Prayer for the youth!
Posted on 02/05/2005 9:22:41 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
The cross was used by those who hated Christianity, first to kill Jesus and then in an attempt to kill the faith. Today, the symbol of that same cross is so feared in secular society that their own “personal terrorist” has been sent to rip it away from the followers of Christ.
This terrorist has a name, and it is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Rooted in hate and communist philosophy, it cloaks itself in constitutional phraseology and the American flag. In reality, it remains faithful to seeking the destruction of American principles.
Though it is bankrolled with an annual budget in excess of $100 million, the ACLU seldom attacks any entity with major influence and political power. Instead, it wages warfare on small towns, cities of little wealth, school districts, and nonprofit organizations. It attacks them with threatened or actual litigation, often winning unwarranted settlements from public officials and organizations afraid of extensive court battles.
The ACLU filed suit against a Pittsburgh school district to ban the reference of Adam and Eve in a biology class.
In Pennsylvania, a suit was filed to stop the teaching of “Intelligent Design,” which points out that both evolution and creationism remain theories. Another Pennsylvania school district found itself in court when the ACLU filed against it for requiring students to learn more about the origination of mankind than just the theory of evolution.
Barrow County, Fla., was but one of more than 25 lawsuits filed by the ACLU to remove the Ten Commandants from public facilities.
Litigation filed by the ACLU is pending in Kent County, Mich., against a charter school that allowed prayer and taught creationism. In Elizabeth, Colo., the Elbert County Charter School faces a suit demanding that all references to Christmas be removed from school functions.
Out in the Mojave Desert of California, the ACLU attempted litigation to remove a memorial cross from government land, where it had stood since 1934.
The ACLU brought the superintendent of the Baldwin, Kan., school district into court because he allowed a minister to explain the historical significance of Christmas to an elementary-school class.
Notice the pattern of these cases … all are in arenas where it is difficult for those charged to defend their positions. By the sheer power of having multimillion-dollar resources at its disposal, the “Anti Christian Liberties Union,” as many religious groups call it, intimidates its foes and forces capitulation.
Absent from the ACLU’s extended list of attacks on Christianity are any attempts to take on those who might happen to have a stronger punch. For example, military bases are all government property. They also have chapels, chaplains, and assorted religious artifacts, and often display a variety of religious symbols. Yet we don’t read about the ACLU going after the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines.
It is said that the White House has a number of Christmas trees, and the first family sent out thousands of Christmas cards containing quotations from the Bible. Have there been any lawsuits filed by the ACLU against President Bush?
I don’t recall that leftist organization taking on Congress for having a chaplain or holding opening prayer. I don’t remember the “liberties” crowd taking on the Supreme Court for its display of God’s word. I didn’t see the ACLU go after the Treasury Department because “In God We Trust” remains on our money.
No, they work a lot like the terrorists we are fighting all around the world. They attack those who seem too weak to fight and those without enough courage to stand up for what they believe.
Sadly, those same governmental bodies and individuals could be reaching out to other organizations dedicated to fighting the ACLU.
The Alliance Defense Fund, the Liberty Counsel, the American Center for Law and Justice, the Rutherford Institute, and the Thomas More Law Center have all taken up the mantle against the ACLU. If they hear about attacks on Christianity, they are more than willing to join the fight.
Maybe more of those being attacked should put out the call for reinforcements.
Thomas D. Segel is a twice-wounded U.S. Marine Corps combat correspondent who retired after 26 years of service.
How about a HISTORY class?
In 1976, Congress passed the Civil Rights Attorneys Fee Awards Act, which was designed to encourage private lawyers to take on suits to protect civil and constitutional rights. The law provides that judges can order federal and state governments to pay legal fees to private lawyers who sued the government and won. The result has been a flood of civil rights cases in federal court. From The New American Feb. 2, 1987
It's an outrage that US law, passed during the Watergate era, allows the ACLU to collect attorney's fees for makework----Christian-hatng lawsuits it itself launches.
That means "values voters" have been footing the bill for the ACLU's launching a juggernaut to remove Ten Commandments images, Christmas creches and Christmas carols, taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance, and because they claim they have a civil right not to see the Ten Commandments, a civil right not to hear the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, not to see a creche of the Baby Jesus, not to hear Christmas carols. The ACLU has collected a huge amount of our tax dollars in this left-handed fundraiser for the ACLU.
FReepers can silence the ACLU with a bit of activism. We need to insist our Congressmen repeal this abusive law that allows the ACLU to get rich on harassing Christian America. Congress must repeal laws enabling the ACLU's Christian-hating activities. Cut off the ACLU's funds and watch them disappear. Here's what we can do.
Under the aegis of the ACLU's Foundation---worth some $135 million---any number of financial travesties can be hidden. The IRS should determine whether the ACLU is properly accounting for all its tax-funded activities, whether it is inflating legal costs, and whether it is using tax dollars for the purposes stated. We need to know whether the ACLU is engaged in Enron-style accounting and spending practices.
REFERENCE SOURCE FOR ARGUING REPEAL TO CONGRESS
Apparently, when Congress contemplated the fee-shifting bill three decades ago, it never conceived that 42 U.S.C. §1988 would be used to secure fees in esoteric battles over the meaning of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
The statute gives a court "discretion" to award attorneys' fees to the prevailing party in civil rights cases.
Study of the legislative history of the statute reveals that Congress intended this statute to apply to civil rights abuses, including certain race and sex discrimination cases, but not to arguments about whether Judge Roy Moore is allowed to display the Ten Commandments in the Alabama courthouse.
During the deliberations on the bill, the Senate penned that "in many cases arising under our civil rights laws, the citizen who must sue to enforce the law has little or no money with which to hire a lawyer."[6] In the recent First Amendment lawsuits filed by the ACLU, the tables are turned.
Small school districts and municipalities can either defend lawsuits and risk paying the ACLU's attorneys' fees if they lose, or they can voluntarily submit to the ACLU's view of the Constitution.
Even if lawsuits over the establishment clause somehow fall within 42 U.S.C. §1988, the statute empowers courts with nothing more than "discretion" to award fees.
In these cases, one would expect courts to withhold awarding fees. Since this is not happening, Congress must take immediate action to clarify 42 U.S.C. §1988 to explicitly exclude lawsuits related to the acknowledgement of God.
An outrage indeed...
Thanks Liz, for an important and enlightening post.
That idea, encapsulated in the words of the Declaration, disputed all ideas that the rights of ANY individual are derived from, or can be considered to be grants of, any other human being or collection of human beings in positions of power in government.
When the central idea underlying the protections of the United States Constitution is permitted to be eradicated from public discourse and public places, upon what basis will future generations base their understanding of rights and liberty? Either the rights and liberties of individuals are PRIOR TO to their becoming a part of a civic society, or they are GRANTS OF that civic society's ruler or ruling body. America's Founders were knowledgeable enough of the history of civilization to understand the human tendency toward abuse of power, whether by one or by many. The power of THEIR idea was their recognition of the Source of life, liberty, and rights, and the need to protect them through a written Constitution, amendable by THE PEOPLE only.
As that recognition is removed from the minds of citizens by organizations claiming to "protect" their rights, one can anticipate approaching tyranny.
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them." - Jefferson
You have emerged as a leader at a momentous time.
You have the helm Sir.
Carry on.
This is news??? To whom?
Anything that we can be confident was an actual occurence should be in discussed in history class. Adam and Eve or a global-scale Noah's Flood don't fall into that category.
When you studied ancient history, you studied Greek mythology and Roman gods and goddesses didn't you?
How condfident are you that those were actual occurences?
Ping
Ping! Looks like I found this one late in the game.
I was never taught that Greek and Roman deities actually existed, just that they were the basis of Classical religion.
Are you proposing teaching that Adam & Eve existed as historical fact?
I think the answer is to put what the ACLU is doing second and go for the jugular vein by lobbying Congress to place a referendum on the next national election to make the ACLU a political party or 527 type of group and make their donations become private donations taxable by the Federal Government. The second alternative is to make it a check box on something like drivers license renewal, and in time the entire population would filter through the process. With the ACLU weakened the battle could still be waged against them in court and the tide would turn in concert with the changes occurring on the Supreme Court
Are you proposing teaching that Adam & Eve existed as historical fact?"
Are you proposing that the books of the Bible are not the basis of Judaism and Christianity?
Ping!
Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) - http://www.alliancedefensefund.org
Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) - http://www.thomasmore.org
American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) - http://www.aclj.org
The Rutherford Institute - http://www.rutherford.org/
Stop the ACLU Coalition - http://www.stoptheaclu.org
Here are a few examples of how two of those organizations are fighting back:
ADF Contacts Over 3,600 School Districts Over Attempts To Censor Christmas
ADF: 700 lawyers ready to fight ACLU lawsuits
ADF: Pentagons' Warning About Boyscouts Is Absurd
Thomas More Law Center: Town of Palm Beach Pays $50,000 In Attorney Fees Apologizes To Women In Nativity Lawsuit
Additional information:
The ACLU must be destroyed: Joseph Farah supports Boy Scouts, urges Americans to fight back
Citizens mobilized to stop ACLU (seeks to consign group to 'ash heap of history')
ACLU fulfilling communist agenda
Revealing FACTS on the ACLU from its own writings
See how YOUR Senator or Representative ranks with the ACLU
This group just started on December 3, 2004 and are looking for new members to their yahoo group
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