Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

National Campaign to Stop the American Civil Liberties Union

Alliance Defense Fund

Somehow or other my husband wound up on these people’s list and today we received one of their mailings. He claims total innocence. “Never heard of ‘em. It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask ‘em to contact me…” That sort of thing. Since my sister is an actual card-carrying member of the ACLU and I myself am a big fan of civil liberties, I couldn’t resist opening the envelope.

First the envelope itself: it has pictures of Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Bill Bright, Larry Burkett, Dr. D. James Kennedy, and Marlin Maddoux across the top and the words “You are invited to follow in these leaders’ footsteps to take a stand against the ACLU’s attacks on your family’s values…”

First of all, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of most of these guys. Aren’t a couple of them tel-evangelists? And I’m absolutely positive they don’t know the first thing about my family’s values. I’ll delve a little deeper into the identity of these men later, though. Let’s move on…

The back of the envelope tells us that the National Campaign to Stop the American Civil Liberties Union (let’s just call it NCSACLU from now on, okay?) is a project of the Alliance Defense Fund which has a mailing address in Scottsdale, Arizona. We’ll look a little further into the Alliance Defense Fund later on, too.

Inside the envelope are two pieces of paper. The first contains “An Urgent Message from ADF President Alan Sears”. I’ve never heard of him either but he identifies himself under his signature as President, CEO, and General Counsel of ADF. Gee, he must be a pretty busy guy, eh? I have to admit I’m always a little suspicious when a single person seems to be completely in charge of an organization. It makes me wonder whether he isn’t, perhaps, the only member of ADF.

Anyway, he begins…”Do you believe the ACLU and its allies, which are trying to censor America’s true Christian heritage, have too much power?” For the moment, let’s set aside his claim that America’s true heritage is Christian. Shouldn’t this correctly read “who are trying to censor” blah, blah, blah…?? I guess Alan couldn’t afford to hire an editor.

He goes on to ask that we sign a “Message of Concern Regarding the ACLU” that he will forward on to “Government Officials Battling the ACLU over Ten Commandments or Other Displays of America’s Christian Heritage”. That’s exactly how he has it. Oh…and he wants us to send him some money “to help ADF continue its mission of defending traditional family values, religious freedom, and the sanctity of human life.” I guess the religious freedom part only applies if the religion happens to be Christian since, as Alan reminds us several times, America’s true heritage is Chrisitian.

Oh, look! On the back of this paper there’s more information about ADF! They tell us “ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth, through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.” Uh-oh. When they write it “Truth” with a capital “T”, I get worried. At least they explain who in the heck those guys on the envelope are. They’re ADF’s founding members!

Dr. Bill Bright is the president of Campus Crusade for Christ.
Larry Burkett is co-founder of Crown Financial Ministries (hm…that sounds interesting…we’ll look into that later.)
Dr. James Dobson is founder and chairman of the board of Focus on Family.
Dr. D. James Kennedy is pastor of Coral Ridge Ministries.
Marlin Maddoux is the host of the “Point of View” radio program. (Sorry Marlin, never heard of your program either.)

Besides quotes from Drs Dobson and Kennedy about how swell the ADF is, they’ve also got a nice quote from good old Ed Meese. Quoth Ed: “The Alliance Defense Fund has done a tremendous work already, even though it has been in existence for only a short time.”

Uh…okay. Well, I guess you take your quotes where you can find them.

Onward! The second page in the envelope is a double-sided essay entitled “Banning the Ten Commandments” with a bold-print sub-title, “American Civil Liberties Union launches multiple lawsuites to destroy public displays of God’s law and America’s Christian heritage.” Essentially, it’s just a bunch of whining about how bad it is that the ACLU should be challenging the existence of religious displays on government property.

Here’s a fun quote. “”Imagine if across America every plaque like this [referring to a Ten Commandments plaque in Pennsylvania] that represents our nation’s heritage were covered or removed,” says Alan Sears, president and general counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based Christian legal group. “It could happen. And people who care about religious liberty and preserving our nation’s heritage should be alarmed. Although the Pennsylvania case has been resolved at least for now and the Ten Commandments have been uncovered, this kind of legal harassment and intimidation by the ACLU and its allies represents just the tip of the iceberg and part of a growing hostility to America’s Christian heritage.”"

Alan’s got a little bit of everything going there, doesn’t he! Complete blindness to the multi-cultural nature of American society, ignorance of the principles guiding many of our founding fathers, all combined with a thick, creamy layer of good old fashioned paranoia.

I wonder whether Alan believe non-Christians living in this country ought to have rights. Does he think they should just…leave?

But wait! There’s much, much more! According to Alan, the ACLU also:

• “Pushes same-sex “marriage” and much more of the homosexual legal agenda” [The homosexuals I know don't have an "agenda". They just want to have the same legal rights that straight people have.]
• “Tries to stop children from praying publicly at school.” [Guess what, Alan... I think this is a good idea. I think religious observance belongs in people's homes and in their churches or temples or synagogues or whatever. Not in the public schools.]
• “Works to prevent Christians and ministries from publicly sharing the Gospel at various times and places.” [See above.]
• “Defends the distribution of child pornography.” [Say what?!?]

I think Alan forgot to mention that the ACLU also worships Beelzebub and drinks the blood of children.

I don’t like these people. They claim to represent my family’s values but they don’t even come close. They’re mean and intolerant. They don’t care about all people. They care only about people who are just like them.

I think it’s a good idea to remove all religious references of any kind from government goods, services, and facilities…and I do mean all references. No more “In God We Trust”, no more Ten Commandments in the courtroom or in the national park, and no more “one nation under God”.

There is morality without religion. Religion isn’t a requirement for justice. That is not to say that religion is evil–not at all–though, unfortunately, much evil has been done in the name of religion. Rather, religion is and must remain a matter of personal individual choice. It should not be foisted upon a person through government buildings or required oaths.

So… as you might imagine, Alan won’t be getting any money from me.