I use to think the ACLU was in the business of looking out for Joe Average American, acting as a watchdog over the government and its tentacles reaching ever deeper into our souls–you know, kinda like MSM.
But like any organization that has success in living up to its original charter, once its work is pretty much complete, it begins looking for other things to keep those who live off its income employed. We will never see a “non-profit organiztion” simply decide to close up shop because their work is done. They must continually look for “victims” to “help.”
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
That’s pretty clear, is it not? Okay, it may not be clear what “an establishment of religion” means. The precise meaning was, and is, that the Federal Government cannot establish any religion by law. Nor can Congress prohibit anyone from exercising their own religion. Less than two decades later, almost immediately after his inauguration, President Jefferson responded to a Baptist association in Connecticut whose congregation feared he would restrict them in their religious practices. He wrote to assure them he would not, and told them he felt “separation of church and state” were essential.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions
Funny that the Separation advocates ignore the last part of that sentence and often advocate hate crime legislation. If we are to take Jefferson’s words as unofficial amendment to the Constitution, perhaps we should include them all. Isn’t it also odd that Jefferson would also say (in the same letter), “I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man.” Do you think he meant God?
Actually, if you want to understand the essence of the words in our Constitution and its first ten Amendments, maybe the best way is to see how James Madison, primary author of the document, first wrote it:
The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience by in any manner, or on any pretext infringed.
Today we have the ACLU demanding the Defense Department distance itself from the Boy Scouts, and we have a teacher in California in trouble for distributing historic documents to his students. And our popular ACLU continues its assault on Christmas, with communities knuckling under in order to not have to spend exorbitant amounts of money fighting through court.
Will the ACLU come to the teacher’s defense? Isn’t the government imposing opinion?
The ACLU is also involved in trying to have a small cross removed from the Seal of the City of Los Angeles. They will prevail because the City will simply remove it rather than take the fight to court. Yet I see nothing in the First Amendment, or any other portion of the Constitution that restricts a city from having a religious symbol, or even a city ordinance requiring everyone in town to belong to a specific church. If a city council decide to force everyone to become Catholic, there is nothing in the First Amendment to prevent it.
It would be nice if everyone running for office had to pass a test on the Constitution. I would also prefer to see Justices on our Supreme Court be students of the Constitution rather than the law. Perhaps then groups like the ACLU would quit using what they see as tacit approval from the First Amendment–it only says Congress shall make no law; It says nothing restricting the courts from making those laws.
