The ACLU Attacks a Marine Praying?

Another old favorite circulating the web is that the ACLU is anti-God and Anti-American and they use e-mail suggesting that the ACLU is against a Marine praying.  Nothing can be farther from the truth.  The event never happened and the ACLU is our greatest defenders of our right to practice or not practice a religion.  In my response, you will be surprised at a sampling list of pro-religion cases that the ACLU supported.

My reply...

Thanks for forwarding the e-mail message suggesting that the ACLU was against a recent gathering of U. S. Marines praying in public. Since I was a little surprised by this accusation, I checked with the ACLU web site and evidently this urban legend has been making the rounds for a number of years. Contrary to the e-mail message, the ACLU states, "We have no knowledge of this event, nor have we ever had a spokesperson by the name of Lucius Traveler."


I have an opinion I would like to share with you, and I would love to get your reaction.

I believe that the “unsubstantiated” junk mail, e-rumors and urban legends that many of us send and receive, every day, may be tearing our nation apart by pushing us deeper into our camps.

The great majority of Americans are Christians and many would like to have the Ten Commandments enshrined on government properties, however contrary to the ninth commandment, "Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor,” many of us have forwarded unsubstantiated e-rumors. Recognizing the problem, I am beginning to reflect on the harmful and immoral effects of spreading false rumors via e-mail.

With regards to the anti-ACLU e-mail, I am embarrassed to admit that many of my friends, who appropriately love the freedoms our forefathers won for them, are extremely ignorant of what our freedoms are. A survey by the Freedom Museum in January of 2006, found that only one in a THOUSAND Americans can even name the Five Freedoms given to us by the Bill of Rights (without Googling, of course), while 28% can name all five members of the cartoon Simpson family. Pretty sad!

When asked, the vast majority cannot even tell you in what founding document the Bill of Rights resides or how many amendments there are to the Bill of Rights, or even more sadly, what form of government we are. Most will say, that we are a pure Democracy; we are not! Benjamin Franklin referred to majority-rule as “Mobocracy,” and Jefferson said that the future of America would not be left to the “whims of men.” And so our founding fathers decided to “...chain us to the law” with a Constitutional Republic, founded on laws that defended the rights-of-the-individual…NOT the majority. I am sure we have all experienced, with great frequency, how wrong-headed the majority can be at times; ergo, we are founded on laws and principles. That is why when our representatives take the oath of office, they swear to “support and defend” the Constitution, NOT the majority opinion in their district. That is what makes us different, indeed, that is what has made America great.

Therefore, it would seem, that the ACLU is attacked by freedom loving Americans who have very little knowledge of what their freedoms are or what a Republic is. The ACLU is the oldest American organization dedicated to the protection of the Bill of Rights, and yet they are repeatedly attacked by people who refer to themselves as patriots, lovers of their country. How can that be?! How can lovers of our country seemingly hate deeply committed lovers and protectors of our Bill of Rights? Voltaire was once attributed the statement, “I may hate what you say, but I will fight to the death, your right to say it.” Should not every American patriot give full support to this stirring American principle? The ACLU does!

Indeed, it is part of the mission statement of the ACLU, to defend the Bill of Rights, the right of an American citizen to exercise the freedoms of speech, press, religion, peaceful assembly, and to petition the government for grievances.

In the end, I believe some of our friends would be shocked to discover that the ACLU recently and successfully defended a second-grader's right to sing "Awesome God" at a talent show; an evangelical’s right to preach on a sidewalk; and a Mormon student's right to wear a religious T-shirt to school.

I’ve put together a sampling-list of recent ACLU successes in defending a citizen’s right to practice or not to practice, their religious belief, for the majority has no right over the minority in religious practices in our constitutional republic. Thankfully, for my religious beliefs are held by a small minority. Notice in these successes how the majority or community position, consistently loses:

September 20, 2005: ACLU of New Jersey joins lawsuit supporting second-grader's right to sing "Awesome God" at a talent show.

August 4, 2005: ACLU helps free a New Mexico street preacher from prison.

May 25, 2005: ACLU sues Wisconsin prison on behalf of a Muslim woman who was forced to remove her headscarf in front of male guards and prisoners.

February 2005: ACLU of Pennsylvania successfully defends the right of an African American Evangelical church to occupy a church building purchased in a predominantly white parish.

December 22, 2004: ACLU of New Jersey successfully defends right of religious expression by jurors.

November 20, 2004: ACLU of Nevada supports free speech rights of evangelists to preach on the sidewalks of the strip in Las Vegas.

November 9, 2004: ACLU of Nevada defends a Mormon student who was suspended after wearing a T-shirt with a religious message to school.

August 11, 2004: ACLU of Nebraska defends church facing eviction by the city of Lincoln.

July 10, 2004: Indiana Civil Liberties Union defends the rights of a Baptist minister to preach his message on public streets.

June 3, 2004: Under pressure from the ACLU of Virginia, officials agree not to prohibit baptisms on public property in Falmouth Waterside Park in Stafford County.

May 11, 2004: After ACLU of Michigan intervened on behalf of a Christian Valedictorian; a public high school agrees to stop censoring religious yearbook entries.

March 25, 2004: ACLU of Washington defends an Evangelical minister's right to preach on sidewalks.

February 21, 2003: ACLU of Massachusetts defends students punished for distributing candy canes with religious messages.

October 28, 2002: ACLU of Pennsylvania files discrimination lawsuit over denial of zoning permit for African American Baptist church.

July 11, 2002: ACLU supports right of Iowa students to distribute Christian literature at school.

April 17, 2002: In a victory for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the ACLU of Virginia, a federal judge strikes down a provision of the Virginia Constitution that bans religious organizations from incorporating.

January 18, 2002: ACLU defends Christian church's right to run "anti-Santa" ads in Boston subways.

Surprised?

In the end, I am going to do my best not to forward unsubstantiated E-rumors thereby bearing false witness against our neighbors.

Let us rededicate ourselves to a better understanding of what the Bill of Rights REALLY states and support any organization that joins us in this great fight, for when Benjamin Franklin was asked, “What form of government have you given us?” He replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it!”