It has been, sadly, a hellish Shabbos, filled with kidney stone pain and lack of rest. The VA is holding firm in their reprisals for my public evisceration of their religious discrimination, aggressive Christian proselytizing tactics and blatant violations of my Civil Rights. They have cut off my pain medication and I am holding off going into their Urgent Care (which my new Primary Care Physician has advised me to do if the pain become unbearable) until I become too exhausted and the pain becomes too severe for me to cope with any further. Truthfully, I dread surrendering myself again into the hands of the VA’s own version of the Christian hoards.
The press conference with Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation this last Thursday in Des Moines went well (one may find my public statement here), and on Friday I spoke on the phone with a prominent Civil Rights attorney who I hope will be heading up the legal team that will be pursuing my legal claims on behalf of the MLFF – we at least have in place the beginnings of a plan. I hope that Mikey and I will be able to announce very soon the make-up of our legal team.
Others who have also experienced religious discrimination at the hands of the Veterans Administration are beginning to come forward, and in order to root out the cancer of radical Christian intolerance and religious discrimination at the VA we may very well see a Class Action Suit on behalf of the victims by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. One thing is sure: in the coming weeks and months, we are sure to hear more stories of those who are brave enough to come forward and blow the whistle on Fundamentalist Christian predators at work within the various branches of the military and the Veterans Administration; and those whose lives have been damaged by those predators will have their rights vigorously advocated for by Mikey Weinstein and the MRFF.
For the time being one may find interesting reading about other examples of religious discrimination at work within the VA at Jewish Delaware under the title of "Problem of Respect for Jewish VA Staff, Patients, Volunteers And Others Are Not Unique to Iowa City VA Medical Center."
One of the members of the press at the Des Moines press conference asked if the problems at the VA had anything in common with the Bush Administration’s outright rejection of Constitutional Separation of Church & State provisions, as evidenced by the ascendance of its so-called "Faith-Based Initiatives." The obvious answer is yes. And it’s related as well to the corruption within the Justice Department, and the pestilent swarm of Christian Theocracy-advocating Regent University graduates influencing nearly every political decision within the Bush Administration.
I have to confess that I’m not surprised that the Fundamentalist Christian bigots have already come out of the woodwork to attack me within the greater blogosphere. The Regents University clan spews its boilerplate Religious Liberty rhetoric (conveniently ignoring the irony that they do not acknowledge the Religious Liberties of members of other faiths, or no faith) and defends aggressive proselytizing at the VA on Free Speech grounds. And while defending the VA’s right to proselytize me, some concede that it was a mistake, citing the Gospel of Matthew 7:6 (NIV), "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to the pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." – obviously implying that, as a Jew, I am both a "dog" and a "pig" – of course this is typical of the all-too-familiar language of Anti-Semites.
In my conversation with an attorney on Friday, he pointed out that he had just seen the PBS program on the Inquisition the night before and the parallels with what Christian Fundamentalists are trying to pull off in the United States today are profound. I agree. How sharp a contrast this is with the strong advocacy for Separation of Church & State by early American Baptist ministers like John Leland! As difficult as it may be for those of us staring down the barrel of religious intolerance today, we must aknowledge that there are still people of character within the Christian church in the U.S. strongly advocating for the Constitutional protections of the Separation of Church & State and the realization of Civil Liberties for all Americans – I have received letters of support from some of them. As convenient as it might be to paint all Christians with the same brush of extremism, it would be no more right than saddling all Jews with the responsibility for Civil Rights abuses by the Israeli government. So I want to be specific: I am specifically pursuing, with all the strength left at my disposal, the Fundamentalist Christian predators, and those that give them license, within the Veterans Administration.