First, they came for the Jews....

The "purification" agenda of the Christian right is beginning to crawl out from under the rocks they have used to hide it for decades. It's directed at Jews, but also at everyone who doesn't adhere to their particular vision of America

First, we have the case of the family in Delaware forced to flee their home because they dared to fight back against the proseletyzing of Christianity and anti-Semitism in their children's schools:

A large Delaware school district promoted Christianity so aggressively that a Jewish family felt it necessary to move to Wilmington, two hours away, because they feared retaliation for filing a lawsuit. The religion (if any) of a second family in the lawsuit is not known, because they're suing as Jane and John Doe; they also fear retaliation. Both families are asking relief from "state-sponsored religion."

The behavior of the Indian River School District board's behavior suggests the families' fears are hardly groundless.

The district spreads over a considerable portion of southeast Delaware. The families' complaint, filed in federal court in February 2005, alleges that the district had created an "environment of religious exclusion" and unconstitutional state-sponsored religion.

Among numerous specific examples in the complaint was what happened at plaintiff Samantha Dobrich's graduation in 2004 from the district's high school. She was the only Jewish student in her graduating class. The complaint relates that local pastor, Jerry Fike, in his invocation, followed requests for "our heavenly Father's" guidance for the graduates with:

I also pray for one specific student, that You be with her and guide her in the path that You have for her. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name.
In addition to the ruined graduation experience, the Dobrich-Doe lawsuit alleges that:

• The district's "custom and practice of school-sponsored prayer" frequently imposed ... on impressionable non-Christian students," violating their constitutional rights.
  
• The district ignored the Supreme Court's 1992 Lee decision limiting prayer at graduation ceremonies -- even after a district employee complained about the prayer at her child's 2003 graduation..
  
• District teachers and staff led Bible clubs at several schools. Club members got to go to the head of the lunch line.
  
• While Bible clubs were widely available, student book clubs were rare and often canceled by the district.
  
• When Jane Doe complained that her non-Christian son "Jordan Doe" was left alone when his classmates when to Bible club meetings, district staff insisted that Jordan should attend the club regardless of his religion.
  
• The district schools attended by Jordan and his sister "Jamie Doe" distributed Bibles to students in 2003, giving them time off from class to pick up the books.
  Prayer --often sectarian -- is a routine part of district sports programs and social events
  
• One of the district's middle schools gave students the choice of attending a special Bible Club if they did not want to attend the lesson on evolution.
  
• A middle school teacher told students there was only "one true religion" and gave them pamphlets for his surfing ministry.
  
• Samantha Dobrich's honors English teacher frequently discussed Christianity, but no other religion.
  
• Students frequently made mandatory appearances at district board meetings -- where they were a captive audience for board members' prayers to Jesus.

The acceptance of the Christofascist Zombie Brigade among those at the highest levels of government, combined with the fearmongering in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, has resulted in an environment in which hostility to ALL non-Christian religions is on the rise.

In Illinois, a woman was fired from her job after disclosing that she is a practitioner of Wicca:

A Schaumburg company allegedly fired a woman, and one employee is accused of calling her a "devil worshipper" after she disclosed she practiced Wicca -- a pagan religion viewed by some as witchcraft.

Now, the woman is suing.

Rebecca Sommers said the company fired her in 2004, citing poor job performance. She had worked with the firm since 2002.

But Sommers insists in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday that Crawford & Company Inc. fired her because supervisors there didn't like her religion.

Crawford is a Georgia-based insurance adjusting firm with an office in Schaumburg. Representatives there could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sommers, an accounts analyst, said when she requested a day off for a Wiccan holiday, she was told by a manager to keep her religion "to herself." She said another supervisor who knew she practiced Wicca called her a devil worshipper in front of other employees.

Sommers said that before revealing her religion she received a favorable review and a bonus. But after her supervisors knew about Wicca, she started getting warnings and told she wasn't returning customer calls fast enough.

And a girl in Hardesty, Oklahoma was kicked off her school's basketball team for refusing to recite the Lord's Prayer.

It's incidents like these that make me oppose ANY attempt to break down the wall between church and state -- because for these people, an inherent part of their religion is the forced conversion of others and the conversion of the U.S. into a "Christian Nation."

I believe I've blogged on this before, but when I was growing up in Westfield, NJ, the high school had a Christmas tableau every year, accompanied by the singing of Christmas carols by the choir. If you wanted to be in the choir, you were required to sing in the Christmas program. No Christmas, no choir. Instead of allowing nonbelievers to sing in other programs but opt out of the Christmas program, the high school held fast. In 1972, The Jewish Committee Against Religious Encroachment in Schools filed in Federal Court to have the Yule Pageant in Westfield, N.J. banned. The suit charged, "the pageant favor belief in religion over non-religion and favors the Christian Religion over others [Jews].

With this, the ugly side of the suburban town came to the fore. Anti-Semitic letters appeared in the local paper. Owners of Jewish-owned businesses found swastikas spray-painted on their storefronts. I don't recall what the outcome was, but it was a very ugly time to be a Jew in Westfield.

Those who say that we must be more accommodating to these people are mistaken. Accommodation means capitulation, and the result of capitulation is going to be pogroms against all those who do not adhere to a particular flavor of Christianity -- right here in the United States. It's happening on a small scale already. Those like Barack Obama who think we need to attempt to dialogue with these people are going to find themselves being likened to the Germans who pointed out which apartments were occupied by Jews in Hitler's Germany.

This country was formed as a secular nation for a reason. We decry theocracies in the Middle East when the theocrats are Muslim. Christian theocrats are no more enlightened.

(hat tip: Frederick Clarkson)