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I don't understand why they are pressing the issue instead of just adding the Wiccan symbol of a pentacle to the list of "approved" symbols. Wicca is already recognized by the military as a legitimate religion. Plus, if there's a symbol for atheism, I can't imagine what is so offensive about adding the Wiccan symbol to the list of options.

For the purposes of putting a symbol on a veteran's grave marker, I can understand the need for a list of "approved" symbols - but I think the intent behind such a list should be to have a consensus on what symbol is chosen to represent each religion, not to reflect the military's "approval" of a particular religion. I think that was the original intent behind the list, and someone just decided to gum up the works by not adding a Wiccan symbol when the religion became popular and recognized by the government.

This topic falls within my own niche: art. There's a long history of controversy surrounding how to memorialize soldiers, the proper or even allowed/forbidden use of symbols, and how some symbols have been re-interpreted.

There is no symbol, historically, that I am aware representing "atheism": how would one ever give form to what is basically about denying an entity? Perhaps a blank canvas, or a Robert Ryman painting? Or Ad Reinhardt's black ones (but they actually do have dark, dark "crosses" and "bars" against equally dark gounds)?

Maya Lin's great Vietnam Veterans' memorial ("The Wall") in DC is perhaps the best example of allowing sheer reflection amongst survivors, rather than marking each individual lost with potentially divisive symbols.

The Wiccan symbol, of course, would do just that, as it has long been associated with devilry in Christian tradition. Just as the swastika, a long-held symbol in several cultures for energy and the sun, and to some dgree love and compassion, is now so completely reviled as a sign of Nazism and racial/ethnic hatred.

The government's best approach might be to not PAY for the erection of ANY symbol, but to allow families to do so. If they can't afford to do so, that would present some sticky issues, though. And we still have the problem of the Jewish, Muslim or Christian family of a dead soldier not wanting him buried next to a symbol associated with Satan (for them and many others).

Theses are exactly the kinds of problems we runinto when the government is in the business of pseudo-religion. A totally secular government is a very hard thing to maintain. People want to have their loved ones remembered in some official, government-sanctioned way. That sets up a host of difficult balancing acts.