Mood:
surprisedTopic: Freedom of Religion
It was reported in late August 2007 that Roberta Stewart was noticeably absent from a private meeting at which George W. Bush, acting President of the United States, spoke briefly to invited members of the families of Nevada soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike other members of the Stewart family, the decedant's wife was not invited. It seems likely that this oversight is due to the centrality of the Stewart family--Roberta Stewart in particular--in Wiccan religious rights advocacy. It seems, in fact, rather pointed.
Stewart was propelled into national prominence in a long legal battle to get the symbol of her husband's faith, a pentacle, engraved on his Veteran's Administration-issued tombstone. This has made her not only a real, grieving survivor, but also a living symbol of our ongoing struggle for full, equal religious liberty.
Stewart joined and catalyzed an existing effort in which Rosemary Kooiman and others had already played a significant part, but Roberta and Partick's names became those most associated with this effort, in part because they ultimately succeeded.
Why wasn't Roberta Stewart invited? Why, when her slight became news, did Bush call her to apologize?
The most interesting thing is that after the fact, the Bush White 
House found it necessary or politically expedient to acknowledge that the widow's exclusion was unseemly and to do it via a personal phone call from the Chief Executive himself. It was likely not Bush himself who chose to exclude her, but rather some White House events planner acting on some set of established guidelines (which in part are clearly rooted in Bush's personal preferences); when the actual slight became public knowledge in a climate already dire for Bush's public image, it seems to have merited the highest-level beaurocratic response: Bush himself, on the phone, calling a Witch to apologize.
If you would like to hear an interview with Roberta Stewart, you may do so at the Culture Shocks website (archived as show #997--in their archives, you can also find show #981, with Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation).
There has been a long and ongoing struggle for responsible, accurate represenation of Pagan religions, especially those that use the words "Witch" and "Witchcraft," and that effort has far to go and much left to achieve. There has, however, been significant progress over the last 30 years.
The fact that "damage control" was necessary strongly suggests that the media climate regarding Wiccan and Pagan issues is changing for the better in spite of the existing power structure and its hostility to earth-centered religions. This is especially true because of the sacrifices made by Wiccan soldiers and their families--sacrifices made at the command of George W. Bush.
If those sacrifices are for nothing else, let them be for this: a prophetic challenge to the powers that be, arising from and returning to the earth like all life; greater religious liberty for all, lived joyfully, etched in stone, remembered, venerated, made real; a widow's quest, modeling modern Pagan virtue that changes the world, illegitimate power momentarily humbled.
Of all places, the burial grounds of America's hallowed dead should be places that reflect the First Freedom in its rich diversity. We do not have to support the war, or even the decision to fight it, in order to see this truth.
The Veterans Administration Tombstone Pentacle Quest
Americans United Protests Presidential Snub Of Wiccan War Widow
Only Ms. Stewart can say if she was offended not to be asked, or if Bush's call is enough to make up for any personal slight. But this case is much bigger than Ms. Stewart alone; in slighting her, Bush slighted all earth-centered/magical religionists, including the thousands in active duty military or civilian government service. Bush is the (acting) secular head of a presently and historically pluralist nation. His conduct in this case, and the conduct of his administration during the tombstone appeals, makes it clear that minority religions have had a functionally second-class status in the minds of administration officials.
The recent slight to Roberta Stewart and to the memory of Patrick Stewart should surprise no one. We should welcome Bush's attempt to redress the slight and are grateful for the grace with which Roberta Stewart represents Paganism to the general culture, but we should be cautious in assuming Bush has had some authentic change of heart. Just a few short years ago, he explicitly claimed in two instances that Wicca is not a legitimate religion:
"I don't think witchcraft is a religion. I would hope the military officials would take a second look at the decision they made."
-- Bush, interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America by Peggy Wehmeyer on 24 June 1999.
And when asked to respond in writing to a series of questions by the Web, White and Blue website in October 2000, Bush again claimed that Wicca is not a legitimate religion. He was specifically asked, "With religious diversity increasing, what are your thoughts on the protection of religious freedom and the separation of church and state? Should religions like Wicca be banned from recognition by the military, as some legislators suggest?"
Candidate Bush's response was especially revealing, and as a written response from a campaign headquarters, we have to imagine that the wording was carefully chosen--much more carefully than in impromptu interview responses to unanticipated questions. He wrote:
"I am committed to the First Amendment principles of religious freedom, tolerance, and diversity. Whether Mormon, Methodist, Jewish, or Muslim, Americans should be able to participate in their constitutional free exercise of religion. I do not think witchcraft is a religion, and I do not think it is in any way appropriate for the U.S. military to promote it."
In other words, he recognizes Abrahamic religions (including the non-Christian religions of Judaism and Islam) and heterodox Christianities like Mormonism, but specifically excludes "witchcraft." It's not right for the military to PROMOTE any religion; but was Bush suggesting that in his vocabulary, it's okay for the military to promote Abrahamic faiths, but not Witchcraft? This rubric suggests that the "tolerance" and "diversity" he extols is limited to a narrow range of middle-eastern religious choices and that faiths not fitting the Abrahamic paradigm are false.
For some reason, in public interviews Bush refused to use the term employed in the question--Wicca--and resorted instead to lowercase "witchcraft." Wiccans do call themselves Witches, but so do many other Pagans who aren't Wiccan, and witchraft per se (lowercase--no dignity of the majuscule) is recognized as a broad inter-religious practice like "prayer" or "ritual". Could it be that Bush likes the ease with which the unknowing conflate Witchcraft and Satanism? Was he hoping to re-ignite the 1980s "satanic conspiracy" paranoia that was almost as big as the Red Scare, and which was so helpful to Republicans? It being his first presidential campaign, perhaps he was trying to stir up the fundamentalist base and spread a mis-informed hostility to Wiccan/Pagan religion because it would serve immediate political ends. (That's the only reason large-scale religious persecution has ever been ignited, and ancient Christian unity was bought with Pagan blood spilt by the imperialist state, not by the blood of Jesus).
This interpretation is underscored by the fact that during the campaign, Bush conspired with other Republican officials, like Strom Thurmond, to limit Wiccan religious rites/rights on U.S. military bases. Thurmond specificallly referred to Wiccan religious practice as "satanic". Let's hope the now-dead Thurmond is truly a relic of the past.
Bush's campaign did use the word "Wicca" when sending out letters to people who wrote his campaign in protest of the interview comments, presumably if they had used the word in writing to him:"On behalf of Governor Bush, thank you for your letter about Wicca. Governor Bush respects the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religious expression for all Americans. His comments regarding Wicca are an expression of his personal views and his faith."
That does very little to clarify anything about the problems with the interview comments. Does the "real Bush" hold a pluralist interpretation of the First Amendment, or a Dominionist one that would limit religious freedom to choices between Christian (or Abrahamic?) faiths? Which is more important to him--the spirit and letter of the Constitution and the pluralist precedents of established law--or the "personal" and "faith" views of the letter? If he believes the Constitution intends a "Christian nation," the language of the campaign letter seems contrived to avoid clearly stating that Wiccans fit the First Amendment or religious test clause criteria for equal consideration. In other words, he's deliberately unclear about whether full religious liberty extends to non-Abrahamic religions.
Bush has slighted minority religions, especially Pagan religions, on multiple occasions. Ignorance of and hostility to the non-Christian is such a repeated pattern in his work as to be a hallmark of his administration, whether it's the slight of Roberta Stewart or the use of "Crusade" rhetoric in relation to his wars in the Middle East. There are many examples, and most (tellingly) apply to Muslims or Pagans. Alongside these slights and denigrations, Bush has also attempted to extend special privileges to Christianity, and violated Constitutional principles as governor of Texas by declaring June 10, 2000 "Jesus Day" in that state. (Here's the content of that proclamation; here's the Wikipedia entry on it; here's a scan of the document itself; and here's Snopes.com's attestation that it's true).
Once in the presidency, Bush moved to create the Office of Faith Based Initiatives. This office has functioned to privilege protestant Christianity over all other religions and to disburse money to groups whose political allegiance benefits the Republican Party. The manifest purpose of this office is to flatter Christians and pay off their leaders in exchange for votes.
An Expose of Corruption in the Faith-Based Initiative Program
The Faith-Based Initiative and "Charitable Choice": Harful to Religious Liberty and Civil Rights
David Kuo, former Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, resigned and wrote a book about how Bush has cynically used the office to manipulate Christians politically.
Among other things, the funds dispersed to faith-based programs have been used to proselytize non-Christians in violation of Constitutional and international law. (This article is part of a New York Times series on diminishing separation between State and (Christian) Church. See the whole series here, including a searchable list of religious earmarks). Bush has also linked some foreign aid disbursements to the faith-based funding program, giving money to agencies that proselytize and linking the name and reputation of the United States to Christian evangelical organizations, many of questionable repute.
Perhaps Bush's tactics of marginalizing Paganism and elevating his own religion were more acceptable to the general public, which still knows very little about Pagan religions, before Bush was regularly deploying Pagans to fight in the wars he started. Back when some people thought he had credibility on military matters. Perhaps his own religious claims had more legitimacy before the public beheld his lies, betrayals and hypocrisy. Pagan folk are exponentially more populous now than seven years ago and far more of our friends and neighbors now understand the reality: we worship the earth and the old God/dess(e)s, not the Abrahamic devil. We have more clergy, more public exposure, more converts (and more of us are overtly calling for converts to come to us for the good of the earth and the renewal of culture). Times are changing.
Our religions and understanding of them are spreading quickly and we are beginning to demand--and secure--our rights.
Pressure and the commitment of large numbers of Americans to principles of religious liberty successfully chagrined the administration and exerted influence on reluctant VA and Bush to live up to founding principles. We have many historical and general precedents on our side, and specific precedents are mounting. A US District Court has ruled on Wiccan prisoner's rights, specifically recognizing that
1. Wicca is a legitimate religion
2. that Wiccans can be solitary or can worship in groups (a religion doesn't have to be incorporated, nor does a practitioner have to be a part of an established group to make solitary professions)
3. there are multiple Wiccan traditions comparable in diversity to Christian denominations
4. Wiccan inmates are protected in their religious identity and expression by the 1st and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution.
And we've also been recognized and accurately portrayed in the US Army Chaplains Manual. While Wiccan and Pagan folk still experience regular discrimination--especially in military and prison contexts, but also in child custody cases--the American tradition of civil liberties is on our side and precedents are mounting in our favor.
I was offended by the Stewart slight and by the length of time it took to get a star carved on a stone alongside the scores of other recognized symbols of other religions. It's take more than a reluctant bit of crow-eating to make me feel that religious freedom is taken seriously by members of the Bush administration. Our potential power as citizens, yes--our quest for meaning, no. They're out for themselves and will do what sells to their constituency. (Like it or not, we're part of their constituency and they're slowly being forced to recognize it).
Let's keep up the pressure! We are changing the culture.
