Link

When Sgt. Patrick Stewart's country called, he answered. In 1989, after graduating high school, he served his time in the army, then joined the Nevada Army National Guard in 2005. He fought in Afghanistan, and is among the casualties of that conflict.

All Stewart's family wants to commemorate his passing is a symbol of his faith. While Jews are allowed such with the Star of David, Christians allowed such with the cross, and Muslims allowed such with the crescent, Stewart's grave will have no such adornment, for the moment, at least. For, you see, Stewart was a Wiccan and the sign that his family wishes to have adorn his grave is the pentacle, the image most often mistakenly referred to by Christian "specialists" on the occult as the "pentagram" and associated with Satan (due in large part to the lies and myths spread by sensationalists such as Mike Warnke in the late 70's and into the 80's and still held to be true among many Christians).

It is the ultimate irony that a man who died defending this country's Constitution would be denied the very freedoms he fought to preserve. Stewart deserves his pentacle, as do all of the other Wiccans who fight alongside our soldiers. Freedom of religion, after all, only holds if we are willing to extend it to ALL religions, and not just those we favor.