TESTING THE FAITH

Praying school board
likened to terrorists

ACLU boss compares officials to 'people who flew the airplanes into the buildings'

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Posted: August 17, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern


A local ACLU director equated al-Qaida terrrorists with members of a Louisiana school board seeking to open their meetings with prayer.

Joe Cook of the ACLU of Louisiana spoke on camera with WAFB-TV, Baton Rouge, La., while staff and teachers of the Tangipahoa Parish district in New Orleans were at a seminar being informed of their free-speech rights by a member of the Alliance Defense Fund.

Referring to the school board, Cook said, "They believe that they answer to a higher power, in my opinion. Which is the kind of thinking that you had with the people who flew the airplanes into the buildings in this country, and the people who did the kind of things in London."


Mike Johnson, senior counsel and southeastern regional coordinator for the Alliance Defense Fund, said Cook has become increasingly outlandish in his statements.

"It shows the ACLU has become more and more extreme and marginalized," said Johnson. "So, to that extent, I like it when he talks, because he simply reveals who they are."

Johnson said the ACLU tries to "come across as champions of liberty, but the truth of the matter is they are extremists."

"It's clear in a number of recent cases that the ACLU of Louisiana wants to impose a radical form of secularism that the Constitution doesn't require, and frankly, that people of this state are not willing to accept," Johnson said.

The local ACLU has filed three lawsuits in the past 10 years on behalf of "offended parents" with children in the Tangipahoa Parish district.

The board is appealing a federal judge's ruling that prayers at its regular meetings violate the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution, which says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

The board – which has opened each of its meetings with a prayer, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, for more than 30 years – argues the invocations impose no restriction on any religious viewpoint, and any person who wants to lead the prayer may do so regardless of his religious beliefs.

In 2003, however, a parent of two high school students in the district, represented by the ACLU, filed a lawsuit claiming the invocations were unconstitutional.

The trial judge recognized it is constitutional for legislative or deliberative bodies to begin meetings with prayer, but she ruled the principle did not apply to the school board.



The ACLU says, "The school board's consistent defiance of the law not only dishonors and endangers the Constitution, but it also sends a message of religious intolerance and polarizes the community."

In April, the ACLU of Louisiana filed a motion for criminal contempt against the board for allegedly defying a court order banning official prayer at athletic events.

In March, the local ACLU also asked a judge to hold the board in contempt for allowing an elementary school student to recite the Lord's Prayer before its meeting.

Public prayer at school-related functions is "un-American and immoral," Cook said at the time.

"Public schools should be kept inclusive and secular in keeping with our founders' ideas for religious liberty for all," said Cook. "Because public schools are part of the government, official school-organized or school-sponsored devotional exercises are inconsistent with the principle of religious freedom."

Cook made his comments to the New Orleans TV station while the ADF's Johnson was providing in-service training to the district's 1,500 staff and teachers, outlining the legal parameters in which they can express religious faith in a public school setting.

"What [the ACLU desires] is to remove all religious expression from the public square," Johnson said. "But the people of Louisiana are not along for that ride. [Cook] has a very different vision for the country that the people here do. Traditional family values and religious liberty are still things held in high regard here. When he comes forward with this message, there is a backlash."

Johnson said most of the seminar amounted to going through the Department of Education guidelines on prayer in schools.

Any school receiving federal funding through the No Child Left Behind Act must commit to the guidelines each year, but the information rarely is passed down to the classroom, Johnson said.

The guidelines – first issued in 1995 under President Clinton and most recently revised by the Bush adminstration in 2003 – essentially say students and teachers maintain their rights to free speech and religious expression on campus.

All religious express that is student-led and not a material disruption to the school program must be allowed, Johnson emphasized.

Public schools must be neutral toward religion and allow equal access to student media outlets and facilities for after-hours events. If a math club can use a classroom, a religious-oriented one can use one too, Johnson said.

So who's a bigger danger to society; the ACLU or Pastor (sic) Fred Phelps?

People in glass houses...

Phelps is a whacko who does not represent anyone but his cult following who try and claim christianity. Who do they (does he) influence in this country? Who takes him seriously?

Looping Phelps into this is as silly as that ACLU lawyer looping the 9/11 terrorists into it...

Oh, and what danger does phelps pose? his ignorant and outlandish antics aren't dangerous as far as I can tell. Stupid and confused - but not dangerous. He's about as dangersous as that cindy shean (sp?) chick... Just empty cans rattling about hoping to stay in the spotlight as long as possible...

Just like the ACLU is absolute that neither is doing God's will and that there is no God. Any position that is "absolute" is dangerous if it does not respect the other side's right to a differing opinion...

And if he is found guilty of a crime, he should be prosecuted apropriately. But the danger of Phelps compared the the danger of the ACLU is apples and oranges. It's like trying to compare the danger of communism to the danger of a 'possible' tornado.

Must faith (any) and the law exist ONLY in the extreme?

"The board – which has opened each of its meetings with a prayer, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, for more than 30 years – argues the invocations impose no restriction on any religious viewpoint, and any person who wants to lead the prayer may do so regardless of his religious beliefs. "

........

Why can't people allow moderation today?

If someone prays (to any God/Diety), why is it that in todays world they are also likened to the murdering mentally ill and brainwashed extremist Muslims?

Just because you take a drink at night, does that make you (or me) an alcoholic?

I should think not. It seems that "tolerance" (of any kind) only applies to those who scream that they have been *violated* by another person exercising their AMERICAN human rights. (yeah, it also means you got the right to gripe about it)

Yeesh..

G'night all.

What danger does the ACLU pose? Are you afraid the Constitution will be upheld?


So a "local ACLU" dude says something stupid, so the ACLU is the enemy?

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I guess they've decided to take on another client (other than the North American Man Boy Love Association) :

ACLU to Gitmo inmates: Don't talk
Prisoners advised of 'right' not to answer interrogators

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Posted: August 18, 2005
10:27 p.m. Eastern

U.S. military sources tell Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin that American Civil Liberties Union attorneys have been permitted to advise Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including Taliban and al-Qaida operatives, that they have the right not to answer the questions of interrogators.

In addition, the Pentagon has brought in a veteran staff attorney from the ACLU to serve as chief defense counsel in future military tribunals.

Lighten up there Kantankerous Kid :p

I only edited my post because when I reviewed it I discovered that in my copy and paste haste I accidently copied an additional (unrelated) story too.

No need to get your Biorithyms in a bunch :p --It's almost evening now so you can loosen your ponytail scrunchie, kick off your sandals, lite some http://www.patchouligarden.com/patchouli.html and just get mellllllllllllllllllow.

Peace, love and brown rice!!

Krusty and the NAMBLA thing...

"The lady dost protest too much, methinks." A la mayor Jim West.



And the Pentagon, a very conservative branch of government, hiring the ACLU. That's gotta put the neocon's panties in a wad.

ACLU Defending Woman Accused Of Using Drugs While Pregnant

POSTED: 1:24 pm EDT August 18, 2005

EASTON, Md. -- Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union are appealing the conviction of an Easton woman who was accused of endangering a child by using cocaine while she was pregnant.

Kelly Cruz, 30, was found guilty of a reckless endangerment charge Aug. 5 after waiving her right to a jury trial. She was ordered to serve 2 1/2 years in prison.

Cruz was charged in February, about a month after giving birth to a premature baby boy who tested positive for cocaine.

Defense attorneys had sought an acquittal, arguing there was never a risk of harm to another person -- because a fetus doesn't meet the definition of a person under state law. But a Talbot County judge ruled that the person who suffered the risk was the baby after it was born.

ACLU attorneys said prosecuting women for their actions during pregnancy is unprecedented elsewhere in Maryland and claim it is an attempt to create a new crime by charging pregnant women for harming their fetuses.
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Don't you just love the way the hair smells on a little fetuses when you hold them?

Ya see?! Another example of an activist judge trying to legislate from the bench!

Or not? What a neocon conundrum.

Face it fellas, Rory hates the US Constitution.

There's just no other explanation.

Unless he's such a brickhead that he forgot the ACLU fights to uphold EVERYONE'S constitutional rights, not just his.

And if you hate the constitutional rights, Rory, then you hate the Constitution...........and from that we can conclude you hate the United States of America.

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D anuS,

By your saying, "the ACLU fights to uphold EVEYONE'S constitutional rights", does your use of the the word everyone's include those millions of Americans that cherish their 2nd Amendment constitutional right to keep and bear arms?


Or by everone's do you mean just upholding those rights of the people who's cases happen to fit neatly into or promote their (the ACLU's) political agenda?


When was the last time the ACLU fought to protect/uphold American's 2nd Amendment constitutional rights?


Let's see you actually back up one of those 'matter of fact' statements you love to queef off. Like KK says, "show your work."

The ACLU has made its statement about the 2nd amendment. They have stated that they believe a "well-regulated militia" means a well-regulated militia. If you don't agree, then write them a nice letter asking them to reconsider their position.

Or, you could cry.


That'd almost qualify as one of those personal attacks you're always sniveling about, wouldn't it? :p

Has the ACLU ever taken steps to eliminate someone's 2nd Amendment rights?

Has anyone ever sued another individual, that the ACLU refused to defend, in order to eliminate that person's 2nd Amendment right?

If not, then why is that question even relevent?

In the neocon's mind, complete with delusions of persecution, do they equate abscence of fact with validity of arguement?

Dan, I HAVE to know where that Avatar is from. That is just AWESOME... That guy looks so goofy its great

Curtis

power v. bliss?

what WILL he choose?

Knowledge = enlightened. Krusty's got a real problem with people being enlightened.

Main Entry: knowledge
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: understanding
Synonyms: ability, accomplishments, acquaintance, apprehension, attainments, awareness, cognition, comprehension, consciousness, dirt, discernment, doctrine, dogma, dope, education, enlightenment, erudition, expertise, facts, etc...
Antonyms: ignorance, neocons, Krusty, etc...