Wednesday, February 7, 2007

ACLU And Its Defense Of Religious Liberty

Bob calls the ACLU "The Anti-Christ Liberals Union."

I went to look at their website to detail their persecution of Christians. This is what I found:

Rhode Island ACLU (2006) filed an appeal in federal court on behalf of an inmate who was barred from preaching during Christian religious services, something he had done for the past seven years under the supervision and support of prison clergy. The prisoner, Wesley Spratt, believes his preaching is a calling from God. Prison officials cited vague and unsubstantiated security reasons for imposing the preaching ban on Mr. Spratt. The ACLU argued that the ban violates Mr. Spratt's freedom of religious expression.

The ACLU of Nevada (2005) defended the free exercise rights and free speech rights of evangelical Christians to preach on the sidewalks of the Strip in Las Vegas.

The ACLU of New Mexico (2005) joined forces with the American Family Association to succeed in freeing a preacher, Shawn Miller, from the Roosevelt County jail, where he was held for 109 days for street preaching. The ACLU became involved at the request of Miller's wife, Theresa.

The ACLU of Oregon (2004-05) filed suit on behalf of high school basketball players from an Adventist school against the Oregon School Activities Association, which administers competitive athletic and artistic competitions in Oregon high schools. The ACLU argued that the Adventist basketball players who have made it to the state tournament should not be required to play tournament games on Saturday, their Sabbath.

The ACLU of Virginia (2004) interceded with local authorities on behalf of Baptist preachers who were refused permission to perform baptisms in the river in Falmouth Waterside Park in Stafford County.

The Indiana Civil Liberties Union (2004) filed suit against the city of Scottsburg for their repeated threats of arrest and/or citation against members of the Old Paths Baptist Church for demonstrating regarding various subjects dealing with their religious beliefs.

The ACLU of Massachusetts (2003) intervened on behalf of a group of students at Westfield High School who were suspended for distributing candy canes and a religious message in school. The ACLU succeeded in having the suspensions revoked and filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit brought on behalf of the students against the school district. Students who were suspended include Daniel S. Souza, Stephen J. Grabowski, Sharon L. Sitler and Paul Sitler.

The Iowa Civil Liberties Union (2002) publicly supported a group of Christian students who filed a lawsuit against Davenport Schools asserting their right to distribute religious literature during non-instructional time. The ICLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the suit on behalf of the students.

The ACLU of Michigan (beginning in 2001) represented Abby Moler, a student at Sterling Heights Stevenson High School, whose yearbook entry was deleted because of its religious content.

And my personal favorite…..

The ACLU of Virginia (2002) joined the Rev. Jerry Falwell in winning a lawsuit arguing the Virginia Constitution's provision that bans religious organizations from incorporating is unconstitutional.

There are more cases on their website.

What gives? I thought these guys hated Christians! Wait a second:
The ACLU is a strong defender of the right of religious organizations and individuals to express their religious beliefs in public. The ACLU is opposed, however, to the government sponsoring, endorsing, promoting, or financing religious symbols.

The ACLU is completely okay with you expressing your religious faith in public as long as it's not sponsored or endorsed by the Government? That almost sounds reasonable!

But why would people like Jerry Falwell and the American Family Association work with them and then denounce them as hating God? Maybe because they want Christians to have a persecution complex as a way to keep them from seeing the Religious Rights real agenda: Getting Republicans elected to office.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm starting to think that Bob has found our humble little blog. Today on the show, the day after DJ posted this message, Bob went on a little rant about the ACLU. Bob made the wild accusation that only 1% of the time does the ACLU actually defend the rights of Christians (and they only does this to give people the false impression that they're not anti-Christian). The remaining 99% of the time, the ACLU is busy persecuting Christians, like the poor Oconee County Council, who was violating the First Amendment by opening official government meetings with a prayer in Jesus' name.

I don't know where Bob gets these crazy 99/1 ratios. Maybe he's making them up.

DJ said...

He admitted to 1%? That's quite a stretch for Bob.

Anonymous said...

We need to keep citing example after example of the ACLU defending the rights of Christians. Maybe we'll get Bob up to 2%!