In an amazing change in direction the ACLU sided with a second grader from Frenchtown, NJ who wanted to sing "Awesome God" at an elementary school talent show. (USA Today article)
I'm a firm believer in the separation of church and state. Too often have faith and governance walked hand in hand in the western world's form of Christianity. The result is a watered down religion. The church will only be the Church when it assumes its responsibilities and doesn't expect the government, which includes public schools, to do its job.
That being said, I also firmly believe in the right to free speech. The courts with the help of the ACLU have limited religious Americans' ability to exercise this right. Nat Hentoff who wrote the USA Today article sites just such a case in Nevada where a commencement speaker had the audacity to talk about her faith in Christ during her address.
That's what so amazing about the New Jersey case. The ACLU is actually coming down on the side of free speech. Could it be that they are starting to come to their senses and realizing that if one form of free speech is limited, it's not a big jump to limit other forms? Or maybe it's just that they think they've already won the battle of keeping religion out of the public dialog and so they're moving on to something else.
Which ever it is, I'm glad to see that a little girl's freedom to express her beliefs, even her religious ones are being defended.
HT: Steve Beard
Actually the ACLU has defended our religious liberties for years. It has defended the rights of prisoners to practice their religion, freed a street preacher from prison, defended jurors' rights to religious expression, defended a Mormon student's right to wear a t-shirt to school with a religious message, defended the rights of students in Michigan to have religious yearbook entries, defended MA students' rights to distribute candy canes with religious messages, defended the rights of IA students to distribute Christian literature at school, they've even worked with Jerry Falwell.
And that's just the last few years.
Meanwhile the Bush administration recently signed a law limiting the rights of religious protesters to assemble and protest at the funerals of soldiers who have died in Iraq.
Posted by: alan | August 30, 2006 at 11:05 AM
Alan,
My assumption is that you refer to Fred Phelps and the massively inbred Westboro Baptist Church. They are not protesters, they are scum. The ACLU is far down on my list of favorite organizations but I'll take them any day over Phelps and his gang of mental defects.
Posted by: Wes | September 03, 2006 at 09:57 PM
Correction to my post. There was a typo in the blog url.
Posted by: Wes | September 03, 2006 at 10:40 PM
My point wasn't about Phelps.
My comment was about the fact that the ACLU works to support our freedom of religion all the time. So, taking on this case isn't a change in direction at all. In the meantime, there are plenty of examples (and I gave one) where conservatives are limiting rights to free speech. So the "ACLU is bad, Conservatives protect free speech" rhetoric is simply blind to the facts.
Posted by: alan | September 05, 2006 at 09:32 AM
Alan
I'm wondering if there's a prayer at your local high school commencement? I don't think it's necessarily appropriate, but in most places where prayer no longer takes place it's because the school district is afraid of being sued by the ACLU.
Posted by: John B | September 05, 2006 at 04:50 PM
Well, I can't say whether there is or not, as I don't have kids in school. When I was a HS teacher a few years ago there was certainly an invocation at the beginning of the commencement exercises.
When I graduated from high school, back in the time before time, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and God was a child, (1989) we had the normal graduation ceremony, and on the Sunday evening before that we had a "Baccalaureate" ceremony which was a completely voluntary religious (Christian) ceremony with prayer, scripture, and a sermon, held in the HS auditorium. Nearly all the graduating seniors attended.
Posted by: alan | September 06, 2006 at 01:10 PM