Re: Let's say I break into your house 9, was: Good news for US -- Secure Fence Act of 2006

["Robert L Bass" <robertbass1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Flanigan, author of the cited website, has a nasty habit of distorting the facts to suit his crusade.  For example, a news
story about Jackson, MS said the following:

"Jackson residents learned more about their rights during a Community Crime Summit. The American Civil Liberties Union of
Mississippi held its second town meeting at the Eudora Welty Library. In video presentations, residents learned how to react when
stopped by police, their responsibilities as citizens and about the Cop Watch Program, which monitors the actions of law officers.
The organization says Jackson needs better trained police officers. They say residents feel abused by officers and locked out of the
decision making process. Nsombi Lambright of the ACLU of Mississippi said, 'In the city they feel like government is out of control
and that people are not representing their best interests and they feel like there's just a general lack of accountability.'
Residents also discussed establishing a civilian review board to monitor citizen complaints and police conduct."

Flanigan's take on the story: "So the ACLU sees the Crime Summit as a way to train people on how best to avoid arrest, make the job
of law enforcement more difficult, and initiate a program to make sure the police are not (gasp!) enforcing the law."

Most thinking folks would call that a deliberate distortion by Flanigan.

> In July 2000 the ACLU supported a movement to
> remove a schoolboard ban on Wiccan religious
> expression.

This is another distortion.  In fact, a student in Richlands sued because the school forbade him from wearing a Wiccan symbol on his
clothing.  School boards cannot endorse religion nor they cannot forbid students from expressing their faith.  The Constitution, as
amended, doesn't just forbid government from establishing religion.  It basically says that the government must keep its hands off
of religion.  In this case the school board wrongly denied the student his freedom of religious expression.  The ACLU supported the
student and well they should.  The irony of it is that the student is not a Wiccan.  He just wanted to exercise his freedom and
*that* is what the Constitution is all about -- freedom.
"RICHLANDS - This little Southwest Virginia mountain town sure doesn't look like a hotbed of Wiccans. But a Richlands High School
student, who says he is not a Wiccan, has enlisted the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia in his fight to display
a Wiccan symbol on his clothing at school." -- wire service story.
> In June 2002 the N. Carolina ACLU went to court to support the
> mandatory reading by UNC freshmen a pro-Islam book and portions of the
> Quran.  Can you imagine the response if UNC had assigned students
> readings form the Old Testament?

I'm not certain but ISTR this was a course in philosophy or comparative theology.  It would be quite common for the reading list of
such a course to include segments of the Koran, the Bible and other religious treatises.

> In July 2005 the ACLU, who had been fighting to remove the tax exempt
> status of Christian Churches comes out in support of such status for
> Satanic Churches.

Wasn't there a little issue there of certain churches using the pulpit to promote a certain political party?  If that was the case
here, I agree that they are no longer churches but political agancies.  As such their tax exemption is subject to revocation under
existing US law.  It's part of the Internal Revenue Code.

> In August 2006 the ACLU supported the rights of a Wiccan Priestess to
> pay at Richmond Public Board Meetings.

Typo?  I assume you meant pray.  Here's the real case and the priestess was right.  The county was opening meetings with Christian
prayer, contrary to the Constitution and federal law.  She initially won but the county appealed and, in the meantime modified it's
policies to comply with the law.

"On October 11, 2005 the Associated Press reported, "The Supreme Court rejected an appeal on Tuesday from a Wiccan priestess angry
that local leaders would not let her open their sessions with a prayer. Instead, clergy from more traditional religions were invited
to pray at governmental meetings in Chesterfield County, Va., a suburb of Richmond. Lawyers for Cynthia Simpson had told justices in
a filing that most of the invocations are led by Christians. Simpson said she wanted to offer a generalized prayer to the 'creator
of the universe'... Simpson sued and initially won before a federal judge who said the county's policy was unconstitutional because
it stated a preference for a set of religious beliefs. Simpson lost at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that the
county had changed its policy and directed clerics to avoid invoking the name of Jesus... The county's attorney, Steven Micas, said
that the county's practice was in line with the Supreme Court's endorsement of legislative prayer as long as it did not proselytize,
advance or disparage a particular religion."
(October 11, 2005, The Washington Post/AP, Online)"

> Earlier this week the ACLU fought to force
> the federal government to allow Wiccan
> Religious symbols on headstones in
> federal cemetaries.

Flanigan got that one wrong, too.  Here's the real story:

"State says Nevada soldier's plaque can include Wiccan symbol By SCOTT SONNER

ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. (AP) - The widow of a Nevada soldier killed in Afghanistan a year ago won state approval Wednesday to place a Wiccan
religious symbol on his memorial plaque, something the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has refused to do.
"I'm just in shock," Roberta Stewart said from her home in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno.
"I'm honored and ecstatic. I've been waiting a year for this," she told The Associated Press.
Sgt. Patrick Stewart, 34, was killed in Afghanistan last Sept. 25 when the Nevada Army National Guard helicopter he was in was shot
down. He was a follower of the Wiccan religion, which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not recognize and therefore
prohibits on veterans' headstones in national cemeteries.
The new development came Wednesday when state veterans officials said they had received a legal opinion from the Nevada Attorney
General's Office that concluded federal officials have no authority over state veterans' cemeteries.
As a result, they intend to have a contractor construct a plaque with the Wiccan pentacle - a circle around a five-pointed star - to
be added to the Veterans' Memorial Wall in Fernley."

Tom, we probably agree on more things than not.  But on this one we disagree.  The ACLU is not a boogeyman trying to fight the
Christian church.  They will fight for any individual's freedom of expression, regardless of his faith.  They will also fight
against any attempt by the government to endorse or assist one faith over another.  It is essential to our continued freedom of
religion, as well as the right of those who don't believe to freedon *from* religion, that they carry on this fight.  While as
Christians some folks might like for the government to promote Christianity, they have to accept the fact that not all Americans are
Christian and that our rights as Christians are no more important than the rights of Muslims, Wiccans, Buddhists and atheists.  If
the government can sponsor Christianity this year, they can also decide to sponsor satanism next year.  I don't want them behind the
altar of my church any more than I want them in my bedroom.  I suspect neither do you.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
941-866-1100
4883 Fallcrest Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34233
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>