Last updated on: 10/5/2007 | Author: ProCon.org

Is the ACLU Anti-Christian?

PRO (yes)

Pro

Steven Byas, MEd, Instructor of History and Social Studies Education at Randall University, in an Apr. 19, 2016 article for thenewamerican.com titled “ACLU Survey/Fundraising Letter Confirms Its Anti-Christian Bias,” wrote:

“From its inception… the ACLU can be characterized as hostile to the Christian faith. In 1925, it was the ACLU that challenged the Tennessee law banning the teaching of the theory of evolution as a fact in the taxpayer-funded public schools… Since the 1960s, the ACLU has been involved in the Supreme Court decisions which outlawed mandated school prayer, observation of religious holidays, and Bible reading in the public schools…

Current positions of the ACLU reflect this strongly secular agenda that bristles with hostility toward biblical Christianity. The organization supports same-sex marriage and the right of ‘gays’ to adopt children; the support of abortion rights; and the elimination of ‘discrimination’ against LGBTQ people.”

Apr. 19, 2016

Pro

Chuck Norris, actor and columnist, wrote in his article “ACLU: The Abolishing Christian Legacy Union,” published on the World Net Daily website on Dec. 11, 2006:

“The ACLU is not anti-religion, just anti-Christian. By definition, it’s the American Civil Liberties Union. By action, it has become the Abolishing Christian Legacy Union.

The ACLU will assure Muslim clerics and imams the right to pray on planes, fight for an atheist’s rights to remove a cross, stand beside pro-abortionists, help illegal aliens cross our borders, and establish rights for the sexual deviant by forming the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, but what is it doing for Christians and Christmas censorship?

While allegedly fighting against the tyranny of the majority, the ACLU itself rules religiously by litigation, lobbying, and supporting counter-culture Christian movements. So who died and appointed the ACLU as America’s religious constitutional watchdog? Membership for the ACLU is only 500,000. America’s population is 300 million. I think it’s time that we helped them feel their size!

I suggest the rest of us follow the passion of Thomas Jefferson, who spoke these words that are etched on the very wall of his memorial in Washington, D.C.: ‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.'”

Dec. 11, 2006

Pro

The Traditional Values Coalition’s July 30, 2004 special report, “The ‘Anti-Christian Liberties’ Union (ACLU),” stated:

“With a homosexual activist leading the ACLU, it is not surprising that this organization is funding anti-Christian lawsuits and promoting the homosexual agenda.”

July 30, 2004

Pro

Phil Kent, Executive Director of the Immigration Control Foundation, wrote in the his article “Rein in the ACLU,” published in the Washington Times on Dec. 14, 2004:

“The name — American Civil Liberties Union — is at best a misnomer. More accurately, ACLU means Assault Christian Liberties Unmercifully…

The ACLU works consistently, and all too often successfully, to rewrite America’s history. As Karl Marx said, ‘If I can steal their history I can steal their country.’ The ACLU is attempting to steal our Judeo-Christian history so it can steal our country.”

Dec. 14, 2004

CON (no)

Con

Jennifer Rudinger, JD, Executive Director of the ACLU of North Carolina, was quoted in an Apr. 23, 2006 interview in “Despite Perceptions, ACLU Is Not Anti-Christian,” published in The News & Observer:

“There’s a lot of misperception about what the ACLU is and what we stand for. For example, we had a forum last night at N.C. State on the debate between intelligent design and evolution, and it was a very interesting debate. One of the panelists even had the perception that the ACLU is somehow anti-religion or anti-Christian. That is absolutely not the case. We have a long list of cases where the ACLU has defended the religious liberty of Christians and other people of faith. The ACLU gets involved any time our civil liberties, including religious liberty, are being eroded by some government action.”

Apr. 23, 2006

Con

Stephen L. Carter, JD, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School, wrote in “The ACLU Is Not Evil,” published May 1, 2006 in Christianity Today:

“I shudder when fellow Christians blithely dismiss the organization as fundamentally biased against them. Some call it the Anti-Christian Liberals Union or the Anti-Christian Litigation Unit. There are other, less friendly acronyms as well. I think the ACLU is wrong to oppose religious expression in the public square, but being wrong is not the same as being evil.

More to the point, the ACLU is often right about the First Amendment’s free exercise clause, taking on fights that others refuse. It might surprise some critics that the ACLU defends the free speech and free exercise rights of, well, Christians…

The next time a fellow Christian disparages the ACLU, try answering with something like this: ‘Sure, they’re on the wrong side sometimes, but I thank God for the times when they’re right.'”

May 1, 2006

Con

The Kalamazoo Gazette wrote in a Jan. 10, 2007 editorial titled “A Sure Sign of the Apocalypse?” that:

“Although many conservative groups rally their base by calling the ACLU as anti-Christian, communistic and anti-American, the truth is that the ACLU has gone to bat for anyone whose constitutional rights are in danger of being eroded — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, liberal, moderate or conservative.”

Jan. 10, 2007