Air Force Dental Tech Fired After Being Accused of Witchcraft

An Air Force contractor who had been working at a Maryland dental clinic was accused of being a witch and subsequently fired. Deborah Schoenfeld, a Hindu, had complained of being harassed for not sharing the same religious beliefs as her Christian co-workers. She was told that practicing yoga was “satanic” and would “cost her her soul.” Yes, this happened in 2015, when it seems like practically everyone owns a pair of yoga pants and has at least attempted one downward dog in their life. Even science says yoga is beneficial to health, though these people don’t seem the type to listen to facts, anyway. 

After Schoenfeld filed a formal complaint on September 2, she was terminated from her position as a dental technician for allegedly using profanity against a co-worker, reports Air Force Times. They would not reveal the identity of the accuser. Schoenfeld then reached out to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for support with her case. Mikey Weinstein, the group’s founder and president, wrote a letter to officials detailing the harassment done to Schoenfeld by her former co-workers,,,

According to The Freethinker,

The Air Force District of Washington has received Weinstein’s letter and is looking into the allegations raised, said spokesman Major Joel Harper.

The Air Force thoroughly reviews all instances in which airmen report concerns regarding religious freedoms or accommodations. Mutual respect is an essential part of the Air Force culture. Supporting the right of free exercise of religion relates directly to the Air Force core values and the ability to  maintain an effective team.

Chris Rodda's write-up for Daily KOS with Weinstein's letter attached.

Air Force Dental Tech Fired After Being Accused of Witchcraft

ADDENDUM::Air Force Leaders Hammer Helpless Subordinates With Evangelical 'Gospel Explosion' | Michael L. (Mikey) Weinstein, Esq.

Mikey's take on the debacle known as "Gospel Explosion" at Cannon AFB:

However, what we DO have a MAJOR problem with is the fact that the Air Force command leadership has grown accustomed to brazenly violating numerous Department of Defense and Air Force directives, regulations, and instructions in an airy, willy-nilly fashion. If the Master Sergeants at Cannon AFB want to promote participation in decidedly Christian gospel events, they need to leave this task to the USAF chaplaincy rather than unconstitutionally misappropriating that role for themselves. Not only is command staff usurping a position meant for the chaplaincy, but they are also trampling on the vital religious rights of helplessly subordinate Air Force personnel by blanketing them in "invitations" to attend events that are exclusively oriented towards people of the evangelical version of the Christian faith. Indeed, it's a cluster bomb of illegality.

Our civil rights foundation has already been contacted by 7 Air Force NCO/Officer clients at Cannon AFB - 6 of whom are of the Christian faith, the seventh of whom was raised in Christian faith traditions - regarding this outrageous travesty. The fact that they reached out to MRFF, rather than to their own USAF chain of command, indicates the pathetically sorry state of the command climate on base.
,,,
Simply put, our MRFF clients justly fear reprisal and retribution for protesting their military superiors' illegal, unconstitutional activities. That's why they come to us for help. As I stated recently in another article written about a similar Constitutional outrage, "To the USAF, regulations and Constitutional provisions appear to mean as much as would a few flies buzzing around at a family picnic; to wit, a mere trifle easily disregarded and ignored with impunity."

Air Force Leaders Hammer Helpless Subordinates With Evangelical 'Gospel Explosion' | Michael L. (Mikey) Weinstein, Esq.

No, U.S. Air Force, There Is No Separation Between Standup Comedy and State | Chris Rodda

Despite the alarmist claims from the religious folk in Congress that the poor, persecuted Christian military chaplains are being forced to perform services contrary to their religious beliefs, the investigation found no evidence of this, saying:

"we identified no instance in which a commander forced or attempted to force a chaplain to perform a service contrary to his or her conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs."

Yes, the claims that military chaplains are being forced to promote the so-called "gay agenda" and will be forced to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies are as completely unfounded and ridiculous as the similar tales of ministers in the civilian world being forced to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies under threat of legal punishment. No military chaplain has had to do anything, or will ever have to do anything, that is contrary to their beliefs.

But, while being forced to promote beliefs contrary to their own is a made-up problem when it comes to military chaplains, it is actually a very real problem for other service members, and a good example of this also came up last week, the day before the DoD IG's report was released.

[,,,]
Distributing a flyer promoting an evangelical Christian "Gospel Explosion" through the command's email distribution system is a blatant violation of this Air Force Instruction. The "leaders at all levels" in this email distribution chain were absolutely officially endorsing and extending preferential treatment for the Christian faith by using this email distribution system to distribute this flyer. Not only did the end recipients of the flyer receive it from their immediate superiors, but any airman in the chain who was told to distribute the flyer to their distribution list was being told not only to violate regulations, but to promote a religious event that might have been contrary to their beliefs by sending the flyer on.

No, U.S. Air Force, There Is No Separation Between Standup Comedy and State | Chris Rodda

One call, that's all: Atheist picks up phone, Air Force surrenders again

An atheist known for attacking expressions of faith in the U.S. Armed Forces has convinced the Air Force to remove a newsletter contribution from a colonel because he mentioned his faith.

Mikey Weinstein, who leads the so-called Military Religious Freedom Foundation, complained after an Air Force colonel wrote about his faith in a newsletter called “The Stinger.”

The colonel is Florencio Marquinez, a medical group commander in the 180th Fighter Wing of the Ohio Air National Guard. Among other observations, the colonel wrote in the newsletter that his faith has sustained him throughout his military career.

Ron Crews, executive director of The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, says the Ohio Air National Guard cannot censor the protected speech of one of its members based on the content of that speech.

“When we found out about this,” says Crews, “we drafted a letter to the commander to give him the constitutional reasons why this good colonel has every right to say that faith is what has sustained him in his military career.”

[,,,]
Weinstein has congratulated himself in the past for how quickly military leaders respond to his complaints – even counting the minutes – and this time was no different.

“After merely speaking with me once over the phone,” Weinstein wrote, the “amazing and caring” Col. Baker “immediately recognized the seriousness of this egregious Constitutional and Air Force regulation violation.”

Crews, however, calls the colonel’s decision “just one more egregious example” of the Air Force denying officers and airmen the right to exercise their faith.

I was having a bit of difficulties with this story, understanding exactly what the issue is and why the Reich is freaking out so much.  Enter Hemant Mehta who does a nice job in clarifying the issue(s) at hand.

Point 1::"On the surface, it doesn’t sound like he’s proselytizing or saying everyone else needs to agree with him. The problem is that he’s definitely promoting his faith, not as a private citizen, but as a military leader using his title, uniform, and publication space,,,."

To which Mehta points us to Section 2.11 of the Air Force Standards: ",,,they must avoid the actual or apparent use of their position to promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion."

It is the same point that Mikey Weinstein makes when citing Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733 in his letter to Colonel Craig R. Baker Commander, 180th Fighter Wing (OHANG) :

This Court has long recognized that the military is, by necessity, a specialized society separate from civilian society... While the members of the military are not excluded from the protection granted by the First Amendment, the different character of the military community and of the military mission requires a different application of those protections. ... The fundamental necessity for obedience, and the consequent necessity for imposition of discipline, may render permissible within the military that which would be constitutionally impermissible outside it... Speech [to include religious speech] that is protected in the civil population may nonetheless undermine the effectiveness of response to command.  If it does, it is constitutionally unprotected.

Point 2::"Weinstein also told me this decision would never have been questioned by the Religious Right if Marquinez was promoting Islam or atheism instead of Christianity. He said, 'It’s not a small thing. It strikes to the very core of who you are as a human being.'"

As Mikey states in his letter, "It is a fair question to ask what Ron Crews and his attorney advocates would say if Colonel Marquinez's online letter had professed a belief in Allah, the Prophet Mohammad, and the Holy Koran, or from any other non-Christian text and/or belief system.  Beyond any doubt, if that had occurred, I’m betting that then, and ONLY then, would they have told you about Parker v. Levy and advocated strict adherence to the non-proselytizing standards in AFI 1-1, quoted above. 

And just to note, Mikey Weinstein is NOT an atheist, he is a Jewish Agnostic.

One call, that's all: Atheist picks up phone, Air Force surrenders again

US Air Force: God Has Already Decided Which DoD Contractors Will Get Contracts | Chris Rodda

What part of the above sections of this mandatory regulation is unclear?

Upon seeing the Air Force's unbelievable response to the complaint, with its utter disregard of the mandatory regulations on official Air Force emails and defending of its employee's violation of these guidelines as their "right to free exercise of religion," MRFF founder and president Mikey Weinstein had a few words to say:

"Don't make the mistake of thinking that this is MERELY Air Force 'incompetence.' Quite on the contrary, the Air Force knows EXACTLY what it is doing here. Indeed, what we have today at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico is but another horrific example, of among thousands, of a despicable and blatant display of fundamentalist Christian exceptionalism, defiance, supremacy, triumphalism, oppression and tyranny in the United States Air Force. The specific inclusion of that sectarian biblical passage in an official USAF/DoD pre-solicitation contracting communication is an irrefutably clear violation by the U.S. Air Force of the 'No Establishment Clause' of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as well as the 'No Religious Test' prohibition of Clause 3, Article VI of same. Further, this utterly unchecked breach of American law savages the Air Force's VERY OWN regulations; to wit, Air Force Instruction 1-1, and Air Force Manual 33-152, which totally and absolutely prohibit such pathetic and self-serving proselytizing in ANY official USAF e-mail communications. MRFF demands that the Air Force immediately sends an apology and correcting e-mail to all of those who received the proselytizing one last Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. MRFF further immediately demands that the USAF aggressively investigate and punish any and all USAF or DoD personnel who are either directly or indirectly responsible for this wretched display of fundamentalist Christian evangelizing."

US Air Force: God Has Already Decided Which DoD Contractors Will Get Contracts | Chris Rodda

UPDATE::'Little Jewish Radical' Responds to Pat Robertson: Religious Freedom & Feigned Valor in the Military

This is what happens when you are an army of one following the news of thousands. You get behind. So even though I am a we bit late in posting this, it is still important.

This is Mikey Weinstein's response to fucktard Pat Robertson. It is long but it boils down perfectly to this one statement.

This vile specimen is to human dignity and sanity and integrity and character what dog shit is on the menu of a fine French restaurant.
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Let me explain. In his 1972 autobiography, Shout it From the Housetops, Robertson boasted about his outstanding service as a “Marine combat officer in Korea.” The only problem with the claim is that many of his former comrades allege that never once did he ever see battle. Robertson filed a libel suit against McCloskey, only to be unceremoniously dropped later on. Contradicting Robertson’s claims, war hero and former seven-term Congressman Paul “Pete” McCloskey alleged that the “Marine combat officer” may have used his privileged family ties as the son of a Virginia Senator to pull the strings and skirt his combat duties. Apparently, the order from General Lemuel Shepherd was to "Take good care of him; his Daddy is Chairman of the Senate Armed Forces Appropriations Committee."

Therefore, the future televangelist (and saber-rattling warmonger) was reassigned from combat duty to the far less heroic undertaking of keeping the barracks watering hole stocked with liquor. As numerous fellow marines claimed, throughout the Korean War the “Marine combat officer” was known as the Masan Liquor Officer. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being a ‘liquor officer.’ However, speaking as a former Air Force officer and Air Force Academy honor graduate, whose two sons, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law are all, likewise, Air Force Academy graduates as well as either current or former proud members of the U.S. Air Force, I am positively pissed that such a putrid example of cowardly cretinism in the ignoble person of Pat Robertson would have the gall to question the bravery of our USAF airmen. Every American, every service member, should know well to ignore the attention-hungry ravings of this false prophet and posturing poseur of the first order.

'Little Jewish Radical' Responds to Pat Robertson: Religious Freedom & Feigned Valor in the Military

ADDENDUM::Pat Robertson loses it after Air Force nixes ‘God’ oath for atheists: ‘How can they fly?’

So, just how far will the Reich go in defending a policy that violates the Constitution? Let's take a look at some of the recent oratory by two of our favorite RWNJs.

First up, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association who last week in response to the Creech Air Force base situation stated this,

The Air Force is doing exactly the right thing here. There is no place in the United States military for those who do not believe in the Creator who is the source of every single one of our fundamental human and civil rights.

Serving in the military is a privilege, not a constitutional right. And it should be reserved for those who have America's values engraved on their hearts.

,,,

[O]ur military exists to uphold and defend our Constitution, and the Constitution in turn identifies the "unalienable rights" the Declaration refers to that our government is obligated to protect.

These rights do not come from government, they do not come from the commander-in-chief, and they most certainly do not come from some activist judge. They come from God himself. We are not evolved, as this wannabe-enlistee believes, but we are "created," and "endowed by (our) Creator with certain unalienable rights."

This is an absolutely foundational, non-negotiable, bed-rock American principle: there is a Creator - with a capital "C" (you could look it up) - and he and he alone is the source of the very rights the military exists to protect and defend.

An individual who does not understand and believe this has no right to serve in the U.S. military. Military service should rightly be reserved for those who believe in and are willing to die for what America stands for - and what America stands for is a belief in God as the source of our rights.

A man who doesn't believe in the Creator the Founders trusted certainly can live in America without being troubled for being a fool. But he most certainly should not wear the uniform.

The other branches of the military do not require the same oath - yet. But they should. Military service should be reserved for genuine Americans and genuine Americans, like the Founders, believe in God.

[Notice Fischer's reliance on the Declaration of Independence.  A typical revisionist ploy as the DOI holds no legal value in the laws of our country, something I have written about before.]

Now today, we have the head windbag of the Reich lashing out at Mikey Weinstein, "a left-wing radical" and MRFF, "a group about people against religion or whatever he calls it."

Although the American Humanist Association had represented the airman, Robertson on Thursday blamed Military Religious Freedom Foundation President Mikey Weinstein for the movement against religion in the armed services.

“There’s a left-wing radical named Mikey Weinstein who has got a group about people against religion or whatever he calls it, and he has just terrorized the armed forces,” Robertson opined. “You think you’re supposed to be tough, you’re supposed to defend us, and you got one little Jewish radical who is scaring the pants off of you.”

“You want these guys flying the airplanes to defend us when you got one little guy terrorizing them?” he asked. “That’s what it amounts to.”

“You know, we swear oaths. And ‘so help me God,’ well, what does it mean? It means with God’s help, and you don’t have to say you believe in God. You just say, ‘I want some help besides myself [with] the oath I’m taking.’”

The televangelist concluded that the entire situation was “crazy.”

“What is wrong with the Air Force? How can they fly the bombers to defend us if they cave to one little guy?”

So why do I bring this up? Two reasons,,,

What the ayatollah Pat Robertson fails to mentions, MRFF also had 17 Air Force clients facing the same situation as the gentleman stationed at Creech. As the legal representative of those 17 airmen, MRFF wrote to the DoD on their behalf. This is not a personal crusade by Weinstein or MRFF, it is Weinstein (and MRFF) doing their job protecting the interests of their clients.

Remember the hearings mentioned in this article?  Well according to a source well versed in this situation "the Republican-controlled Armed Services committee just canceled tomorrow's hearing at the last minute, saying it will be rescheduled, citing 'a late change in the legislative calendar.'

Now bare in mind as of this writing (7PM 9/18/2104), the six remaining hearings are still on the schedule which seems to contradict this report,

It’s official: The House is closing up shop until after the midterm elections.

Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office announced Thursday there will be no votes on Friday and said the four-day session originally scheduled to begin on Sept. 29 has been canceled, pending Senate approval of the continuing resolution that passed the House Wednesday.

That means lawmakers will be sprinting to the exits — and the quick trip to the airport — after the close of business Thursday.

Which makes me wonder, is Congress so lazy, so self-absorbed that dealing with the issue of hyper-religiosity within the military (specifically the Air Force) means nothing to them. Which by proxy means they care nothing for the men and women in uniform that are hurt by their inaction. Or is "getting" re-elected more important.

Tough choice I know!

Oh and Pat, you may want to re-calibrate your hate meter as it seems to be failing you.  Nothing like letting your true feelings out, "one little Jewish radical."

Pat Robertson loses it after Air Force nixes ‘God’ oath for atheists: ‘How can they fly?’

ADDENDUM::Air Force says ‘so help me God’ is optional for enlistment oath | Fox News

Uh, translation please.  WTF is this shit?  When or why would an airmen be required to take an oath about marriage?

The Liberty Institute’s Hiram Sasser also supported the move – but for a different reason. 

“I am glad the Air Force allows airmen to omit parts of oaths with which they disagree because one day the Air Force will ask airmen to take an oath regarding controversial subjects like marriage and Bible-believing airmen will likewise refrain from such oaths,” said Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute.

That aside, a few points to consider in all this, beside the utter stupidity of Sasser's comment. 

• The Air Force used to allow airmen to omit the phrase "so help me God" if they so chose. BUT an Oct. 30, 2013, update to Air Force Instruction 36-2606, which spells out the active-duty oath of enlistment, dropped that option. Since that quiet update to the AFI, airmen have been required to swear an oath to a deity when they enlist or re-enlist. 

• The issue of the Oath has been left unsettled since that time.  According to Chris Rodda,

Yes, that was the Air Force's answer. They're actually having a hard time coming to a definite, consistent decision about this. Why? Because the oath created by an act of Congress contains the words "So help me God." Apparently, the fact that the Constitution, with its "no religious test" clause, trumps any act of Congress doesn't seem to be enough for them to be "prepared at this moment to definitively answer." How could this be?

Well, this is where some revisionist history comes in. There are actually people arguing that the founders saw no conflict between the Constitution and forcing someone to take a religious oath.

Judicial Watch, the right-wing watchdog group that has taken up the cause of forcing everyone in the Air Force to swear an oath to God -- regardless of their clear constitutional right not to -- claims that the proponents of forced religious oaths in the military have history on their side, saying:

 While this oath has undergone modifications over the centuries, the phrase 'So help me God' dates all the way back to 1776. So there can be no question regarding whether or not our Founding Fathers believed there was any conflict among the reference to 'God' and our founding principles and the Constitution.

No question? Really? Then how come the military oath written by the very first Congress in 1789 left off the "So help me God" line? That's right, the very first Congress, which included a good number of the founders who actually framed the Constitution, did not make "So help me God" part of the military oath! These words were not part of any military oath until 1862, when the oath for officers needed to be changed because of the Civil War. And it wasn't until a full century after that that the words were added to the enlisted oath.

• There is no denying the influence of James Dobson's Focus on the Family as well as Ted Haggard's former New Life Church.

"You have very strong encouragement -- basically carte blanche access to cadets by the leadership of the academy by these groups," Mullin said. "It is corruption, and there is substantial religious discrimination as part of this corruption," he said.
,,,
A 2010 survey found 41 percent of non-Christian cadets faced unwanted proselytizing, even as the religious majority felt that their freedom of speech was being infringed upon.

This is bad for cadets and bad for the country, says Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 academy graduate and founder of MRFF.

• And it is an issue that has a "long" history with an apparent in your face attitude no matter who they might hurt.

Just something small to consider.

Air Force says ‘so help me God’ is optional for enlistment oath | Fox News

UPDATE::AF to change instructions for oaths > U.S. Air Force > Article Display

I barely hit the publish button when this popped into my news feed,,,

The Air Force has instructed force support offices across the service to allow both enlisted members and officers to omit the words “So help me God” from enlistment and officer appointment oaths if an Airman chooses.

In response to concerns raised by Airmen, the Department of the Air Force requested an opinion from the Department of Defense General Counsel addressing the legal parameters of the oath. The resulting opinion concluded that an individual may strike or omit the words “So help me God” from an enlistment or appointment oath if preferred.

“We take any instance in which Airmen report concerns regarding religious freedom seriously,” said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. “We are making the appropriate adjustments to ensure our Airmen's rights are protected.”

The Air Force will be updating the instructions for both enlisted and commissioned Airmen to reflect these changes in the coming weeks, but the policy change is effective now. Airmen who choose to omit the words 'So help me God' from enlistment and officer appointment oaths may do so.

AF to change instructions for oaths > U.S. Air Force > Article Display

Air Force’s mind-boggling violation: Members forced to swear religious allegiance - Salon.com

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

 US Constitution, Article VI, Clause 3
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There is no easy way to summarize this article or the important role of MRFF in protecting one's (non) religious beliefs within the confines of the military; I will let the article do all the talking. But Lyngar hits it with his concluding paragraphs:

Declaring a serviceman a liar, cheat or a scoundrel because he or she won’t take a religious oath is an attack on that person’s honor. I know it sounds goofy to people who haven’t served, but honor means something to fighting men and women. This religious malignancy can’t be tolerated in a secular, nationwide fighting force unless you want to create an army of religious terrorists.

“When you tell someone they lack honor, because of your chosen religious faith or lack thereof it is no different than telling a person that they are stupid because of their skin color or sex,” said Weinstein.

This latest battle in the Air Force proves that America needs the MRFF. The military protects everyone, all of us, agnostic, gay, liberals, conservatives, swingers and Satanists. If only some people and faiths are deemed worthy of service and protection, the military becomes something else, something ugly and dangerous. America should never stand for this kind of intolerance and hate.

[For the record I am acquainted with and also correspond with a current staff member of MRFF.]

Air Force’s mind-boggling violation: Members forced to swear religious allegiance - Salon.com