Jul 112013
 

It seems that on May 13 the Veterans Administration approved a stylized Mjolnir (Thors hammer) for inclusion on veterans headstones:

How Thor’s Hammer Made Its Way Onto Soldiers’ Headstones

mjolnir

The writeup unfortunately and unsurprisingly focuses on the Marvel Comics version of Thor, rather than the Thor from the Nordic faith (and there’s a lot of difference, not unlike the difference between the Catholic Church as it really is… and the Catholic Church as it appears in Japanese Anime). But it turns out that the VA has approved Mjolnir, and has applied it to two headstones. One was a Marine known only as “Shane” who died in 2012. His mother petitioned the VA to put Mjolnir on his tombstone. The other headstone was that of a soldier who died some years earlier and whose religious-symbol section of his headstone was left blank, and has now been modified. The kicker: the earlier soldier? He was “Shanes” father.

The whole list of VA-approved headstone symbols is here:

Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones and Markers

There are apparently 58 symbols, including a wide variety of Christian symbols (such as Presbyterian, United Methodist, Lutheran, etc.), some conventional non-Christian symbols   (Star of David, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) and some that I bet a lot of folks have never heard of (Eckankar, Soka Gakkai, Messianic Jewish, Farohar, etc). Interestingly, I don’t see Scientology on the list, though there is “United Church of Religious Science” (never heard of it), Unification Church (you know, Moonies)  and the newly-added “Sandhill Crane” (bwuh? According to THIS, it was the emblem of *one* specific person). Of the 58 symbols, one cannot be shown due to copyright reasons (!), a Muslim five-pointed star.

I suspect the future will see a lot of Mjolnirs on VA headstones.

 Posted by at 2:44 pm