Plead the First

Saturday’s News and Record contained an Associated Press article (which, for now, may be found here) about the ACLU, the Alliance Defense Fund, and other groups gearing up for a seasonal legal battle over public government Christmas observances. One quote in particular caught my attention:

Spokesman [for Americans United for Separation of Church and State] Rob Boston said “about 95 percent of the whining from the far right” over Christmas is for fundraising purposes. “They’re trying to get people worked up so they will think Christmas is being removed from public life,” Boston said. “There isn’t any evidence that’s happening.”

This, of course, ties in with what I pointed out yesterday: Conservative Christians are being lied to and used by the very people who are claiming to defend their interests. The 95 percent figure in the above quote is certainly just a generalization, but I think its very likely that the overall point is true. The ADF, commenters at the News and Record’s LTE blog, and many others like to claim that there’s a war on Christmas, and on Christianity in general, often pointing a finger at the ACLU. However, if you look at the ACLU’s overall record, this accusation doesn’t hold water.

Ed Brayton has an excellent blog post that gives a little more detail about the ACLU, pointing out that they are actually often involved in defending the rights of Christians. They’ve defended a church’s right to access school facilities, defended a Presbyterian church against excessive city restrictions, fought for a Baptist minister’s right to baptise people in a state park, and have even done legal work on behalf of Jerry Falwell himself.

In fact, if you want a concrete example of the nexus of the whining and the lies, Brayton has one in another post:

After his American Center for Law and Justice won the Lamb’s Chapel case before the Supreme Court, Robertson went on national TV on his own show, the 700 Club, and declared this a great victory over the ACLU. The problem? The ACLU was on the same side in that case. The ACLU had filed a 15-page brief (and thank you to Mike Litrownik at the ACLU office for faxing me a copy of it) on behalf of Lamb’s Chapel in which they argued that denying them access to the school facilities could not survive constitutional scrutiny because it was obviously viewpoint discrimination.

What Mr. Robertson said was a lie. It wasn’t a mistake. The chief counsel of the ACLJ, who had argued the case before the Supreme Court, was standing right there next to him and could certainly have pointed out that the ACLU had filed a brief on behalf of their client; he did not. And it was a lie that could only have been told for a particular purpose: to distort the positions of the organization that his group relies upon as a boogey man in their fundraising efforts.

Which brings us right back to the point of the first quote in this post, namely, the far right whining about something to keep the cash flowing in. It’s understandable that a group will try to unite their supporters in a common cause and mobilize them to act, and even give money towards that cause. But it’s despicable when the common cause is based in lies and exists mainly for controlling people and parting them from their money. And it’s particularly odious when this is done under the guise of faith and morality.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 1:26 am and is filed under Politics, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.