so in blatant violation of a court order.
The Tangipahoa Parish School Board has been held in civil contempt of court by a federal judge for violating an August 2004 agreement over school prayer.
The order, issued last week by U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan, does not specifically name any school official as being in contempt, but orders the school board to pay attorneys fees to the plaintiffs who filed the motions.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing a parent and two children who complained about prayers in Tangipahoa Parish public schools. They are unnamed in court documents.
I’ve been following the church-state controversies in Tangipahoa for years now, and I’m always amazed at just how little officials down there care about the law. Maybe this contempt of court order will get their attention, but given their track record, I kind of doubt it.
In a slightly related story, Pam Spaulding mentioned this week a story about a fundamentalist group who believes military chaplains aren’t quite enough; the group wants to force Bibles on U.S. troops. All of them.
The ministry Revival Fires International has launched an effort to distribute the Bible to every Marine, sailor, soldier, airman and Coast Guardsman serving America in combat areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to Revival Fires’ spokesman Tim Todd, U.S. military personnel who are deployed and serving their country, in harm’s way daily, are open to the gospel and desperately need God’s Word. However, he notes, the U.S. government no longer provides God’s Word for America’s troops.
“Because of the foolish ‘separation of church and state’ battle going on in this country, our military stopped this years ago,” Todd observes. “Now our chaplains have to depend on Christian organizations … to provide these Bibles for our servicemen and women.”
Maybe it’s just me, but the irony seems rich. U.S. troops are in the Middle East, dominated by countries that refuse to separate religion and government, facing enemies that frequently want a theocracy, and they’re being pressured by a domestic religious group who believes the separation of church and state is “foolish.” The Revival Fires International ministry, in other words, wants to follow in the footsteps of our enemies … only from a different religious perspective.
There are some things I’ll just never understand.
