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Published: July 9, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding that a Virginia jail stop removing biblical passages and other religious material from letters written to inmates.
The ACLU, its state chapter and several other organizations sent a letter Thursday to Rappahannock Regional Jail officials asking that the issue be resolved without litigation.
Anna Williams, whose son was detained at the jail, said officials cut out entire sections of letters she sent to her son that contained Bible verses or religious material. She said the jail cited prohibitions on Internet material and religious material sent from home.
The groups said the policy was unconstitutional and asked that it be changed.
Jail officials said they had not yet seen the letter.
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It’s not about a “team”. It’s about equal treatment before the law. The ACLU performs a function. It’s about our civil liberties. We have a right to religious communications - one with another. But when those communications are handed down through a government chain, then it becomes a matter of the government endorsing a religion. Which IS against the constitution.
Look at the federal court building in DC. You will find Moses up there among the statuary, but he is around back, nestled beside Hamarabi. The thing is, our early governement in using all those symbols, endorsed none of those symbols. And in so not-doing maintained the separation of church and state.
When you see the 10 commandments in a federal court building today, that IS an endorsement of a particular religion. The only way around that, is to give equal billing in the same foyer to, ohhh say, the code of Hammarabi. I can’t imagine any of today’s Christian zealots allowing Hammarabi’s code up beside the 10 commandments without an arguement. So the only thing left is for the ACLU to come in and sue for it to be taken down.
Our laws say we have freedom of religion. I think it also implies freedom FROM religion as well since it could be argued that Atheism is a belief, ie—a religion. But that is individual freedom of religion. When our government does ANYTHING that endorses one religion over another then those of us who disagree with that religion are robbed of our personal freedom of religion since it is being applied and enforced from outside. If it’s a government choice, it’s no longer a personal choice.
The ACLU isn’t like a team, it’s like the umpire at a baseball game. The umpire is supposed to be unbiased and should call the plays as he sees them, whether it is the Yankees he favors or the Red Sox he favors in his call.
Good news from the ACLU in this case. I am certainly willing to give the ACLU credit for doing this even though it is not their normal mode. I am a Christian and I will applaud them in this action where they were right in defending the rights of this citizen.
The comparison is this: I am a Red Sox fan. If a Yankees pitcher threw a perfect game against the Red Sox, I would applaud the pitcher but that would not make me a Yankees fan. It is credit where credit is due.
Don’t hold your breath for a positive comment from these so called christains, for the exact reasons you stated. These clowns need to have their boogey man ya’ know.
Well this is one time the ACLU is HELPING Christians! All I read is criticism that the ACLU is always putting out the Christians and standing up for the Atheists and gays, etc… It will be interesting to see if a single Christian stands up and applauds the ACLU in this case.
At issue is the black/white worldview or right-winger Christianity. You are either good or evil, you simply can’t be neutral. Christians thrive on persecution, but when something like this rules in their favor they will stay quiet since it hurts their image of always being put down by the liberal godless left wingers.
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