Posted on 08/25/2005 11:54:42 AM PDT by Ellesu
The director of the Louisiana ACLU issued an apology Thursday for comments made in an Eyewitness News interview last week during which he compared the mindset of school prayer supporters in Tangipahoa Parish to that of the 9-11 terrorists.
“I want to express my sincere regrets for my use of hyperbole and the analogy that I made regarding Tangipahoa Parish public school officials,” said ACLU Director Joe Cook. “I see how my unfortunate choice of rhetoric could be interpreted as disdain for religious beliefs, but that is absolutely not my position, nor the position of the national ACLU or any of its affiliates.”
Cook made his comments on August 15 when asked about classes being held for teachers in Tangipahoa Parish as school system officials tried to explain what can and can’t be done as far as prayers in the school room.
In his comments, Cook, who has made legal moves against the Tangipahoa Parish school board following some incidents of prayers being said over loudspeakers and in classrooms, said the system has done little to enforce a judge’s rulings.
“They don’t want to abide by the agreement,” said Cook in the August 15 interview. “They have always crossed the line of separation of church and government… They believe they answer to a higher power, in my opinion… which is the kind of thinking you had with the people who flew airplanes in the buildings in this country and people who did that kind of thing in London.”
In Thursday’s press release, Cook emphasized that his organization supports religious liberty and has handled many cases to protect the rights of Christians.
“Our message in the Tangipahoa schools case and elsewhere is simple: religious freedom thrives best when government stays out of religion,” he said. “We stand on dangerous ground when the government decides to favor one religious belief over others, even if that belief is the majority faith.”
Cook’s statement in the original August 15 interview was quickly denounced by members of the Tangipahoa system.
“I feel sorry for Mr. Cook and I hate that he would make a statement like that,” said Superintendent Louis Joseph of the Tangipahoa Public School system, following the original comments. “We have a lot of sincere, well-trained and educated people in this school system and to try to indict some of them with a statement like that is totally false.”
that cartoon is a little misleading, they hate all religions except for islam
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;...
What separation of church and government? I don't see the Congress making a law here, I don't see any national religion here. What I do see is prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Thanks much for the ping. I went on the ACUL (AllCriminalsLoveUs) website for Louisiana, and printed out their "complaint" form - oddly, there's no place on their site for e-mail "contact" and the "complaint" form can't be e-mailed in. So I'm going to fill out the complaint form against that fool Joe Cook and mail it to them.
I wonder where the HREV-HER-HUND Jesse Jackson is on this. Is he telling anybody that the apology is not enough? Trying to connect this guy with leading Democrats?
This they are and one of their kind sits openly on the US Supreme Court. And she did so with Republican assistance.
Lying plague rat in a human suit.
He wears a hat indoors?
To hide his demon horns.
Are we talking about the same ACLU? Its bread and butter is Christian-hating.
The ACLU has a policy of removing all mention of Christianity from public life. These are virulent Christian haters.
Opened the closet door a little too wide and people saw what was really inside ...
The ACLU operates STILL as a kind of shadowgovernment of its own, with its own rules and dispensations. It makes use of mainly ONE branch of government, the Judicial, to promote its agenda. Hence, it is THEY, and THEY alone who
"have always crossed trhe line of separation of church and government." This is what Freud called "projection"---accusing your enemies of what you yourself are guilty of---as if only be doing that can you distract and divert attention from yourself, and your transgressions. The Left has been doing this for a long long time. My feeling grows that the hammer is gonna come down on the ACLU, VERY SOON, and its gonna come down BIGTIME.
Obviously, he was told to apologize by the ACLU, who threatened to sue themselves because of the damages sustained to themselves by the wrongful actions (revealing the mindset of the ACLU members) of said member.
Despite the party of the first part being a member of the party of the second part, the parts were not the same, as the party of the second part obviously threatened the party of the first part with termination if said member did not mitigate the damages caused to the party of the second part.
Oh, this makes my head hurt.
yup , he's Timothy Leary's twin ,"hey Joe,tune in,turn on,DROP DEAD!!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.