Only a few days ago, we had the initial posting on Dark Christianity in regards to an EEOC case in Washington state with links to dominionist groups.

Specifically, a news report was released in regards to one of two people suing Woodcreek Pediatrics in Puyallup, Washington for literally being forced out of her job and forced to pray at work. Investigation of Woodcreek Pediatrics turned up a fair amount of evidence that the clinic is deep within the dominionist "parallel economy", including pediatricians connected with Assemblies frontgroups, graduates from schools funded by AmWay founder (and major dominionist funder) Dick DeVos, and pediatricians associated with Northwest Medical Teams (an FGBMFI-connected group) and the American College of Pediatricians (the latter is a dominionist "parallel economy" alternative to the American Academy of Pediatrics; ACP has supported abusive "degaying" therapy and used the work of promoters of religiously motivated child abuse as recommendations for "discipline", including the discredited works of Paul Cameron (who has literally called for the internment of LGBT people in concentration camps and even for the mass genocide of LGBT people as a "public health measure")).

Well, at least according to the latest article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (where the second party involved has shared his story), it turns out that the initial reports just scratched the surface--there is apparently an atmosphere at Woodcreek that resembles an Assemblies of God "Deliverance Ministry" service far more than a medical clinic:

Two former employees of a Puyallup-area pediatric clinic contend in a federal court lawsuit that they were pressured to participate in prayers and subjected to other forms of religious harassment by clinic officials.

Lexi Foster, a medical assistant and Buckley resident, and Vergel Worrell, a nurse living in Tacoma, say in the civil complaint that nursing managers at Woodcreek Pediatrics openly prayed, that prayer often was held at staff meetings and that "employees who didn't participate in the prayers were told they were not team players."

Worrell was fired March 10, 2005, and Foster quit April 27, 2005, because of what she said was a "hostile work environment"

The suit says Foster was pressured to attend church and was told "that she was going to hell and would lead other employees to hell through her poor example," and that both plaintiffs repeatedly were forced by the director of nursing to pray with her.

The complaint says the nursing director told Worrell that he was "Satan himself" and "had to be a born-again Christian to end up in the kingdom of God and that if he did not convert his mother that she would go to hell."

(A minor editorial note here. This stuff sounds straight out of neopentecostal, and "Joel's Army", doctrine at that; I strongly suspect that the accusations that Vergel Worrel was "Satan Himself" are directly related to a particular doctrine in "Joel's Army" neopentecostal churches known as Serpent Seed Theology--in essence, Even is thought to have had sexual congress with the Serpent, and a considerable portion of the human race (namely, those who don't accept dominionism) are seen as the "Serpent Seed" and literal descendants of the Devil through Cain. Most people who've heard of "Serpent Seed" stuff mostly know about the racist version promoted in Christian Identity, but its origins actually date back to groups within the "Assemblies family" of neopente dominionist churches; in fact, the ONLY place you hear about this outside of Christian Identity is specifically within neopente dominionist groups (and this is partly because Christian Identity is essentially a racist split from Foursquare, which is an "Assemblies daughter") and is a dead giveaway as to what we're dealing with.)

Reitzug retired May 1 and could not be reached for comment. Tim Turner, the clinic's current chief administrator, declined comment Friday because, he said, the acts alleged in the suit preceded his employment by the clinic and he had no direct knowledge of them.

Foster and Worrell sued after the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March found "reasonable cause" to believe that the two were subjected to an "illegal, hostile work environment consisting of religious harassment." The EEOC finding was a necessary prerequisite for bringing the employment discrimination suit in federal court.

Worrell also contends that a female employee of the clinic sexually harassed him repeatedly but that Woodcreek managers did nothing when he complained about it. Foster and Worrell say they were accused of engaging in an affair with each other.

The EEOC found insufficient evidence that Worrell was subjected to a hostile work environment consisting of sexual harassment or was fired based on his gender or religion.

Sadly, it is harder for men to get a good judgement in EEOC cases, but the EEOC did notice there WAS a pattern of misbehaviour going on.

I also find it rather interesting that a classic form of dominionist dead-agenting seemed to be going on--namely, the two targets were accused of having affairs with each other (which would potentially wreck their home lives, among other things).

As an aside, the "nursing director" in the article may be Valerie Overmyer, RN, BSN (according to Woodcreek Pediatrics' website); she seems to be a complete cypher on Google, aside from her ZoomInfo page. (Does anyone know of a good resource for checking nursing records in Washington State?)