La. ACLU Head Compares People Who Believe in Higher Power to Terrorists
On Monday, the school board of Tangipahoa Parish in Louisiana had their meeting and was asked by the ACLU to remind teachers not to allow prayer at school functions. In an astounding aside, the First Amendment has become a restriction on private individuals on where and when they can express their religion. The statement was not school sponsored prayer but prayer at all, including presumably spontaneous prayer by students. How the Louisiana ACLU can reconcile the position that no one be allowed to pray in school with their belief in the right of free expression and freedom of religion is left to the reader.
On this occasion the head of the Louisiana ACLU, Joe Cook, had this to say about people who believe in religion (HT: Lone Star Times:
”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.”
No amount of parsing can take the meaning of this quote away. The head of the ACLU in Louisiana believes that if you believe in God you will eventually be led to fly planes into buildings, become a suicide bomber, or decapitate people on TV. You may believe that religion should be stricken in the public square even when the expresser is a private individual but the statement that people who believe in a higher power are on the road to terrorism should be offensive.
This was spoken by the head of the ACLU in Louisiana and therefore can be taken as an official position by that unit, if not the entire ACLU as a whole. If you are outraged by this, contact the Louisiana ACLU and the National ACLU to get them to repudiate such hateful and bigoted remarks.
ACLU of Louisiana
PO Box 56157
New Orleans, LA 70156-6157
(866) 522-0617
National ACLU Feedback Form here
Others talking about this: Mudville Gazette, Outside the Beltway, StoptheACLU
This same man once remarked that prayer is immoral, and was very curt with me when I called him. He had no time to talk to me.
I am calling him from the show tomorrow.
Comment by Kender | August 18, 2005
Oh, I hope to hear ol’ Kender talk to this dick head. Great post man! Isn’t it completely ridiculous?
Comment by Jay | August 18, 2005
People like that only make me shake my head and then I wonder how they manage to get to the positions they hold. I guess they have a lot of pull with like minded fools.
I’m reminded of a local motorcycle gang here in L.A. CA. (name withheld so I won’t get hurt
) They had a real fool for the Prez of this group of toughs and I figured it was not because he was the best for the job but because when the heat came down they would have him to throw to ‘The Man’…
Comment by prying1 | August 18, 2005
http://www.blogontheweb.com/hmmm/archive/0001/01/01/82024.aspx
Trackback by CHAMPAIGN(, IL) MEDIA WATCH | August 19, 2005
La. ACLU Head Compares People Who Believe in Higher Power to Terrorists
What drives the absolute fanaticism of the ACLU that says we have to wipe out of history all the evidence of our heritage?
Trackback by Hyscience | August 19, 2005
The man is a fool. As a Catholic I feel that I have the right to be insulted over such remarks; however, concentrating upon the Scripture for a moment, I think that this man fits well into the description of the wicked man that is to be found in the Books of Psalms, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus.
Maybe he has not heard the joke about what happened to the atheist in the wood when he met up with a hungry bear:
… and the bear crossed himself and said : “bless us O Lord for the food that we are about to receive”….
Maggie
Comment by Maggie4Life | August 19, 2005
The Lousiana ACLU seems to have a perspective on religious freedom similar to that of the French, which is exemplified by its ban on wearing overt religious symbols in public schools, such as veils or large crosses. I ran across a site called understandfrance.org, and found it very illuminating. It was stimulating to try to understand a people who I find particularly frustrating. They truly believe that such a ban is FOR religious freedom not AGAINST it. The French and the American Left don’t understand that religion in this country is a personal choice, not a social obligation. So when they try to ban the personal expression of faith in the public square it is from the view that this protects the individual from any “social pressures” to conform to a religious belief they have not chosen. What this view ignores is that Americans are very independent-minded about religion and the fact that there is not one dominant Christian denomination. I don’t remember the statistics, but a lot of people change denominations over the course of their lives. This was not the case in France where the Catholic Church had interjected itself in every aspect of society. So in 1905 they went to the other extreme passing a law establishing a complete separation of church and state. The Left desires a similar situation in America, but it is not compatible nor is it necessary for this country. Ironically, it results in a sort of collective freedom of religion at the expense of the individual whom it is presumably trying to protect. Here is the site I referenced. http://www.understandfrance.org/France/Society.html#ancre3045332
Comment by Gregory McDowall | August 20, 2005
And I believe that they do not answer to any higher power than themselves, in my opinion. Which is the kind of thinking you had with the people who killed tens of millions of people in Germany, Russua and Korea.
Comment by Tony | August 22, 2005
John, I posted some comments here yesterday, but didn’t typekey authenticate, so they might be in your queue. I tried tracking back to you, but got a 403 forbidden error, I assure you I’m not a spammer, though my hosting company is 1and1.com and they have millions of customers and it is possible an account on the same server as me got compromised and spammed you.
Anyway, I commented on this post at my blog.
Comment by todd | August 23, 2005
Are you aware that the 7th circuit federal court of appeals has recently ruled that Atheism is a religion which makes Secularism an atheistic doctrine. Well since this has always been true it follows that the ACLU is attempting to force others to follow their religion and so hopes to establish atheism as a state religion as well as prohibit theist from worshipping. This was plenty obvious to everyone but fanatics, fools, and the courts though perhaps the later are beginning to wise up.
Comment by Kerwin | September 1, 2005