Today is Veterans Day in America, a day when military veterans are honored for their service to our country. In addition to acknowledging the sacrifices and service given by our own co-religionists in years past, and the battles to see them properly honored, it is also an excellent time to look to the Pagan soldiers currently serving at home and overseas. On this Veterans Day Circle Sanctuary is kicking off its annual Operation Circle Care project to send Pagan-themed care packages to Pagan soldiers serving in war zones. This year, due to the horrible tragedy at Fort Hood, they are including the over 150 Pagan and Wiccan soldiers and their families living and serving there as well.

“Operation Circle Care is currently gearing up to collect and send gift packages for Yule for Pagan troops for the third year in a row. This year, we will be including in our program gifts for over 150 Pagan and Wiccan soldiers and their families at Fort Hood, Texas in addition to deployed soldiers serving in warzones.”

You can find a list of needed items, contact information, and how to submit the name of a Pagan soldier serving oversees at the Operation Circle Care web site. They welcome “gently used” Pagan books, so this is a great way to do a good deed and clean out your bookshelves for those new acquisitions. So as you honor those who served this year, take the time to also think ahead to those currently serving, and how we can let them know that our communities care about them.

If one fact refutes the idea that modern Paganism in America is merely some sort of 1960s holdover full of pacifists, rebellious teens, and aging baby-boomers (though we have plenty of all three) it is that so many of our number have been, and are, active members of our military services. There are active military (and military family) Pagan groups from Aberdeen, Washington to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. There has been a Military Pagan Network since 1992, and they are joined by Circle Sanctuary’s robust military ministries, and a nascent Pagan Veterans group. So today, Memorial Day, isn’t just a day for those Christian soldiers who marched off to war, but for their Pagan brothers and sisters-in-arms who marched with them. It is a day to not only honor our coreligionists who fell in the line of duty, but to continue to work towards seeing that they are properly respected and honored in death, and given the support they need in life.

We here at The Wild Hunt honor those who gave their lives, and salute those who have served and are serving. May your gods and goddesses watch over and protect you. I leave you now with some thoughts from other Pagans on this day.

“The right for Pagans soldiers and veterans to have the pentacle inscribed on their headstones and memorials was one fought for very hard by Pagan communities throughout the country over the course of several years. Instigated by Veterans’ Affairs refusal to grant the late Sgt. Patrick Stewart a pentacle on his grave marker after he was shot down in Afghanistan, his widow, Roberta Stewart, and Circle Sanctuary’s Lady Liberty League spearheaded an anti-discrimination action against the VA. Pagan communities nationwide joined the fight, and this issue was the formative one that brought together the Upper Midwest Pagan Alliance (UMPA) here in the Twin Cities. UMPA organized a a protest action in in February 2007 in a freezing cold blizzard on the St. Paul Capitol steps at the same time other communities held marches and rallies in support  …  It has been a bittersweet victory; celebrating a hard-won right also brings with it the acknowledgment of the growing number of Pagan military folks and the sacrifices that they are making in order for this and other rights to be upheld. UMPA is continuing to send care packages of religious reading and supplies as well as maintaining correspondences with Pagan soldiers who are still fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.” – Murphy Pizza, Minneapolis Pagan Examiner

“I will be going to the Lafayette war memorial on Monday, because people are still killed in war. We will place a pentacle for Sgt. Jason Schumann, enlisted at 17 and dead at 23, father and husband. We shall also recall Sgt. Joseph Ford, a Pagan member of Nova Roma who died in Iraq last May. Memorial Day, for me, is also a day to remember the 100,000 estimated civilians killed in Iraq since 2003, the more than 2,000 dead in Afghanistan just last year, the close to 5,000 US soldiers dead in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 30,000 wounded, and countless others with psychological and emotional distress.” – T. Thorn Coyle, Peacock Dreams

“In September of last year I posted about the Order of the Pentacle, of which I am a very proud member. This Memorial Day I will have the Honor and Privilege of representing the Order in a ritual in remembrance of our fallen soldiers. This Memorial Day, Monday May 25th the Pagan Alliance and the Order of the Pentacle will assemble at the War Memorial near the Lafayette BART station we will remember our Pagan Brothers and Sisters who who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. We will dedicate a new Pentacle for Sergeant Jason A. Schumann of Hawley, Minnesota. Sgt. Schumann was killed by an Improvised Explosive Devise in Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq. I myself have survived several trips through Diwaniyah, and will proudly carry his Pentacle.” – Joseph Merlin Nichter, WitchDoctorJoe’s RattleBone

“My monument to the cost of the recent wars will be adorned with flowers and a paper red poppy tomorrow.  And today, I will walk through the beauty of early summer in the Nor’west, thinking of eyes that cannot see it and holding each image in trust for them.  Oh, that we would be wiser and more careful of lives that stand in harm’s way at the order of others!” – Labrys, Walk of the Fallen

Blessings to you this Memorial Day.

This past year has been one of blessings and setbacks for Pagans serving in the military. After years of struggle the government relented under legal pressure and made the Wiccan Pentacle an approved emblem of faith. This allowed Pagan veterans to have the symbol inscribed on their grave markers or tomb stones.

But this victory can seem isolated in a military culture that can often have deep prejudices and hostility towards religious outsiders. This has led to incidents of religiously motivated discrimination and even threats of violence.

“Master Sgt. Kathleen Johnson, 40, a career soldier from north Florida who enlisted in 1985, said many soldiers do worry about invisible things and pressure others to do the same … Johnson said she has been threatened with failing a mandatory course if she didn’t bow her head during prayer. One military chaplain bragged to her about how he had stalled some Wiccan soldiers when they asked for a place to gather until they finally just gave up.”

While we won a victory with the Veteran Pentacle Campaign, we also lost in our best attempt so far to have a Pagan chaplain approved. The candidate, who was ideal by military standards, was forced out thanks to the leaking of personal information and the judicious use of military “catch-22s”.

“When Larsen came along last spring, Sacred Well’s leaders thought they finally had someone the military could not possibly reject: a physically fit 6-foot-4 clergyman originally ordained as a Southern Baptist minister, who holds a master’s degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Moreover, Larsen had spent 10 years as an officer in the National Guard, finished near the top of his class in chaplain’s training and was already serving as a chaplain in Iraq. But Oringderff said that his group, like Larsen, underestimated the institutional resistance. “Each time we advance to a scoring position, they change the rules,” he said.”

As we seek to fully honor Pagan co-religionists who have served in our country’s military, we continue to face an uphill struggle. The military bureaucracy can be hostile to our decentralized notions of religion, and some Christian organizations are trying to establish a permanent place of power and influence within the theoretically secular military.

The good news is that modern Pagans, emboldened by the success with the Pentacle issue, are forming larger coalitions to work towards fully equal acknowledgment and treatment within the military. The coming struggles won’t necessarily be easy, but if modern Pagans choose to be involved in our military forces then they should be honored equally and given the same benefits, options, and treatment as any Christian soldier. So honor the Pagans who served our country this Veterans Day, and know that their struggles for acceptance and equal treatment are not only for them, but for all Pagans who believe that our government shouldn’t play favorites when it comes to faith.

Since the US Department of Veterans Affairs relented on allowing the Pentacle symbol to be engraved on the graves of Pagan veterans, some Pagan organizations have gotten together to work towards getting two more symbols approved: the Thor’s Hammer (for Asatru), and the Awen (for Druidry). But will these attempts be any easier than before? A Harvard Crimson editorial analyzes the new post-settlement V.A. regulations and finds they still place an undue burden on believers.

“Although the VA has rectified this specific mistake, it is no closer to a more expansive definition of religious legitimacy. In January 2007, the VA proposed a new set of criteria to determine when it ought to recognize a new emblem of belief. The new criteria seeks to ensure that “there is an immediate need” for a new emblem, and that the belief system is a “genuine and non-frivolous group of religious opinions, doctrines and/or principles believed or accepted as true by a group of persons.” The VA has also established a new bureaucratic procedure for applying for new emblems of belief. Although the proposed definition wisely uses the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) definition of a religious institution as one of its many criteria, the new overall process is seriously flawed.”

The new restrictive criteria includes prohibiting active soldiers or veterans from petitioning on their own behalf, Constitutionally dodgey requests for “information about the structure” of the soldier’s religious organization (something the IRS doesn’t require), and prohibitions against “social, cultural, and ethnic” emblems (a fine line for any indigenous faith group). Joshua R. Stein’s editorial calls for a complete overhaul on the approval for emblems of belief.

“While it is laudable that the VA has accepted the Wiccan Pentacle and begun to examine their highly entrenched, anachronistic system, this single action is not enough. The system of emblems of belief – which places an undue, indeed unfair, emphasis on one’s religious identity – needs to be reevaluated entirely so that soldiers can be remembered in a way most appropriate to them.”

While I hope I’m wrong, I fear that needed reevaluation will only come in the wake of further lawsuits, very likely from a modern Pagan faith.

While I’m pleased that victory has finally been accomplished in the Veteran Pentacle Quest, I was somewhat disappointed that the issue didn’t go to court. Why? Because now we’ll never have direct proof of anti-Wiccan/Pagan bias by VA officials. Before a trial begins a process of “discovery” happens in which both parties hand over (or are forced to hand over) documents and materials relevant to the case. Before the discovery process happened in this case the VA tried a stalling tactic.

“The VA argued in a motion filed Jan. 19 with the U.S. District Court in Madison that the lawsuit should be put on hold until after the department finalized its new rules related to accepting new grave marker symbols. That process could take up to 12 months but the VA would make a decision on the Wiccan request within a month after the process ended, the government’s motion said. The Wiccans’ attorney objected, arguing that nothing commits the VA to finalize its rules within that time frame, or take up the Wiccan request at all.”

Luckily the judge sided with the plaintiffs and a trial date was set for June 29th 2007. The discovery phase moved forward. It was during this point that Americans United allegedly came across some damning evidence.

“Lawyers familiar with the case said that some documents suggested the VA had political motives for rejecting the pentacle … During his first campaign for president, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ in 1999 that he was opposed to Wiccan soldiers practicing their faith at Fort Hood, Tex. ‘I don’t think witchcraft is a religion, and I wish the military would take another look at this and decide against it,’ he said. Lynn, of Americans United, said references to Bush’s remarks appeared in memos and e-mails within the VA. ‘One of the saddest things is to learn that this wasn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare, there was a certain amount of bigotry,’ he said. ‘The president’s wishes were interpreted at a pretty high level. . . . It became a political judgment, not a constitutional judgment.’”

Pagan academic Chas Clifton echoes these claims at this blog.

“From what I heard last November from the spouse of one of the lawyers involved, Americans United pretty well had the VA nailed for violating their own regulations and were counting on the potential embarrassment of a court trial to scare the VA into doing the right thing. It looks like that legal strategy worked.”

But we will never get hard proof thanks to the terms of the settlement.

“The settlement stipulates, however, that the plaintiffs must not keep or disclose any documents handed over by the government during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.”

Now the VA can claim the moral high ground by stating they settled “in the interest of the families involved”, and to save the taxpayer’s money. But if it was in the interest of “families involved” it certainly is a sea-change from the past nine years of struggles against the stonewalling tactics of the government agency. There is an illusion that our military is purely “secular”, and while that may be true to a point, it doesn’t acknowledge the very real persecutions and setbacks imposed upon openly Pagan soldiers by an overwhelmingly Christian (and conservative) chaplaincy and command structure.

So in my mind this victory is a bit bittersweet. I wish we could have gone farther in this case and gotten documents and testimony into the public records. I certainly don’t blame AU, Circle Sanctuary, and the other plaintiffs for taking the settlement, it was the promise of a sure victory in a very long struggle. But I fear that government agencies will continue to use Bush’s anti-Pagan comments as unwritten policy, an excuse to disenfranchise minority religions. As for the VA, one wonders what will happen when Asatru organizations start applying for a gravestone symbol.

Getting an advanced college degree must be good for something, just look at how Mary Zeiss Stange, professor of women’s studies and religion at Skidmore College, and a contributer to USA Today managed to tie the Christmas Wars and two Pagan-related stories into one editorial! It seems to be yet another rote editorial on the “controversy” over stores saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” until it becomes all about Paganism.

“Gone are the days when folks who worried about rampant materialism cautioned that it was time to “put Christ back into Christmas.” Now it’s time to put Christ back into Kmart. And so, as Wal-Mart spokeswoman Marisa Bluestone has bravely proclaimed, “This year, we’re not afraid to say ‘Merry Christmas.’”…Of course, if you are a Jew celebrating Hanukkah, or a Muslim marking Eid al-Fitr, or a neo-pagan Wiccan for whom the Winter Solstice (Dec. 21) is a major observance, you probably had appreciated the more inclusive acknowledgment that the end of the year is a festive time for you, too. Indeed, particularly if you are Wiccan, the matter of being un-included this holiday season must especially sting. A group of Wiccan families is suing the Department of Veterans Affairs for the right to bury their fallen heroes in military cemeteries in graves marked with a pentacle, the five-pointed star that symbolizes their religion, much as a cross does Christianity or a Star of David, Judaism.”

Did you see that? She managed to dis crass consumerism tainting the Christian holiday, remind people that non-Christians really do live and work in America, and then point out how modern Pagans are getting metaphorical coal in their stockings courtesy of the Veteran’s Administration. Strange tops off this editorial concoction with the “cherry” of ancient pagan elements still present in modern Christmas celebrations.

“For Christmas is, in its origins and its symbolism, perhaps the most pagan-inspired of all Christian holidays. Its dating derives from the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, which was determined by the winter solstice, that astronomical point in the year after which the periods of sunlight on Earth lengthen…These pagan-derived symbols and customs are precisely the elements of Christmas that Christian activists are pressing to preserve and promote, in venues such as Target and Macy’s.”

How to close such a editorial? Why with the hope for peace (and justice) on earth and goodwill towards mankind (and womankind) of course.

“…nothing could be more in keeping with the “Christmas spirit” than to embrace and celebrate religious diversity. And nothing could be truer to the spirit of the First Amendment than to honor American war dead as they and their loved ones would wish. No single group of self-proclaimed Christians holds a premium on the meaning of this magical season. And no government agency should decide what “qualifies” as an appropriate religious symbol. And so, no offense intended, but season’s greetings.”

That is how you write an editorial on subject(s) that have been covered to death and keep it fresh. Pagan editorialists take note. Oh, and season’s greetings.