Only Christians and Jews in Arlington Cemetery? D. Hunter R-Cal.

Said paraphrasing there are rows of crosses and star of davids lining AC., (C-SPAN) when speaking about the many lives given in defense of the US. I am cleaning the walls (spring cleaning) and don't have time to follow up, maybe someone here can, but I was really offended by this statement!

I hope this will help bring him down the next election cycle. (This has nothing to do with Judaism or Christianity, I am Christian, it has to do with his disavowal of other's sacrifices!)

They're a pretty open-minded bunch, those worms.

match is what I told my parents.

be in death. A cremation costs between $3-5000, not for me!

There are no "rows of crosses." Arlington cemetery uses classic tombstone-shaped markers with dozens of officially authorized emblems, listed here:

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/funeral_information/authorized_emblems.html

Wasn't it Cheney who lied about seeing "rows of crosses" in a speech?

he mentioned that he saw the "rows of crosses" every day when the helicopter to the VP's mansion flew over Arlington. I believe it was during the VP debate in 2004.

officially the Nat'l Memorial Cemtery of the Pacific.

There, among the rows of crosses and stars of David, he will find quite a number of Buddhist dharma wheels on the headstones, many for the veterans of the 442nd "Go for Broke" Infantry. If, as I strongly suspect, Hunter needs some education about the 442nd, all he need do is go to the other side of the Capitol and ask Sen. Inouye, who lost an arm while serving with them.

Senator Inouye spoke at my high school graduation, back in '65. I'm old enough to remember about the 442nd.

Hekate

Marginalizing minority religions tends to increase your standing with the voters in most of the country.

...or to be nicer, maybe just ignorance, as it is shared by so many other Americans. They only recognize the Abrahamic religions, and all others are at best exotic (like Buddhism) and at worst, well, you know.

I have Pagan friends. Pagans are a much larger group than you might think, but don't have much in the way of brick and mortar establishments to point out, nor is there an overarching authority. Very decentralized.

Interestingly enough, Paganism is not a pacifistic religion, and most of its sects honor the warrior. In the small listserve I subscribe to, veterans and active-duty personnel are well-represented.

At least one Pagan family has an ongoing struggle with the governmental group in charge of memorials at Arlington Cemetary over the kind of markers you can choose, and there's a website of all the approved ones. Christianity has at least 17 different symbols that I know of, and even Sokka Gakkai was fast-tracked to approval. Atheists, Humanists -- all have a symbol. But not one for Pagans.

It's interesting the kinds of excuses I've read here at DU -- first, of course, is the confusion over whether the religion has anything to do with Satanism (No. That would be a Christian heresy.). Then it usually comes down to the lack of a single symbol -- whatcha want? Pentacle, Goddess, Triple Moon, Triple Spiral, Hammer -- which is why I bring up the huge number of symbols approved for Christian sects.

I think Arizona or Nevada state finally approved a marker for a bereaved family, but that was done on the local level.

It does make me wonder if this was what Duncan Hunter was referring to.

Hekate

... During the times when the Catholic church wanted to become the premiere religion in the world, the followers were wrongly taught that Pagans were Satan worshipers.

Anyone that would care to know... Satan is a Christian manifestation, and the Pagans, not being Christians, do not believe in Satan...

Therefore logic would dictate that pagans are not Satanists.

Reading about it, and learning about it before spouting untruths would be a good idea.

Good post by the way.