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Citizens
objecting to students being introduced to "intelligent design" in
public school biology classrooms should visit the United States
Supreme Court building in Washington, DC.
 Astride the main
entrance, a sculpted Moses, the lawgiver, cradling the ten
commandments, greets all comers. Inside, massive oak doors carry
engraved symbols honoring the Biblically based law. And in silent
testimony, another depiction of the Biblical ten is carved on the
wall, directly above the bench where the nine justices deliberate the
laws of the land.
This recognition of
the pervasive influence of religious history in American law should
come as no surprise to those who are aware of the constitutions of all
fifty states---without exception, each of these foundation legal
documents express gratitude to God.1
The U.S. president
places his hand on the Bible when the Chief Justice administers the
oath of office. Litigation witnesses promise fidelity through a
government administered oath that typically ends with the words, "so
help me God." Both the Senate and the House of Representatives employ
clergy empowered to open congressional sessions by publicly inviting
God’s blessings.
The salaries of
chaplains who serve in the American armed forces are paid with tax
money appropriated by Congress. Chaplain’s uniforms carry religious
symbols---crosses for Christian clergy and appropriate symbols for
other faiths. Chapels, some with crosses, are built on Federal land,
at government expense. Religious services are held in military base
chapels.
No question about
it, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution’s Bill of
Rights mandates that "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion." But the First Amendment does not demand a
secular society, hostile to religion, but a government protective of
religious "free exercise."
The ACLU has stood
tall for individual rights in many cases, including the point made in
the 1925 Scopes Trial that it should be illegal to teach creation in
the public schools while forbidding reference to evolutionary theory.
Clarence Darrow articulated an academic freedom that assures a
balanced exposure to competing ideas anchoring a youngster’s learning
experience.
Paradoxically, the
same ACLU that backed Darrow’s 1925 academic freedom argument, has
done a 180° legal flip-flop, negatively impacting a student’s right to
think and to learn. Today’s ACLU endorses evolutionism’s claim to
exclusive scientific orthodoxy in public school classrooms.
This hard-line
departure from the freedom to investigate differing ideas advocated in
1925 finds the ACLU itself supporting an "establishment" of a secular
religion. Ardent evolutionist Michael Ruse defined "evolution" as
"religion."
"…Evolution is a
religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true
of evolution still today."2
Should the teaching of evolution in the
public schools be construed as an impermissible "establishment" of
religion? Is there a persuasive constitutional argument to prevent a
teacher, in the context of academic freedom, from exposing students in
a public classroom to evolutionism’s shortfall or any other
postulated, unproven, theory of science?
Americans who lost
their lives in the June, 1944 Normandy invasion, are memorialized in a
military cemetery overlooking the once blood-soaked sands of Omaha
Beach. Christian graves are marked by glistening white crosses; stars
of David honors those of the Jewish tradition.
A previous
generation of patriotic, local citizens took it upon themselves to
commemorate the memory of Americans who gave their lives in World War
I "to make the world safe for Democracy." Thanks to individual
citizen’s investment of time, money, and hard work, the sacrifice was
memorialized by planting a lonely white cross in desert stone. This
spontaneous act of gratitude saluting the fallen involved not a penny
of tax money.
No eyebrows were
raised for the better part of the 20th century.
Planted in the
rocky turf of the Mojave Desert, far from the 18-wheelers cruising
Interstate #15 connecting LA and Vegas, the innocuous memorial
eventually became a symbol of an improbable controversy. A former
National Park Service employee, objected to the cross, alleging
religious "establishment."
Ever alert to
constitutional offenses, and flying the flag defending the
Constitution’s First Amendment, a posse of American Civil Liberty
Union legal vigilantes galloped to the rescue, intent on saving the
nation from such indiscretions. 3
Is it consistent to push the attack on
the innocuous Mohave Desert cross memorializing World War I war dead
while concurrently establishing evolution’s secular religion in public
schools?
Should the crosses
and stars of David guarding the graves of the Normandy Beach heroes be
removed? Unlike the cross in the Mojave, the Normandy symbols were
purchased with Federal tax dollars. Side-by-side and row-by-row, the
crosses and stars guard the resting places of honored dead---a garden
of memories built, funded and maintained reverently by the Government
of the United States.
There is nothing in
the Constitution’s Bill of Rights that mandates the bulldozing of the
Normandy Beach crosses marking the final resting place of the gallant
citizens who gave their lives for the freedoms guaranteed in the First
Amendment!!!
The Declaration of
Independence salutes equal rights as endowed by the "Creator" of
life. In view of this patently religious reference, could even this
unequivocal public declaration of faith in God-given human rights
become an eventual target?
1. See "Finding
God in the Legal Landscape" in this Creation Digest edition.)
2. Ruse,
Michael, "Saving Darwinism from the Darwinians," National Post
(May 13, 2000, p. B-3; as cited by Dr. Henry B. Morris, "Evolution is
Religion---not Science," Impact,
February, 2001..
3. As of
December 29, 2004, the ACLU-SC website references the status of the
Buono case that originated in the U.S. District Court. "We
raise a First Amendment challenge to a permanent, explicitly
sectarian, religious display on federal land of a Latin cross erected
in the Mojave National Preserve. The federal court has ordered
the cross removed. The government has appealed to the Ninth Circuit;
oral argument was held on August 6, 2003 and we are awaiting a
decision. (See reference to Buono v. Norton reference in
www.ACLU-SC.com )
When the ACLU
initiated the Buono case, it relied on a 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals opinion (Separation of Church and State Committee
v. City of Eugene, 93 F.3rd 617) for legal authority.
That case ruled that a cross in a city park, designated as a war
memorial in the City Charter, impermissibly endorsed religion, thereby
violating the "establishment" clause.
But the City
of Eugene ruling doesn’t track with the Buono facts! Under
the banner of preventing a prohibited "establishment of religion,"
Buono portrays a shaky position that ignores the "free exercise"
of religion half of the First Amendment.
---No direct
government action sponsored the placement of the Mojave cross;
---No tax
dollars were invested to support the construction or maintenance
of the cross;
---The site of
the cross was remote, far from the beaten track, rather than a
prominent public display;
---The
memorial was unrelated to any current
government sponsored function, ceremony or event;
and
---While the
cross is implicitly religious, the Mojave memorial embodies a
pervasively secular purpose.
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