
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995                   TAG: 9508070018
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES T. EVANS AND CRAIG T. COMBS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SECULAR PARANOIA

AN UNCOMMON emergency-action letter arrived in the mail recently from the American Civil Liberties Union. (One of those "if we can't have your vote, we'll still take your money" appeals.) In a fit of apocalyptic paranoia, Ira Glasser, the ACLU's executive director, condemned the damage being done to his organization's secular agenda for America since the 1994 congressional elections.

In particular, he bemoans the success of religion-oriented, grass-roots legal and lobbying organizations as an unprecedented assault on American freedom, an assault that the ACLU predictably needs more money to fight. (Mr. Glasser does not say how much of his $127,000 annual salary he is contributing to the cause.)

We have to admit some perverse pleasure at the letter's panic-stricken tone. After all, the ACLU committed itself long ago to force the convictions of religious people out of the public square and into the private confines of church buildings. But this letter goes far beyond defending the rights of atheists not to pledge allegiance to "one nation under God."

In fact, Glasser claims that the downfall of America at the hands of religious extremists is imminent. So, he has declared jihad against religious people!

The memorandum exclusively targets organizations with religious affiliations, highlighting nine of them - all of them Christian. Christians in Montana are accused of "censorship," in California, of "taking over school boards," and in Charlottesville, Christians are responsible for "the scariest phenomena ... in ... 30 years of education."

Like most radicals dependent on propaganda, the ACLU strategically tries to command local school systems. Unlike the conservatives he decries, though, Glasser won't legally elect new school boards. Instead, he will manipulate the courts, persuading radical or inept judges to give him the undemocratic authority to eradicate any opposition to the ACLU's secular orthodoxy.

Two examples from the recent letter:

While most traditionally religious people maintain that God had something to do with the origins of our universe, the ACLU not only rejects that possibility out of hand, but it threatens and blackmails another sectarian doctrine into place: a tired, worn-out Darwinism that is hardly respected on the most liberal campuses.

The ACLU also forces its intolerance on health and human-reproduction curricula. Most traditionally religious people (Jews, Muslims, Christians, Hindus) believe that humans have a moral obligation to reserve sexual intercourse for marriage, and that children have wills capable of resisting sexual temptation. But the ACLU pushes curriculum that teaches that children have no more control over their sexual organs than do horses or pigs.

Again, they reject out of hand even the consideration of moral responsibility.

This is the heart of the ACLU's problems and panic: It is committed to elitist intolerance toward religious people - especially those who energetically engage in democratic politics.

Truth is, though, that most Americans have always known that a "secular" society is a society without a soul, and that cultural expressions of religious faith are entirely proper when the majority of people who form that culture are themselves religious!

President Clinton affirmed this last year when he reminded himself and the nation that core values, spiritual values, must be considered by a wise government wishing to make wise laws. And every citizen, religious or not, has the right and duty to participate in that government.

But the ACLU exists to engineer an American society hostile to the normal religious lifestyles of the majority of American citizens. Glasser's memo bemoans the newly won power of "radicals" and "extremists," but these "radicals" are ordinary citizens who are legally electing legislatures and school boards. They are the legal majority exercising their legal responsibility to govern themselves!

Ira Glasser does not want democracy or diversity. He wants domination. As a radical, he is terrified of the democratic principle of majority rule. Now, since his domination can no longer be based on civil democratic engagement, he will grab for power through any other means available.

Defacing and insulting religion and religious people seems to be his weapon of choice.

Charles T. Evans is education pastor and Craig T. Combs is senior pastor of Grace Church in Roanoke.

by CNB