What Will the Feds Allow *You* to Put on Your Headstone

[JayMcGee]

que?

wiccans are not christians. and you don't have to be christian to be american.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Who else would care about pentacles?

I don't know, but it's still an assumption to accuse anyone but the VA, isn't it?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Flint

Do you also need the article to specify the difference between your ass and a hole in the ground?

I need more than somebodies prejudices, assumptions or childish bullshit to make a connection between the V.A.'s actions and anyone but the V.A.

[Flint]

See: all of human history. It satisfies a massive burden of proof, that properly attributes the restriction of alternate religious routes by the predominant monotheistic institutions. The alternative theory, assuming innocence on the benevolent behalf of these institutions, is not supported by the evidence. It's naive, because it does not correlate well with demonstrable reality.

Honest, decent people who simply want to live their lives and not be culturally assimilated by an expansionist dogma must remain hyper-vigilant against what has been demonstrated to be these inevitable aspects of monotheistic institutions. This is a concrete reality, not a paranoid delusion, or an agenda to belittle anyone's faith.

The people who seem to be caught in the middle are the ones who honestly follow the actual tenets of the spiritual path, but have no feeling of association with the cultural power structure based falsely on these teachings. They defend what isn't being attacked, by awkwardly denying the existence of what everyone else can clearly see.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I don't know, but it's still an assumption to accuse anyone but the VA, isn't it?

Who's accusing anyone but the VA? Or, more precisely, people who make VA policy?

[BigV]

I knew this discussion sounded familiar...

[Elspode]

Yup. And the Feds are going to lose, eventually. The VA's position is indefensible, ultimately. They're just using the monolithic inertia of the system to try and bankrupt or frustrate those who seek to force the change.

[Tonchi]

Hey, if the US government recognized the Mormons and the Scientologists as valid religions, that means any fantasy you care to invent is valid for a tax deduction. Once they did that, there is no legal or moral reason for the Wiccans to be excluded. They have considerably more history and philosophy behind them than those other two crackpot cults. So what exactly IS the problem with getting the government to give them the same rights? Probably lobbyists >:

[Ibby]

If the military can discriminate based on sex, orientation, or any other factor, they can discriminate on religion all they want, too.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Who's accusing anyone but the VA? Or, more precisely, people who make VA policy?

It is a real shame that these types sully the names by calling themselves Americans and Christians... they behave as neither.

Which is what I responded to. I think it's safe to assume they V.A. policy makers are Americans. Don't they have to be? But I don't see anything in that article about them being Christians.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Flint

See: all of human history. It satisfies a massive burden of proof, that properly attributes the restriction of alternate religious routes by the predominant monotheistic institutions. The alternative theory, assuming innocence on the benevolent behalf of these institutions, is not supported by the evidence. It's naive, because it does not correlate well with demonstrable reality.

Honest, decent people who simply want to live their lives and not be culturally assimilated by an expansionist dogma must remain hyper-vigilant against what has been demonstrated to be these inevitable aspects of monotheistic institutions. This is a concrete reality, not a paranoid delusion, or an agenda to belittle anyone's faith.

The people who seem to be caught in the middle are the ones who honestly follow the actual tenets of the spiritual path, but have no feeling of association with the cultural power structure based falsely on these teachings. They defend what isn't being attacked, by awkwardly denying the existence of what everyone else can clearly see.

The V.A. is not a monotheistic institution, nor in the United States Government. The V.A. is however the subject of this thread and their stupidity is the problem.

Blaming Christians at the V.A., while very well may be true, has no basis in fact based on the article we have been shown. If you want to make that accusation, then provide substantiation or stick it back up where you pulled it out of.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Ibram

If the military can discriminate based on sex, orientation, or any other factor, they can discriminate on religion all they want, too.

The military covers their's with fitness for duty. The asshats at the V.A. headstone committee can only legitimately reject you for not being dead.

[Happy Monkey]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

If you want to make that accusation, then provide substantiation or stick it back up where you pulled it out of.

Substantiation: They care about pentacles.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That doesn't prove that their objection is because the are Christian, or even that they are. There's no basis in the article for that accusation.

[Happy Monkey]

A subset of Christians is the only group for whom the pentacle is a negative symbol.