In the USA, a dispute has erupted over the memorial of a soldier killed last year in Afghanistan. The reason for the dispute is that the soldier in question, Sgt. Patrick D. Stewart, 34, was a Wiccan. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to allow a symbol of the Wicca religion - a five-pointed star within a circle, called a pentacle - to be inscribed on U.S. military memorials or grave markers. At the moment, there is only a hole in the wall where the brass plaque should be. The Washington Post published the story (Fallen Soldier Gets a Bronze Star but No Pagan Star) on the Fourth of July.
In Stewart’s case, it is a question of a national memorial, not a religious one. The question of the legality of the American military presence in Asia aside, a person who dies for his country should be honoured by his country. According to the Washington Post article, "the department has approved the symbols of 38 other faiths; about half of are versions of the Christian cross. It also allows the Jewish Star of David, the Muslim crescent, the Buddhist wheel, the Mormon angel, the nine-pointed star of Bahai and something that looks like an atomic symbol for atheists." Of course, Stewart was probably the first Wiccan to be killed in action, but that doesn’t lessen his and his widow’s right to have the symbol of his faith on his memorial plaque or his tombstone. This is not a religious question, but a question of freedom of religion and a Human Rights issue.
In Finland, the situation is somewhat different. Most cemeteries are owned and run by the Lutheran church, and a few by other religious groups. As far as I know, there is a total of one (1) non-religious municipal graveyard in Finland, situated in Grankulla in the Greater Helsinki area. The humanists and the free thinkers make much of this; the rhetoric speaks of violation of the freedom of religion and so forth. But they are more than welcome to start new cemeteries!
The problem is, as so often, money. A cemetery is expensive to create and to maintain. For this reason, counties and municipalities find it more economical and practical to let the parishes take care of the problem than to do it themselves (although they do subsidize the local cemeteries). In Borgå, the parishes (not the city) are building a non-confessional graveyard for a budgeted 60.000 € in building costs alone. Is that really our job, one might ask?
I remember vividly the first time I noticed a non-Christian headstone in a graveyard. It was a Mormon grave in the enormous cemetery in Malm in Helsinki. I had just performed a funeral service and the casket had been lowered into the grave, when two graves down I noticed a quotation from the Book of Mormon. I quite understand why this would happen, but I do agree that perhaps Christian cemeteries should be allowed to remain Christian and other cemeteries could be created for people of other faiths or no faith. It won't hurt the dead to be buried alongside people of other faiths, but the mourners might find it offensive at times.
The law, passed a couple of years ago, stating that everyone should pay the same amount for their burials regardless of their faith or church affiliation sounds good on paper, but since it prohibits lifelong church members and church tax payers from benefiting from the payments they’ve made, it is in practice discriminatory towards church members, and should be amended.
But, as I said, in the case of Sgt. Stewart, it is a question of a national monument, not a religious one, and he should be allowed his plaque on the same conditions as everyone else.
The law, passed a couple of years ago, stating that everyone should pay the same amount for their burials regardless of their faith or church affiliation sounds good on paper, but since it prohibits lifelong church members and church tax payers from benefiting from the payments they’ve made, it is in practice discriminatory towards church members, and should be amended.
But, as I said, in the case of Sgt. Stewart, it is a question of a national monument, not a religious one, and he should be allowed his plaque on the same conditions as everyone else.
