Pete Pathfinder Davis has been fighting for nearly a decade to have the emblem of his faith engraved on the headstones of veterans buried in federal cemeteries.
But the application he filed in 1997 with the Department of Veterans Affairs for use of the pentacle -- a five-pointed star surrounded by a circle -- is still pending.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday October 17, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 36 words Type of Material: Correction
Wiccans: A photo caption in Saturday's California section with an article about the fight to have the pentacle engraved on headstones of Wiccan veterans in federal cemeteries gave the Rev. Selena Fox's first name as Serena.
Davis and other Wiccans, who sometimes describe themselves as pagans or witches, say it is time for the VA to recognize their religion, which worships nature and employs the practice of "magick."
The battle over grave markers gained a higher profile recently with a dispute over a Wiccan serviceman's headstone in Nevada and a lawsuit filed Sept. 29 on behalf of two churches and three Wiccans. The federal suit seeks to compel the VA to provide Wiccans the same recognition it affords 38 other groups, including atheists, who can have symbols of their beliefs sandblasted onto headstones.
The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union against Veterans Affairs Secretary R. James Nicholson and the VA's burial and memorial unit says that, by one survey, there are 1,800 Wiccans in the military.
The military has long embraced religious diversity, as long as a practice does not interfere with duties or harm others. Wicca is mentioned in military chaplains' manuals, and the Department of Defense for decades has allowed soldiers to list Wicca on their dog tags.
Denying Wiccans the long-held tradition of professing faith on grave markers "greatly burdens the free exercise of religion of veterans and their families," according to the lawsuit.
"All those who served and died for their country should be treated with the same dignity and respect," said Daniel Mach, an ACLU attorney. "And the government should not be in the business of deciding which veterans' faiths get honored."
VA spokeswoman Jo Schuda was unable to fully explain the delays, which she said may have been caused by VA regulation changes and the Wiccan religion's lack of a national headquarters.
"There are a lot of mysteries within bureaucracies, and maybe this is one of them," she said. "The as-yet unanswerable might come out in the course of litigation."
The symbols allowed by the VA include various styles of Christian crosses, the Jewish Star of David and emblems for Buddhism, Islam and the Native American Church of North America, which uses the hallucinogenic peyote plant in its rituals. Atheists' symbol is a basic atomic structure.
