ACLU vs. American Legion, VFW and millions of veterans

I've been praying that God will take action against the Anti-Christian Lawyers Union ever since that ridiculous case in Florida where the ACLU got two school administrators charged with a criminal offense for the heinous act of saying grace over a meal at a school boosters club meeting.

The administrators had those charges dismissed when the case got to court, but that really ticked me off and I've been praying for the Lord to take action against the ACLU since. Now it seems that another ridiculous ACLU fracas might just be their comeuppance, a solitary cross on top of a hill in the middle of the Mojave Desert. The ACLU sued, forcing veterans to cover the cross with a plywood box while the case drags on in the courts. And now the Supreme Court has agreed to consider the case. Townhall columnists Joseph Infranco and Rees Lloyd explain the significance of the case.

The object at the center of the case is a small, unadorned cross sitting in a remote part of the Mojave Desert Preserve in Southeast California. A veterans' group erected this memorial cross on private land in 1934 to honor the dead of all wars.

Driving by this secluded location today, however, you'll see a curious-looking plywood box hiding the memorial, the way someone might cover a condemned building. That box is there because one person filed suit, with the help of ACLU attorneys, claiming he was "offended" by the memorial cross. One offended man has somehow trumped the wishes of millions of veterans.

If a federal appeals court has its way, the box and the memorial soon will be gone forever. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court will review the ruling at the request of the Department of Justice, and in this case, millions of veterans, speaking through The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, have added their voices in support. In fact, the American Legion Department of California and the Alliance Defense Fund have joined forces and filed a brief in support of the Department of Justice, asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit.

So why such a fuss over a cross in the middle of the desert?

However, as bad as this case is, veterans know much more is at stake in this case than one memorial in the California desert.

Military memorials commonly use the cross as part of a display to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to defend our nation. While the cross is a religious symbol, the military has also used it as a symbol of courage, sacrifice, and honor. For example, the nation's second highest military award is the Distinguished Service Cross. Visitors to the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery can see several commemorative crosses, like the Canadian Cross of Sacrifice, a gift from former Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King that was dedicated at Arlington in 1927.

If the Supreme Court does not overturn the appeals court, religious symbols that have graced monuments for many decades may become a thing of the past. Memorials to military veterans, police officers, firefighters, and other heroes will be whitewashed, covered up, or torn out to appease the politically correct agenda of intolerant extremists.

Veterans are being asked to surrender to the thin-skinned sensitivity of an individual who has managed to be offended by a small memorial, literally in the middle of a desert. Is this truly an offense worthy of a lawsuit? Apparently, the fanatical agenda of the ACLU to expunge religious symbols has really come this far, and now the Supreme Court has the opportunity to weigh in.

One person's offense should not diminish the sacrifice made by America's heroes and their families. Why would we not wish to allow the men and women who have served and defended this nation to choose how they wish to honor their dead?

Why indeed. The heart of the matter is the ACLU wants to outlaw all forms of Christianity, even a simple cross to honor our war dead. Of course, their pious response is they support our troops they just don't support the wars they are fighting. That's like saying you support the baker and enjoy eating his bread, but you don't support his "mission" because bread is really bad for you.

The ACLU would no doubt call themselves patriots, but I beg to differ. In other words, hogwash!

Disprespecting the cross and Old Glory, idiocy in the news

Absurdity, thy name is ACLU, the Abusurdity Cult of Lawyers Union. Before the highest court in the land, we have the lastest case of anti-Christian absurdity pursued by the ACLU, their attempt to force removal of a small cross on a lonely hill in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, Calif. -- It would be easy to miss among the yucca and Joshua trees of this vast place -- a small plywood box, set back from a gentle curve in a lonesome desert road. It looks like nothing so much as a miniature billboard without a message.

But inside the box is a 6 1/2 -foot white cross, built to honor the war dead of World War I. And because its perch on a prominent outcropping of rock is on federal land, it has been judged to be an unconstitutional display of government favoritism of one religion over another...

"It's just a little cross in the middle of nowhere," said Wanda Sandoz, who with her husband Henry is the cross's unofficial caretaker. Henry built the cross that currently occupies the spot -- there have been three -- and the Sandozes say they are fulfilling a WWI veteran's dying request to look after things.

Hiram Sasser, a lawyer with the Liberty Legal Institute, which represents the Veterans of Foreign Wars and assists the Sandozes, agreed.

"I always say you have to risk life and limb to be offended by this cross," he said.

But don't despair that absurd idiocy is the watchword of the day. There are still a few bright spots in the land of the free and the home of the brave, such as around the flagpole where Old Glory waves in front of the VFW Post in Valley Falls, N.Y.

VALLEY FALLS, N.Y. -- This is a red, white and blue village that is still seeing red after a flag that flew over Iraq was burned by a 21-year-old.

The payback? He was publicly humiliated last Sunday by being duct-taped to the flagpole of Veterans of Foreign War 1938 say he desecrated Sept. 18.

Nick Normile, post commander and Vietnam War veteran, said he's been flooded with calls from media outlets since the events of last week received attention from local TV stations and newspapers. He's been asked to go live on a veterans radio show program from Tennessee, another radio show from Chicago and even received a call from NBC studios in New York City.

But Normile said he's not planning to let the story get any more attention and has declined appearances.

"I'm not trying to be some martyr or hero," Normile said. "I just did what I thought was right."

The 21-year-old appeared intoxicated when he entered the VFW post on the day of the alleged act, Normile said. When the man was refused service for not having a proper ID, he ran out in a fit of anger. He cut the rope of the flag, which had once flown over troops in Iraq, and ignited it with a cigarette lighter.

Two days later, Normile said the man was forced to sit in the sun pilloried for six hours as townspeople gathered across the street for a youth soccer picnic. A sign was hung around his neck detailing what he had done. It recalled the Middle Ages punishment, subjecting him to public humiliation and scorn.

"He'll never disrespect the flag again, I can tell you that," Normile said on Friday.

That'll larn 'im, as we say down South. Maybe we oughta tie a few ACLU lawyers to the rocks in the Mojave Desert and let the buzzards teach 'em a lesson about disrespecting the cross.

And finally, I can't embed the video here, but take a second to click on this link to watch Does God exist? A young German schoolboy uses impeccable scientific knowledge to rebut his professor who argues God does not exist, or that God is evil, two obviously contradictory views.

Freedom to pray goes on trial today in Florida courtroom

Fellow gun nutz and readers of God, Guns & Grits, it's time to pray. This morning at 9 a.m. two school officials in Florida go on trial for the heinous offense of saying grace over a meal at a school with no students present, despite what the lede says in The Washington Times story today.

Two Florida school officials facing possible jail terms for praying in the presence of students arrive in court Thursday enjoying the support of more than 60 members of Congress.

Some of those members, who signed a letter of support and sent it to the two school officials Monday, took to the House floor Tuesday night to denounce what they called a "criminalization of prayer" that "tramples on the First Amendment rights" of Christians.

"The Founding Fathers would be appalled" at the trial of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and his school athletic director, Robert Freeman, said Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida. His Pensacola-based district includes Santa Rosa County, where the lawsuit is based.

The 9 a.m. trial "is one of the first times we've literally had the potential for the criminalization of prayer in the United States of America," said Rep. J. Randy Forbes of Virginia, chairman of the Congressional Prayer Caucus.

If the two men are found guilty, "there will come a day," Mr. Forbes predicted, "when the speaker of this house will be hauled into federal court and threatened with jail because she dares to stand at that podium where you stand tonight and ask the chaplain to start our day with the prayer."

Mr. Forbes, Mr. Miller and Rep. Mike McIntyre, North Carolina Democrat, were signatories to the Monday letter to the two educators, assuring them that "we are standing with you in prayer and support as you face your trial." More than 60 members of the House have co-signed.

I have been praying that this case will be the cause that hoists the Anti-Christian Lawyers Union by its own petard. The ACLU has been the bully on the block against everything Christian for far too long. It's about time they get slapped down and this case is so ridiculous on the face of it, I can't seen how any sane judge would not throw it out. But sane and judge may not necessarily go together. Pray that sanity will break out today in that courtroom in Florida.

And I am proud to say we've got 60 members of Congress who have gotten into this fight on behalf of the two Christian gentlemen who have done nothing illegal except in ACLU idiocy.

God bless Mike McIntyre of my home state and the other 59 members of Congress who have stepped up to the plate to defend God and country and the liberty most of us still hold dear.

Anti-Christian Lawyer's Union files criminal charges for prayer

I think I'll try to find me a lawyer to sue the Anti-Christian Lawyer's Union, AKA ACLU, for criminal stupidity. There's a case in Florida that about 16 steps over the line into true insanity.

Students, teachers and local pastors are protesting over a court case involving a northern Florida school principal and an athletic director who are facing criminal charges and up to six months in jail over their offer of a mealtime prayer.

There have been yard signs, T-shirts and a mass student protest during graduation ceremonies this spring on behalf of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school athletic director Robert Freeman, who will go on trial Sept. 17 at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I have been defending religious freedom issues for 22 years, and I've never had to defend somebody who has been charged criminally for praying," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando-based legal group that is defending the two school officials...

The criminal charges, which carry up to a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term, originated with a Jan. 28 incident in which Mr. Lay, a deacon at a local Baptist church, asked Mr. Freeman to offer mealtime prayers at a lunch for school employees and booster-club members who had helped with a school field-house project.

Mr. Staver said no students were present at the event, which was held on school property but after school hours.

"He wasn't thinking he was violating an order," he said. "Neither did the athletic director. He was asked to pray and so he did."

The ACLU is way the hell over the line in this case and I pray God will send down a lightning bolt and char their frickin' hind ends. God deliver us from such insanity in the land of the free.