Card-Carrying Members

That's what real Americans are, card-carrying members.

By: Bryan Zepp Jamieson

When you deal with the right wing spin machine a lot, it gets pretty easy to tell when the Supine Court is taking up the issue of separation of church and state, whether it be use of public facilities for religious purposes, infringements on religious liberty, or school vouchers.

The religious right, always willing to portray itself as the biggest, meanest, strongest victim on the block, immediately starts a chorus of whines about how liberals and the ACLU "hate Christianity".

With the court taking up the issue of vouchers this week (the right is trying to rename it "school choice", which is pretty hilarious, because it's mostly the same people who call pro-choice people "pro-death"), the anti-ACLU propaganda is in full swing. Liberals and the ACLU hate Christianity. That's what they keep telling us.

With liberals, it pretty much depends on the individual liberal. I don't know any who actually hate Christianity, but I know a number who don't have a lot of patience for some of the noisier types parading around under the guise of religion.

One thing the people who whine that "liberals hate Christianity" should keep in mind is that most liberals in America ARE Christians, so right off the bat, they've managed to make themselves look pretty silly.

The ACLU presents an easier target. Everyone knows that they played key roles in the monumental cases of the 50's and 60's that, depending on your point of view, either kicked God out of America (quite a trick, that, if the reports on omnipotence are to be believed) or restored the Constitution to its rightful place and saved America from the shackles of theocracy.

The truth, of course, lies between the two. The ACLU has emphatically and proudly upheld the right of Americans to never see their tax dollars go to support any particular church or religion.

But going back to the days of George Wallace, the right has vilified the ACLU because it has done so much to dismantle their "right" to oppress, to segregate, to impose, to coerce. A lot of the claims they make against the ACLU aren't real, but their hatred of the organization is.

So 40 years ago, the phrase "a card carrying member of the ACLU" became an epithet.

In the movie, The American President (written by Aaron Sorkin and basically a trial run for The West Wing), Michael Douglas, accused of being "a card carrying member of the ACLU", demands at a press conference to know what, exactly, is wrong with being associated with a group that has devoted itself to upholding the Constitution of the United States.

Hopefully, the movie caused a lot of people who hear nothing about the ACLU except that it's a bunch of bad-ass Jewish trial lawyers who hate mom, apple pie, and God, not necessarily in that order, to rethink their perceptions of the organization.

But the religious right plows right ahead with its propaganda, and the best of them simply don't know what the hell they are talking about while the worst of them are simply lying through their teeth in the name of their God.

To claim that the ACLU is anti-religion requires that you ignore the many times the ACLU has gone to bat on behalf of believers and churches, defending the rights of people to observe their holy days, follow their rites, attend their churches, and wear the clothing and accoutrements appropriate to their faith.

The religious right, one of the biggest beneficiaries of this heroic stance by the ACLU, are vile and hypocritical in the extreme when they whip around and accuse this group of hating them because the ACLU won't let them impose their religion on other Americans.

Few Protestants seem to understand that "the wall of separation between church and state", that phrase that they tirelessly remind everyone "doesn't appear anywhere in the constitution", appeared first in a letter from Thomas Jefferson in response to a question about church autonomy. Furthermore, Thomas Jefferson wasn't confronting the Baptists on the matter, he was reassuring them. In a country heavily dominated by Anglican/Episcopalians, the Baptists were deeply concerned that their freedom to worship as they wished might be infringed. That's a little something to remind the Baptists of next time they wank about "Christian hating" Democrats. Get in their faces on it. It's time they got called on this crap.

But the ACLU not only defends the right of kids not to have to pray in forms in which they don't believe, and it not only defends the right of Americans never to be taxed to support someone else's religion, but it defends the rights of believers. Here's some recent examples, right from the ACLU's web page:

• Wednesday, June 25, 1997

  In a case raising important questions about religious liberty and the power of Congress, the United States Supreme Court today said that Congress overstepped its power to legislate constitutional rights when it enacted a federal law designed to protect religious observances from government interference.

  Writing for a 6 to 3 majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act did not provide a remedy for unconstitutional acts, which would have been an appropriate act of Congress, but represented a substantive change in constitutional rights - a power he said is reserved for the judicial branch of government.

  The American Civil Liberties Union, which supported the law in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion, disagreed with the Court's assessment of the law, and said that the ruling will allow government to more easily infringe on religion [sic] liberty.

  "This is a disappointing ruling that further erodes the constitutional protection for our free exercise of religion", said Steven R. Shapiro, the ACLU's National Legal Director. "In our view, this law was well within Congress' authority to enforce the Constitution. Unfortunately, the Court's decision today has once again lowered the threshold at which the government can take away our religious freedom."

• Monday, March 22, 1999

  In the first case to be filed under Florida's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida goes to trial today on behalf of seven families seeking to prevent the removal and destruction of religious symbols placed at the gravesites of their loved ones.

  At issue is the City of Boca Raton's threat to remove various vertical memorials, including Christian crosses, Stars of David, and other religious symbols, from cemetery plots at the Boca Raton Community Cemetery. The ACLU will argue that under the new law, passed in 1998, removal of religious items from grave sites would constitute a substantial burden on religion.

  The lawsuit, Warner, et al. v. The City of Boca Raton, was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union's Palm Beach Chapter on January 12, 1998, on behalf of seven families who are members of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths.

• Tuesday, July 20, 1999

  The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia yesterday asked a federal judge to issue a summary ruling in favor of a minister who declines, for religious reasons, to have his photograph taken for a drivers' license.

  The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of Rev. Benjamin David Daniel Cyrus of Garrardstown in December in federal court in Charleston after the state refused to issue him a drivers' license without a photograph.

  Rev. Cyrus, a minister in The Church of the Firstborn at New Jerusalem, objects to picture taking as a matter of faith. His religious beliefs prohibit the use of "graven images".

So next time you hear one of the brain-dead minions of the right chanting that the ACLU hates Christianity and religion, show them this, or point them in the direction of the ACLU webpage: http://www.aclu.org/

If they STILL keep prattling about the religion hating liberals in the ACLU, tell them that they are really disgracing their own faith with such a gaudy display of hypocrisy and just flat-out lying. Ask them why they insist on lying. Get in their faces. Take your country back.

Finally, here's what appears on the opening page of the ACLU. Enjoy it, savor it, and then go out and help them fight for your freedoms. With an administration that appears interested in imposing a fascistic theocracy on us, the ACLU is our greatest weapon.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."

- The First Amendment

With more than 1,500 different religious bodies, and 360,000 churches, mosques and synagogues, the U.S. is the most religiously diverse, and one of the most devout countries in the world. Moreover, we enjoy unparalleled religious liberty, and sectarian strife is relatively rare. Today, however, religious extremists are attempting to impose their beliefs and practices on everyone else by enlisting the government's support and aid. These efforts, if successful, will threaten each individual's right to worship, or not worship, as he or she pleases.

Some people mistakenly believe that separation of church and state implies hostility to religion. But in fact, the opposite is true. The Constitution's framers understood very well that religious liberty can flourish only if the government leaves religion alone. The free exercise clause of the First Amendment guarantees the right to practice one's religion free of government interference. The establishment clause requires the separation of church and state.

Combined, they ensure religious liberty.