Roberta and Patrick Stewart’s First Freedom
On March 26th, First Freedom First, a joint project of The Interfaith Alliance Foundation and Americans United, held a historic national live simulcast to talk about church-state separation.
“In movie theaters in 25 cities across the nation, interested citizens will gather to learn about the threats to church-state separation and to demand that presidential hopefuls and candidates for other offices answer questions about key issues dealing with individual freedom. A list of 10 great questions to ask candidates will be featured.”
Along with appearances by the famous and semi-famous (Kevin Bacon, Jack Klugman, Marc Maron), the special also highlighted individuals who embody the struggle over church-state issues. One of these was Roberta Stewart, a Pagan woman who fought for (and won) the addition of the Wiccan Pentacle as an approved “emblem of belief” (for grave markers and headstones) by the Veterans’ Administration. A battle she engaged in after her husband, Patrick Stewart, a Wiccan, was killed in Afghanistan.
Roberta Stewart with host Peter Coyote
You can now watch First Freedom First’s simulcast event “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Separation of Church and State – but Were Afraid to Ask!” online. For those wanting to skip to Roberta Stewart’s section, the segment begins at 41:00 minutes into the program. The organization has also posted a petition for elected officials, calling on them to affirm and safeguard the separation of church and state. Good on the FFF for highlighting this proud moment for the modern Pagan movement, Roberta and Patrick Stewart, and church-state separation.
2 responses so far
Surely I’m not the only person who read the post title and thought, Wow, Star Trek, on this blog?
Been a long day.
Ha!
Then again, you never know! I have blogged about Battlestar Galactica here (polytheism vs monotheism angle), so anything is possible.
PS – Personally, I’m a Kirk man. That Prime Directive was made to be broken!