Posted on 10/24/2005 9:20:33 AM PDT by knighthawk
The "tiny cross" people at the American Civil Liberties Union are at it again. They are the folks with extra-keen eyes who search the seals of towns and counties for miniature crosses that they like to trumpet as grave threats to separation of church and state. This time around, they are leaning on the village of Tijeras, N.M., whose seal contains a conquistador's helmet and sword, a scroll, a desert plant, a fairly large religious symbol (the Native American zia) and a small Christian cross. Tiny cross inspectors are not permitted to fret about large non-Christian religious symbols, only undersized Christian ones, so the ACLU filed suit to get the cross removed.
The cross is obviously not an endorsement of religion, any more than the conquistador helmet endorses Spanish warfare. The courts have ruled, not always consistently, that crosses, as historic references in such seals and logos, are permissible. But the ACLU these days is strongly committed to seeing church-state crises everywhere, and thus pushes things way too far.
Last year the ACLU demanded that Los Angeles County eliminate from its seal a microscopic cross representing the missions that settled the state of California. Under threat of expensive litigation, the county complied.
What will happen if the ACLU learns that Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Francisco, St. Louis and Corpus Christi actually have religious names? We shudder to think.
The campaign to remove all traces of religion from the entire public square is far advanced. Part of that campaign is to squelch private expression in and around public schools. Students have been punished for reading the Bible outside of class and for thanking God or Jesus in a valedictory speech. Last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals accepted the case of Antonio Peck, who, as a kindergartner in suburban Syracuse in 1999, had his drawing censored from a class display because of church-state concerns. Antonio was told to illustrate his understanding of the environment. He drew a man with upraised arms, wearing a robe. When asked, the boy said the man was Jesus, who was "the only way to save the world." The trial will decide whether his school is guilty of viewpoint censorship.
As if to prove that church-state objections can be found on the right as well, the band director at C.D. Hylton High School in Virginia pulled the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" after a conservative objected. He wondered why the school should be allowed to sing about the devil when they are not allowed to sing about God.
Next: the ACLU sues to ban deviled eggs from the school cafeteria.
Ping
can somebody stop the madness?
Bet the ACLU hasn't gone after muslims praying in schools.
I wish the line they were crossing was the 38th parallel........going north........
Don't be ridiculous. They like the devil.
..and they never will.
Doogle
Roger Baldwin (a co-founder of the ACLU)
Like???? They are the devil.
How did they find this little NM village anyway? Did a local make the complaint?
The ACLU crosed the line a long time ago.
The only surprsiing thing is that none of their lawyers have yet sufferred any 'accidents'.
But angel cake has to go.
Are we allowed to bring angel food cake from home?
...LOL...talk about budget cuts
Doogle
How long before the ACLU goes after cities with the word San in their names the way they went after locations with the word Squaw in them?
"The ACLU is crossing the line"
The "line" was crossed a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago'
People have asked, "How do you stop the ACLU?" Opponents need to get organized.
>>>can somebody stop the madness?<<<
Short of a shooting war, the congress would have to pass a law that removes the display of Christian religious symbols from the jurisdiction of the courts. Another good fix would be to require the loser to pay attorney fees. That would stop nearly all frivolous lawsuits.
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