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ACLU taking 'God' out of U.S.A.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/1163497.html
It is time for the silent majority to make itself heard by demanding its representatives refuse to give into threats of the vocal minority.
By Stan Katten
For many years, the American Civil Liberties Union and other liberal groups have been striving to remove all references to religion from government and public affairs. They claim that anything tainted with religion has no place in government activities or any public endeavor funded by government because the Constitution specifies strict separation of state and religion. This claim is a gross distortion of the First Amendment clause on religion, which is the only place in the U.S. Constitution that religion is mentioned.
The First Amendment simply states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." The intention of our founding fathers in adding this statement is clear. In colonial times, it was not uncommon in Europe for the church to exercise influence over the kingdoms prevalent in those times, or for government to suppress or prohibit religions not favored. This is what the founders wanted to prevent.
Our nation was formed on the basis of religious freedom, and the First Amendment clause was added to guarantee this freedom as well as speech, press and redress. Any interpretation that this means total separation of religion from government is a vast stretch. Yet we have decades of liberal zealots teaming with liberal judges to remove any hint of religion from public life.
This has been proceeding even though public buildings, edifices and monuments throughout the nation's Capitol, state capitols, and the public buildings of counties and cities are marked with the sayings of our great leaders. These sayings include multitudes of references to the Lord, to God and to the Ten Commandments. They include numerous other historic religious memorabilia that underlie the foundations of our Judeo-Christian ethos. The most common is the inscription on much of our currency, "In God We Trust."
The claims that the freedoms of individuals who do not practice any religion are infringed when they are forced to endure public religious ceremonies or view religious symbols at Christmastime are idiotic nonsense. Yet liberal federal and state judges substantiate this anti-religion movement.
The ACLU, once an organization that stood against the infringement of the civil rights of any individual or group regardless of color, sex, religion, origin or politics, long since has been captured by liberal attorneys who use legal extortion to gain their ends. Take, for example, Los Angeles County wasting nearly a million dollars to remove a small cross from the county seal that merely represented the founding of California by the Spanish fathers. It is inconceivable that the spineless supervisor majority gave into this ACLU threat to bring suit despite the large county legal staff who could have defended against this affront with little additional expense.
The infringement on public religiosity began with the prohibition of prayer in public schools 30-some years ago and continues with the recent lawsuit to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, and the ACLU's "pogrom" against government support of the Boy Scouts. The paradox of this nihilistic effort is the ACLU claiming it is working to prevent religion being forced down the throats of the irreligious while in fact the ACLU is working to force the irreligious beliefs of a small minority down the throats of the religious majority.
This is the least of the damage the ACLU and others are doing to this nation. They also have successfully prevented police from fully describing crime suspects if racial or ethnic data would be included.
And since 9-11, they have prevented so called "racial profiling" by public agencies to prevent suspected terrorists from carrying out their heinous work.
The Department of Transportation has foolishly extracted large fines from airlines whose pilots were accused of racial discrimination. They also have prevented the Transportation Security Administration from using racial characteristics for subjecting certain individuals to special searches, all to the detriment of the homeland security.
It is about time for the silent majority to make itself heard by demanding its representatives refuse to give into the threats of this very small minority, and fight the ACLU by boycotting its members to deprive them of funds to continue their destructive work.
Posted under Fair Use standards
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/1163497.html
It is time for the silent majority to make itself heard by demanding its representatives refuse to give into threats of the vocal minority.
By Stan Katten
For many years, the American Civil Liberties Union and other liberal groups have been striving to remove all references to religion from government and public affairs. They claim that anything tainted with religion has no place in government activities or any public endeavor funded by government because the Constitution specifies strict separation of state and religion. This claim is a gross distortion of the First Amendment clause on religion, which is the only place in the U.S. Constitution that religion is mentioned.
The First Amendment simply states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ..." The intention of our founding fathers in adding this statement is clear. In colonial times, it was not uncommon in Europe for the church to exercise influence over the kingdoms prevalent in those times, or for government to suppress or prohibit religions not favored. This is what the founders wanted to prevent.
Our nation was formed on the basis of religious freedom, and the First Amendment clause was added to guarantee this freedom as well as speech, press and redress. Any interpretation that this means total separation of religion from government is a vast stretch. Yet we have decades of liberal zealots teaming with liberal judges to remove any hint of religion from public life.
This has been proceeding even though public buildings, edifices and monuments throughout the nation's Capitol, state capitols, and the public buildings of counties and cities are marked with the sayings of our great leaders. These sayings include multitudes of references to the Lord, to God and to the Ten Commandments. They include numerous other historic religious memorabilia that underlie the foundations of our Judeo-Christian ethos. The most common is the inscription on much of our currency, "In God We Trust."
The claims that the freedoms of individuals who do not practice any religion are infringed when they are forced to endure public religious ceremonies or view religious symbols at Christmastime are idiotic nonsense. Yet liberal federal and state judges substantiate this anti-religion movement.
The ACLU, once an organization that stood against the infringement of the civil rights of any individual or group regardless of color, sex, religion, origin or politics, long since has been captured by liberal attorneys who use legal extortion to gain their ends. Take, for example, Los Angeles County wasting nearly a million dollars to remove a small cross from the county seal that merely represented the founding of California by the Spanish fathers. It is inconceivable that the spineless supervisor majority gave into this ACLU threat to bring suit despite the large county legal staff who could have defended against this affront with little additional expense.
The infringement on public religiosity began with the prohibition of prayer in public schools 30-some years ago and continues with the recent lawsuit to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, and the ACLU's "pogrom" against government support of the Boy Scouts. The paradox of this nihilistic effort is the ACLU claiming it is working to prevent religion being forced down the throats of the irreligious while in fact the ACLU is working to force the irreligious beliefs of a small minority down the throats of the religious majority.
This is the least of the damage the ACLU and others are doing to this nation. They also have successfully prevented police from fully describing crime suspects if racial or ethnic data would be included.
And since 9-11, they have prevented so called "racial profiling" by public agencies to prevent suspected terrorists from carrying out their heinous work.
The Department of Transportation has foolishly extracted large fines from airlines whose pilots were accused of racial discrimination. They also have prevented the Transportation Security Administration from using racial characteristics for subjecting certain individuals to special searches, all to the detriment of the homeland security.
It is about time for the silent majority to make itself heard by demanding its representatives refuse to give into the threats of this very small minority, and fight the ACLU by boycotting its members to deprive them of funds to continue their destructive work.
Posted under Fair Use standards