In the wake of the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, Breen Elementary School in Rocklin, California, posted the words, “God Bless America,” on the sign out front. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) objected that this was a “hurtful, divisive message” and demanded it be removed, claiming that the sign violated the California and U.S. constitutions.1 What is to be made of this group?

It claims a commitment to “defending the Bill of Rights,” being the “guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”2 In reality though, the ACLU badly misinterprets the documents it claims to defend—especially the Establishment Clause in the Bill of Rights, which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”3

According to the ACLU, that means government must forbid religious expressions of any kind in state-sponsored venues.4 Such a view helps explain why the organization attempted to deny a Rhode Island middle school the right to ask a rabbi to say a prayer at graduation (cf. Lee v. Weisman);5 opposed several Connecticut high schools’ plans to hold their graduation ceremonies at a nearby church;6 and deemed unconstitutional a California veterans memorial adorned by a cross.7

However, that extreme interpretation of the Establishment Clause strays from the Founding Fathers’ intentions. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson, who often is credited with inventing the separation of Church and state, attended a worship service held every week in the Capitol Rotunda while he was president, even ordering the Marine Band to come accompany the singing of hymns.8 He also used government funding for clergy salaries in Indian mission schools, supported including the word “God” in the national motto, and granted land to Christian schools.9 Similarly, George Washington said in his first Thanksgiving proclamation as president, “[I]t is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”10 Clearly, these framers of America’s founding documents did not share the ACLU’s view of the government’s relation to religion.

In contrast to the ACLU, a group called the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) appears to understand the Establishment Clause rightly. According to the ACLJ, “[T]he First Amendment does not impose an amorphous ‘separation of church and state’ standard but rather prohibits the establishment of an official church and similar coercive action. The Establishment Clause imposes no affirmative duty upon the government to suppress private religious expression.”11

In fact, the Supreme Court has affirmed repeatedly that the Establishment Clause does not permit government hostility toward religion.12 Thus, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “Given the values that the Establishment Clause was meant to serve, . . . [the] government can, in a discrete category of cases, acknowledge or refer to the divine without offending the Constitution.”13 So, on firm constitutional grounds, the ACLJ often opposes the ACLU in Establishment Clause cases.

Sadly, the Establishment Clause has become little more than a prop that the ACLU uses in attempt to legitimize its agenda, when in reality, it is undermining the very Constitution it claims to uphold.
 
Footnotes:
 
1  “ACLJ Offers to Defend Any School That Displays ‘God Bless America,’” ACLJ Website, http://www.aclj.org/news/Read.aspx?ID=317 (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
2  “Guardians of Freedom,” ACLU Website, http://www.aclu.org/about/faqs/21419res20051115.html (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
3  “Amendment 1,” United States Constitution Website, http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#Am1 (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
4  “Religion & Belief,” ACLU Website, http://www.aclu.org/religion-belief (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
5  505 U.S. 577 (1992).
 
6  “Connecticut Schools’ Plan to Hold Graduations in Church Is Ruled Unconstitutional,” ACLU Website, May 31, 2010, http://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/connecticut-schools-plan-hold-graduations-church-ruled-unconstitutional (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
7  Robyn Shepherd, “Mojave Cross: The Fight Goes On,” ACLU Website, April 29, 2010, http://www.aclu.org/blog/religion-belief/mojave-cross-fight-goes (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
8  D. James Kennedy, What They Believed: The Faith of Washington, Jefferson & Lincoln (Fort Lauderdale, FL: Coral Ridge Ministries, 2003), 39-40.
 
9  Ibid., 43-44.
 
10  Ibid., 25.
 
11  Letter from Jay Alan Sekulow to Walter G. Howard, ACLJ Website, November 13, 2006, http://www.aclj.org/media/pdf/CAPledgePDF.pdf (accessed June 29, 2010).
 
12  See Rosenberger v. Rector and Visitors of the Univ. of Virginia, 515 U.S. 819 (1995); Lamb’s Chapel, 508 U.S. at 395; Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981). The ACLJ acknowledges this reality. See Letter from Sekulow to Howard.
 
13  Letter from Sekulow to Howard.
 

Adopted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located across from the Principio Heath Center on Rt. 40, 1 and 1/2 miles east of Rt. 222.