Documents demonstrating an active policy of bias and discrimination against witches may have been covered up by the settlement which will allow the pentacle to be placed on Wiccan veteran memorials. The Wildhunt reports, Dan Pulliam discusses the case for Get Religion.

"...unfortunately, the story has been swept up by politics when it is not clear that it was directly related to politics ... There seems to be good second-hand evidence that the VA's decision  [to stall approval of the pentacle for over nine years despite the approvals of at least 6 other religious symbols within that same time] was indeed influenced by statements made by President Bush. But the terms of the settlement with the VA kept those documents from coming out. Call me a skeptic (because I am about most things), but as a reporter I would not be satisfied with that (as) an answer."

As a layperson, I am not satified that evidence for an active policy of bias and discrimination has been covered up either.

An observation in follow up to my previous post, Local Churches Rallied Against Witch School - what is striking about the entire matter is just how shamelessly the opposition to Witch School drives witches out of town. Reading statements reported in the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, where the statements are no doubt the tip of an iceberg, it is clear that the Witch School opposition itself has no significant opposition to check its active discriminatory bias against witches and by extension, against those it deems religiously unworthy by a particular Christian definition to exist or flourish within the community. As one resident, Kendra Smiley (author, speaker and member of the East Lynn United Methodist Church) puts it so bluntly:

"It's not the kind of influence we want in our community."

Clearly, not only does the community not want witches in its community, it also feels clearly no shame in telling us that.

None of this is new to me as a resident of this rural area who has also been actively discriminated against for over a decade. As a poor Jewish woman on the fringes of the community without community support, I was allowed to work every Sunday taking care of the area's poor elderly at the county nursing facility. This is the only job I was able to get despite having 7 years of college education (with both a professional nursing license and a science degree from the University of Illinois) and award-winning research work in my employment history (testifying to my intellectual abilities and critical thinking skills). Two weeks after I publically "came out" as a Jewitch and wore a small pentacle necklace to work in support of community witches, since I am a Jewitch after all, like the Christian nurses wore their crosses and crucifixes, I was no longer allowed to do even this and was fired from my job.

The shameless discriminatory practices of this area are scary. What is even scarier is that there is absolutely no significant opposition to the discriminatory practices endemic to this area. Not even from local Jews - except for the pentacle I wore and the marginalized words I write as a Jewitch, there is no other local Jewish voice protesting this that I can hear.

I shudder at the silence.

 When they came for the witches I did nothing, because I was not a witch ...

Opponents glad Wiccan school leaving Hoopeston
By Tracy Moss
The News-Gazette
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 6:44 AM CDT

HOOPESTON Some in the Hoopeston area are glad to see the Witch School leave town, while some don't have a strong opinion either way.

According to Ed Hubbard, who helped bring the Witch School to Hoopeston about four years ago, he has sold the school to new owners, and they will be headquartering the mostly online entity elsewhere.

The school, which specializes in peer-to-peer training in Wicca and magick, according to Hubbard, generated controversy when it first chose Hoopeston as its new home in 2003. Some of the strongest opponents were local churches.

"To me, it's an answer to the prayers given," said Kendra Smiley, an author and speaker, who is a member of the East Lynn United Methodist Church, which had led some gatherings to specifically pray about the witch school. "It's not the kind of influence we want in our community."

The First Baptist Church at 323 E. Seminary St. in Hoopeston also came out against the witch school from the beginning.

Pastor Steven Nelson said the church's stand has not changed, and if the school truly is leaving Hoopeston, the church is pleased.

The school's leaving, but Hubbard wants to stay in Hoopeston. He has already launched a new business, Illiana Web, which provides wireless Internet access to rural areas, in a different downtown Hoopeston building. He's invested about $20,000 in the venture, but he said he's not sure the community realizes that this business has nothing to do with his Wiccan beliefs or the Witch School.

Hubbard said he thinks Hoopeston, with its industrial base, affordable business climate and rural location, is great place for his wireless business to grow, spreading affordable wireless Internet service to other rural areas in East Central Illinois.

"There's a desperate need for it," said Hubbard, who added that Illiana Web employs a Lutheran and a Baptist and has a Jewish investor, too.

Read full article at link above.

After a nine year struggle, a victory for justice and witches of all kinds.

Bush Administration Agrees To Approve Wiccan Pentacle For Veteran Memorials
Monday, April 23, 2007

Settlement In Americans United Lawsuit Comes After Discovery Of A Pattern Of Bias Against Minority Faith

The Bush administration has conceded that Wiccans are entitled to have the pentacle, the symbol of their faith, inscribed on government-issued memorial markers for deceased veterans, Americans United for Separation of Church and State announced today.

The settlement agreement, filed today with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, brings to a successful conclusion a lawsuit Americans United brought against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in November.

The litigation charged that denying a pentacle to deceased Wiccan service personnel, while granting religious symbols to those of other traditions, violated the U.S. Constitution.

“This settlement has forced the Bush Administration into acknowledging that there are no second class religions in America, including among our nation’s veterans,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “It is a proud day for religious freedom in the United States.”

Read full article at link above.

Hat-tip to Witchvox for article.

 Yid With A Lid reports:

Professor Livui Librescu is a seventy-five year old survivor of the Shoah (Holocaust) moved to Israel 30 years ago, and had taken up the position in Virginia in 1986. Librescu's wife, Marlena, told the NRG Web site that her husband had loved his job with "all his heart and his soul."

He was teaching an engineering class on Yom HaShoah when the shooting spree began. When the crazed killer tried to enter his classroom the Professor threw himself between the shooter and the class, keeping him out of the room. and screamed for the students to get out.

And in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, one of Librescu's students, Asael Arad, said: "All the students lived - because of him."

See link for full story and further links.

Justice: "Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty." Benjamin Franklin, 13 Virtues

While the following article was written from a Wiccan-witch perspective, it equally applies to non-Wiccan practitioners of witchcraft as well, as there are many *flavors* of witchcraft traditions. Wicca is one tradition among many equally valid earth-based witchcraft traditions, including eclectic solitary practitioners who blend teachings and practices from several traditions. All witches need protection. Importantly, it is the constitutional DUTY of government representatives and officials to protect the religious freedom of American witches and to put down religious persecution as well. From my perspective, those charged with the duty are seriously derelict of duty.

Wednesday's (3 April, 2007 CE)
Louisville Courier-Journal Opinion Page

Inside the First Amendment: The nature of discrimination
By Charles C. Haynes
Gannett News Service

People accused of witchcraft in America aren't executed anymore (we are 300 years and a First Amendment away from Puritan Massachusetts). These days they just lose their jobs.

Don Larsen discovered this the hard way. A year ago, Larsen was a Pentecostal Christian minister serving as an Army chaplain in Iraq. But then he converted to Wicca, whose members are self-described witches, and applied to become the first Wiccan chaplain in the U.S. armed forces.

Today Larsen is a former Army chaplain back home in Idaho. As reported last month in The Washington Post, the Army not only denied his request to change religious affiliation, but also removed him from the chaplain corps (despite an outstanding record) and sent him packing.

The Army denies any discrimination against Wiccans and cites a maze of Catch-22 bureaucratic reasons for Larsen's dismissal. But earlier attempts by Wiccan groups to obtain a military chaplain have also failed -- in spite of there being more than 130 other religious groups on the approved list.

True, Wiccans make up only a small percentage of military personnel (around 1,900 by the Pentagon's count, though the real numbers are likely much higher). But other religious groups with similarly small numbers already have chaplains.

This isn't the only example of unfair treatment of Wiccans in the military. After nine years of "reviewing the process," the Department of Veterans Affairs still hasn't approved the pentacle -- a five-pointed star that symbolizes Wiccan faith -- as an "emblem of belief" that can be placed on government headstones of Wiccan soldiers.

Despite the fact that the 38 approved emblems include religions of every stripe (and atheism), the VA will not add the pentacle. Does this mean Wiccan soldiers are good enough to die abroad, but not good enough to be buried with respect at home?

The military's stubborn refusal to recognize Wicca may have something to do with the firestorm of criticism that greeted news stories of Wiccan meetings on a Texas military base about eight years ago. Then-Gov. George W. Bush wanted the military to bar Wiccan ceremonies, saying, "I don't think witchcraft is a religion." Some outraged Christian conservative leaders called on Christians not to enlist or re-enlist as long as Wiccans were permitted to worship on U.S. bases.

Although military officials have continued to allow Wiccan worship (under the First Amendment, they have no choice), they are undoubtedly reluctant to stir that pot again. After all, the governor is now the president.

Antipathy toward Wicca isn't confined to the armed forces. Fear of witches, it seems, is popping up everywhere.

Last year a group of Georgia parents accused their local schools of promoting Wicca by having Harry Potter books in the school libraries (just the latest battle in the ongoing anti-Harry campaign). In December, the State Board of Education ruled that the books could stay.

In February, a Delaware judge upheld a finding of religious discrimination against a department store that dropped a course taught by Wiccans in the store's "campus of classes" program.

And this month a former teacher on Long Island, N.Y., testified in court that she was fired after public school officials accused her of being a witch. According to the teacher, who says she doesn't practice witchcraft, the principal was angry because she taught about the Salem witch trials and wouldn't participate in Christian activities that he promoted.

As Wicca grows -- and it's one of the fastest-growing religions in America -- so will conflicts over witches. That's because most of what people think they know about witches and Wicca is wrong. Contrary to popular myth, Wiccans have nothing to do with the "evil arts" or Satanism. Nor do Wiccans conform to the stereotypes rooted in fantasies from "The Wizard of Oz" to "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch."

If it isn't what many people think it is, then what is Wicca? Although no religion is easily summed up in a sentence, most Wiccans would probably agree that Wicca is a nature-based religion rooted in a conviction that the Divine permeates all life. For a fuller explanation, Wicca Demystified by Bryan Lankford is a good place to start.

For First Amendment purposes, however, it doesn't matter what military officers or school principals or other government officials think about Wicca: It is their constitutional duty to protect the religious freedom of all Americans, including witches.

Charles C. Haynes is senior scholar at the First Amendment Center. His e-mail address is chaynes@freedomforum.org.

Hat-tip to Joshua for the article.