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...belief [that] must be sincerely held, and within the believer’s own scheme of things religious.” It is easy to see how either of these legal definitions could apply to most of the 4,000 or more world religions. So where did the VA go wrong...
...VA currently lists 39 official “emblems of belief,” including the recently added Wiccan Pentacle and an atomic symbol that is characterized as “atheist.” Of the official symbols, 17 are directly related to Christianity, including such obscure denominations as the Aaronic Order Church, a 20th-century outgrowth of the Latter Day Saints movement that has fewer than 2,000 members nationally. Contrast that to the 130,000 self-identified Wiccans in the U.S. in 2001, according to a poll conducted by the City University of New York. The Pentagon...
...Although the VA has rectified this specific mistake, it is no closer to a more expansive definition of religious legitimacy. In January 2007, the VA proposed a new set of criteria to determine when it ought to recognize a new emblem of belief. The new criteria seeks to ensure that “there is an immediate need” for a new emblem, and that the belief system is a “genuine and non-frivolous group of religious opinions, doctrines and/or principles believed or accepted as true by a group of persons.” The VA...
...Second, the VA requests a “concise written description of the main tenets” of the belief system, as well as “information about the structure” of the organization. The VA should be blind regarding the specific structure and tenets of a religion. As Chief Justice Warren E. Burger wrote in Lemon v. Kurtzman, “This kind of state inspection and evaluation of the religious content of a religious organization is fraught with the sort of entanglement that the Constitution forbids.” Rather, the VA should adopt a methodology...
...While it is laudable that the VA has accepted the Wiccan Pentacle and begun to examine their highly entrenched, anachronistic system, this single action is not enough. The system of emblems of belief—which places an undue, indeed unfair, emphasis on one’s religious identity—needs to be reevaluated entirely so that soldiers can be remembered in a way most appropriate to them...