The ACLU’s Double Standards On Church And State
Posted on May 22, 2006
Michelle Malkin asks her readers to compare and contrast…
In Dallas, a school district strikes the words “In God We Trust” from the photo of an enlarged nickel on a yearbook cover for fear of offending students of differing religions.
In California, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (the one that outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance for its reference to God) approved putting public school students through Muslim role-playing exercises.
So what does the ACLU have to say about all this? Well, on taking “In God We Trust” off of the Dallas school’s yearbook, they had this to say:
Michael Linz, a Dallas attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the district’s move was appropriate, sensitive and constitutional.
“Sometimes administrators and schools are really caught trying to make appropriate decisions with respect to people’s views. Someone is always going to complain,” he said. “I think that the school administrators were drawing the appropriate line by trying not to offend others.”
Yes, we wouldn’t want to offend anyone right?
So lets take a look at the second situation.
In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California’s 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it’s OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:
Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with “In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . .”Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: “Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger.”
Chanting “Praise be to Allah” in response to teacher prompts.
Professing as “true” the Muslim belief that “The Holy Quran is God’s word.”
Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially “becoming a Muslim” for two full weeks.
Parents of seventh-graders, who after 9-11 were taught the pro-Islamic lessons as part of California’s world history curriculum, sued under the First Amendment ban on religious establishment. They argued, reasonably, that the government was promoting Islam.
But a federal judge appointed by President Clinton told them in so many words to get over it, that the state was merely teaching kids about another “culture.”
So the parents appealed. Unfortunately, the most left-wing court in the land got their case. The 9th Circuit, which previously ruled in favor of an atheist who filed suit against the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, upheld the lower court ruling.
The decision is a major victory for the multiculturalists and Islamic apologists in California and across the country who’ve never met a culture or religion they didn’t like — with the exception of Western civilization and Christianity. They are legally in the clear to indoctrinate kids into the “peaceful” and “tolerant” religion of Islam, while continuing to denigrate Judeo-Christian values.
In the California course on world religions, Christianity is not presented equally. It’s covered in just two days and doesn’t involve kids in any role-playing activities. But kids do get a good dose of skepticism about the Christian faith, including a biting history of its persecution of other peoples. In contrast, Islam gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is presented as an “internal personal struggle to do one’s best to resist temptation,” and not holy war…
…This case is critical not just to our culture but our national security. It should be brought before the Supreme Court, which has outlawed prayer in school. Let’s see what it says about practicing Islam in class. It will be a good test for the bench’s two new conservative justices.
Bos’un Lockerhas thoughts they want to share on this.
So, surely the ACLU will file suit to keep religious indoctrination out of the California schools! After all, they are always concerned about the “wall of seperation” in our schools. We also know exactly how they feel about school mandated prayers. What does the ACLU have to say about this one?
The following can be attributed to the Executive Director of the local ACLU:
» Filed Under ACLU, Church And State, News
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11 Responses to “The ACLU’s Double Standards On Church And State”
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There is a double standard because there is a cultural war being waged by liberal relativists on Christian American values. Anything that undermines those values is a premium to the left and the Mohammedan activists in America.
I nominate Theway2k for the Most Meaningless Cliches Used in Two Sentences Award. Excellent work.
This is one of the main reasons public education, funded by the goverment, is so unConstitutional. First, if someone is offended by the words “In God We Trust”, too bad. There is no right to not be offended in our Constitution. Second, it seems the only way the ACLU seems to be able to handle church and state issues is to eliminate freedom of expression altogether. Either allow them all or do not allow any. Obviously the former is not realistic but the latter is a blatant violation of civil liberties. Privatize the system, and parents can put kids in the school they want to be in.
As long as we are nominating for awards, Captain Irational should get the most annoying one.
You’re really one to talk about cliches. Liberal cliche phrases are all you ever have to say.
Actually, to be absolutely fair, the decision to leave the words “In God We Trust” off of the yearbooks in the Dallas area school district was made by the PTA at that high school. Parents suggested this idea as a way to avoid offending anyone.
Of course, that is still a sad statement on how brainwashed parents are today. God forbid we offend anyone.
Some people don’t understand that role play is pretend.
Say what? I make a point of not using empty cliches, and I even wrote a post about the subject a while back. I’m all about cleaning up political debate.
Today it’s role-playing, tomorrow it’s jihad. Next time little Suzie comes home from school, I’d suggest running her through one of those airport baggage scanners.
But getting back to the topic, teaching about a religion as part of a culture or in a historical perspective isn’t a problem as far as I’m concerned. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, whatever it is. When I was in high school (a public school), we spent a considerable amount of time studying the Bible as part of an English Lit class. In a government class we studied Judeo-Christian moral and legal codes - even that guy named Jesus! There was even a Christian club/Bible study thing after school! I didn’t have a problem with any of it, because it was part of the learning process. It wasn’t until college that I was really exposed to other cultures, but I wish I had had the opportunity earlier in life.
The line that needs to be drawn is between education and endorsement. It’s definitely possible to teach about something without endorsing it, but that same can’t be said for prayer.
AH, another Liberal jackass who doesn’t understand that saying a prayer is not an Endorsement, nor is it Indoctrination, nor is it an Imposition. Its the same old typical bullcrap scare tactic spin they use all the time. Further, there is NO law against endorsing a religion either idiot.
“Its the same old typical bullcrap scare tactic spin they use all the time. Further, there is NO law against endorsing a religion either idiot.”
No its just a problem to respect their establishment.
I love all the name-calling that goes on here. I think from now on whenever somebody applies any sort of derogatory term to me I’ll donate $20 to the ACLU in that person’s name.
You really don’t see the potential for abuse in the interpretation of the Establishment Clause that argues that everything short of naming Christianity as the nation’s official religion is acceptable? Both religion and government mean a hell of a lot more when they’re kept in their own spheres than when they’re awkwardly mashed together just to prove some kind of point.
The United States of America has been blessed by God more than any nation ever. We have done great good during most of its existence. However, I do not think we have been doing so well lately since we have turned our backs on God, Jesus Christ and adherence to moral absolutes found in the scripture.
We remove God from our schools inserting instead the religion of secular humanism, which worships man as god. We worship the creature and not the Creator. We are trying to abolish all vestiges of the true meaning and celebration of Christmas and Easter. We promote pornography, perversion and profanity on our broadcast airwaves, yet deny the mere mention of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in any venue except church. We call this progress. I call this regression, de-evolution. We call the truth a lie and we call evil good.
I believe that if the founders of this nation were to return en masse today what they would find would shock them and cause them to start another revolution. Maybe they would change the words to the song and sing . . . (to the tune of Melanie Safka’s Look What They’ve Done to My Song)
Look what they’ve done to my country, Lord
Look what the judges have done to my country
Well they’ve taken it so far left its almost gone
And it’s turning out all wrong, Lord
Look what they’ve done to my country
Enough, let’s let us wake up and strengthen the things that remain …