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Article Specs
Article ID: 11205
VoxAcct: 231197
Section: military
Age Group: Adult
Days Up: 1,147
Times Read: 6,582
RSS Views: 48,544
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Wiccan Military Headstone Suit Filed in Federal Courts
Author: Pete Pathfinder Davis [a WitchVox Sponsor]
Posted: October 1st. 2006
Times Viewed: 6,582
Rev. Pierre “Pete” Davis, Archpriest of The Aquarian Tabernacle Church of Index, Washington announced that the American Civil Liberties Union today filed suit in Washington, D.C. on behalf of this Wiccan church to compel the VA to act on their application to approve the Wiccan pentacle which has been pending since 1997. ATC was the first federally recognized Wiccan church organization to request the U. S. Veterans Administration include the Wiccan pentacle emblem among the nearly 40 faith symbols that may be requested on the headstone or markers of deceased U.S. military veterans. The litigation in the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in Washington, D.C. will be in the rare and unusual form of a request for the issuance of a Writ of Mandamus, an order of the court directing the VA to act on the nine year old pending request and summarily approve the symbol. Mandamus relief has only been used three times in the history of the court. The petition requests the court direct the VA to do its duty by granting this petition without further delays. The Aquarian Tabernacle Church is also joined in this action by the Correllian Nativist Church of Albany, N.Y., another large Wiccan denomination and applicant, together with Scott Stearns, an ATC member and retired disabled Navy veteran, and the survivors of deceased veterans Abraham Kooiman and James W. Price.
The Veterans Administration, through its Memorials division, provides headstones, plaques and bronze markers free to mark graves of veterans upon request of survivors. The request of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church has been pending for over nine years during which time VA has taken no action at all, other than to request more information and delay, claiming that regulations were being revised. At the time of the original ATC request, no such regulations or criteria existed and decisions were made on an informal basis. The Aquarian Tabernacle Church has responded promptly to each of the requests for more information and regulation revisions, but the VA has still taken no action on the pending request. It should be noted that numerous other requests filed during that same time period by other faiths have been promptly approved, but similarly no action has been taken on numerous other Wiccan church applications. One, that of the Sikhs, was approved in less than one week. Another was approved without the required formal application.
The three largest Wiccan denominations, the Aquarian Tabernacle Church (filed 1997), the Correllian Nativist Church International (2004) and Circle Sanctuary (2005) all have requests pending with no action by the VA. Given that other faiths have had prompt action taken by the VA, the commonality seems only to be that the three are Wiccan churches. In a recent development in Nevada, another request for a pentacle is being honored, over-ruling the VA by order of the Nevada Governor, since the memorial plaque of the veteran in question, Sgt. Patrick Stewart, is in a state-owned cemetery and not on federal land. This step forward is a victory for Sgt. Stewart’s family and Circle, but has no beneficial effect on the availability of the pentacle for other veterans requesting VA supplied headstones, plaques or memorials, since the VA remains intransigent on the subject.
Because the VA has simply stonewalled the Aquarian Tabernacle Church and others and taken no action to approve or deny the Wiccan requests, the Wiccan faith has been left high and dry with no opportunity to appeal, one way or the other. The Rt. Rev. Pete Pathfinder Davis, Archpriest of ATC said that the Writ of Mandamus approach to the court was chosen because it orders the VA to do its duty and take action on their nine year old request. It would be the last stage of action within the VA bureaucracy before the opportunity to go into a Federal District Court becomes available. If the request is approved, the battle is over for everyone; if denied, then the right to appeal the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims decision becomes available and action can be filed in Federal District Court.
“Our American fighting men and women are proud of their faith, whatever that may be, and all are equally entitled to have the symbol of their chosen faith displayed on their headstone or marker as is traditionally done in this country, without governmental interference. The lack of any action whatsoever by the VA on Wiccan applications for over nine years while simultaneously granting requests of other faiths is a clear indictment of the petty motivations behind the VA failure to act on this. It has been an effective weapon of denial for Wiccans, creating an almost insurmountable roadblock to requests for the pentacle. A request can’t be made by a survivor until their emblem of belief is included in the VA's numbered list. Survivors must request symbols by number from that list, and not by symbol or faith name. This court action should bring to a close once and for all the VA’s almost decade-long stonewalling tactics or clear the roadway for resolution in the higher Federal District Court, if that becomes necessary,” Rev. Davis said.
For more information, contact Rev. Pierre C. “Pete” Davis at the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, Box 409, Index, WA 98256. Telephone: (360) 793-1945.
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