MikeWM:
Favouring one religion over another is what concerns them. I am sure they would be just as concerned about a copy of shariah law on the wall of the courtroom, as they would about the Ten Commandments. It is just that the majority of the US is Christian and so Christian cases are in the vast majority.
But the cases lead us to believe otherwise. The ACLU is concerned with Christianity. You may remember last summer (2004) when Judhe Phyllis Hamilton ruled that schools in CA can have a muslim studies class where they choose Muslim names, dress up as Arabs, recite lines from a Muslim prayer such as âIn the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful,â and make banners saying, âIn the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.â I googled and found nothing to indicate the ACLU had a problem with this.
UNC Chapel Hill required all new and transfer students to read âApproaching the Quran.â It is no longer required reading, but if students do not want to because of religious reasons, they have to write a 1 page paper explaining why. What do you think the ACLU would day if all students were to read a book about the Bible?
In White Plains, NY, Catholic parents sued because students were being taught that âour mother is the earth and our father is the sun.â A Sikh minister came into school to teach the kids to meditate, do yoga, and understand other Hindu practices. Again, the ACLU didnât help these parents. A PA school even had a re-creation of aztec human sacrifices.
Why are these things OK but my kid canât pray over lunch and I canât get together with co-workers to have a bible study.
I am sure others can think of more examples, and if I google, I can probably come up with more as well.
ââŚStudents generally do not have a Federal right to be excused from lessons that may be inconsistent with their religious beliefs or practices. Pay attention. There went religious freedom.â
MikeWM:
So how exactly has your religious freedom been denied? Can you not worship at home? Can you not go to Church? What precise religious rights have been taken away from you?
First, the argument is irrelevant. Should we not fight for those things that have not yet touched us? Should I not care about the sex abuse scandals because I wasnât molested by a priest? Should I not care about injustices all around the world, even if I, myself, have not experienced them? Isnât this something were supposed to fight for?
Second, my family IS in danger of having freedoms taken away. If my child were to pray over her snack at school, she could get suspended. A school is Alabama instituted a âprayer monitorâ to make sure people were not praying in groups at events such as sporting events. Even though the school didnât endorse or encourage such prayer it still was not allowed. Thank God the courts overturned this (with no ACLU help). Private prayer is a basic right granted to us in the first amendment. Itâs what the establishment clause is all about. The ACLU and groups like it care more about freedom FROM religion than freedom of religion.
There are more examplesâŚpeople not allowed to have a cross on the wall in their offices, kids and adults not allowed to wear religious symbols to school and work. A library employee was fired in Kentucky for refusing to remove a cross necklace. A Texan policeman was not allowed to wear a cross pin, even though secular, not police-related pins are allowed. In 2003 Alabama Gov. Riley started bible study sessions in his conference room. They were voluntary, no state business was to be discussed, and only 11 of the 55 people who worked for him attended. But the Alabama director for American Atheists said they couldnât truly be voluntary, calling it Christian terrorism.
Every legal system is based on âbasic principles of right and wrong.â What relevance at all do the Ten Commandments have to the United States Code? A whole two of the commandments are reflected in the law, and there is a whole mass of laws with no reflection in the Ten Commandments.
