WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- After U.S. military personnel pelted American Wiccan servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq with bottles and rocks as they worshipped in a "sacred circle" (
Exodus 22:18), the Pentagon turned to Patrick McCollum of Moraga, Calif. The chaplain, a national expert on the earth-based Wicca religion, conjured a little Wicca 101 for the troops. That's where McCollum and a few other Wiccans come in as on-call Pentagon advisers. The military has sought his advice three or four times since he started after Sept. 11, 2001, he said. An advisory team became a Pentagon priority when Wiccan military personnel reported problems while conducting rites and religious activities. The Wiccans said that some chaplains were trying to convert them and that commanding officers made it difficult to practice, McCollum said. Wiccans also have been pressuring the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow a Wiccan emblem, most likely the pentacle, for armed forces burial headstones or markers. Mike Nacincik of Veterans Affairs said the department authorizes 38 emblems, including one for atheists, but none for Wiccans.
Posted by Editor at August 23, 2004 05:21 PM