Wednesday, December 31, 2003

God bless the ACLU, By John M. Templeton, Jr. and Michael Novak

Washington Times

The title is ironic. The op-ed lists 7 anti-religion accomplishments the ACLU will have achieved by 2007. Quote:

"6. They removed all crosses, Stars of David and crescents from the gravestones of American soldiers in military cemeteries around the world.

7. Finally, as a coup de grace, they succeeded in getting major revisions or deletions in the public use of American historical documents, including:
a. The removal from the Declaration of Independence of the words: "Nature's God," "Creator," "Supreme Judge" and "Divine Providence."
b. Deletion from the public use of letters and speeches by America's founders of any reference to God, Providence, the Ten Commandments or religion in general, including numerous such references made by George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Abraham Lincoln.
c. Deletion — when sung in public — of the last God-laden Stanzas of 'My Country Tis of Thee' and 'The Star Spangled Banner.'"

With the exception of 7(c), I don't see the ACLU pursuing the efforts quoted. I don't think they want to change history directly, so much as they'd like to ban public endorsement of religious ideas. Both are usually bad, but the former is worse. The ACLU often sucks, but it doesn't such as badly as Templeton and Novak portray it.

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