To accomplish its goal of attacking the public role of Christianity, Americans United has embarked on a secular mission that includes filing suit to ban prayers before evening meals at Virginia Military Institute; 30 blocking a bill authorizing federal funds to be spent in the restoration of Spanish missions in California (even though the bill was supported by liberals such as California Senator Barbara Boxer); 31 stopping the city of Las Cruces (Spanish for “the crosses”) from using three Christian crosses in its logos; 32 and banning a portrait of Christ that had been in a West Virginia school for 37 years (a portrait of Buddha in the same school was found acceptable). 33
Lynn, who is an amiable and capable debater, even objects to secular symbols associated with Christianity. He complains that Christmas trees are “a sign of religion,” and that they may make a non-Christian “feel like a second-class citizen.” Though no evidence is offered to support this preposterous assertion, Lynn opts for censorship and wants the trees banned from public property. 34
So concerned is Reverend Lynn about the right of non-Christians that he sued the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs for refusing to include Wiccan symbols on its list of officially recognized emblems for government headstones and markers. 35 So it’s the witches who get the minister’s attention, not Christians. What also gets his attention is singing “God Bless America” in a public building. Americans United, along with a team from Yale Divinity School, alleged in 2005 that the Air Force Academy was creating an oppressive atmosphere for non-Christians when it allowed the singing of “God Bless America.” 36 Hope they take my advice and stay away from New York Yankee games: Kate Smith’s “God Bless America” is played during the seventh-inning stretch at every game, and the new Yankee Stadium was built partially with tax-exempt bonds.
In 2009, Americans United showed its true colors when it refused to condemn a proposed takeover of the Catholic Church’s financial affairs by the state of Connecticut. After Catholics rallied and forced the withdrawal of a bill that would have done just that, the best Americans United could say was that the legislation was “misguided.” In fact, communications associate Sandhya Bathija took the opportunity to lecture the Church about its alleged hypocrisy, noting the Church’s opposition to gay marriage. 37 But had a bill been proposed granting the bishops the authority to police the state budget, Americans United, for positively good reasons, would have gone mad. In short, its alleged concern about separation of church and state really cuts one way.
It is for reasons like this that Morgan Bergman, a researcher who did an in-depth report on Americans United, concluded: “By trampling on the constitutional rights of Americans to practice their faith, Lynn and his merry band of zealots weaken the American traditions of tolerance and free expression they claim to profess.” 38
Secularists Unmasked
None of the antireligious organizations will admit that their real agenda is to drive religion from the public square and to weaken it in general. They prefer to hide behind a professed loyalty to the First Amendment. But their real motives are not hard to discern.
If fidelity to the First Amendment is what counts, how does one explain why the ACLU, the ADL, and American Atheists have a huge problem with a nativity scene on public property but not a menorah? 39 When questioned about the disparate treatment, ACLU attorney Deborah Lieberman spun the issue by saying the menorah was small in size and located in an inconspicuous spot. 40 It’s a sure bet, however, that the ACLU would object to a miniature nativity scene placed behind a tree. Americans United is just as slippery.
In 2000, a pornographic homosexual film festival, Reel Affirmations X, was held in Washington, D.C. Among the sponsors was Americans United. When asked what this had to do with its mission, Lynn said, “We oftentimes lend support to organizations which have a constituency sympathetic to our goals and objectives.” 41 In other words, those who promote gay porn are seen as sympathetic to the goals and objectives of Americans United. How telling. None of this is by happenstance: before Lynn took over at Americans United, he directed the Washington office of the ACLU, and one of his pet projects was to push for the legalization of pornography. Reverend Lynn even went so far as to defend the sale and distribution of child pornography, along with the rights of masochists. 42 Given this pedigree, it is hardly surprising to learn that Americans United is a big fan of gay marriage (not exactly a church and state issue, at least not yet).
The First Amendment does not apply to the private workplace, yet that didn’t stop Americans United from blasting the Catholic League when it called for a boycott of Wal-Mart in 2005. The dispute was over the department store’s neutering of Christmas that year and had absolutely nothing to do with separation of church and state. Hence, it should have been of no interest to Americans United. Yet a year after the short-lived boycott was triggered, Lynn was still burning mad: he said that when places like Wal-Mart “cave into these demands, they are really making a statement that non-Christians should probably go elsewhere this holiday season.” 43 Evidently, it is simply not possible for Christians to celebrate anything without angering non-Christians. Either that, or the underlying assumption—that all non-Christians are bigots—is a contrived and phony excuse to assault Christianity.
Another giveaway is when the secular saboteurs get angry with groups like the Catholic League for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech. That is why People for the American Way was upset with the Catholic League’s protest of Corpus Christi. Its rally in defense of the First Amendment was positively absurd. What exactly did it think the Catholic League’s demonstration was all about? 44 A year later, the same group teamed up with American Atheists to condemn the Catholic League for protesting the Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibition that defiled Our Blessed Mother; American Atheists “lauded” the exhibition, blaming the Catholic League for being intrusive and acting as a “Vatican operative.” 45 Not surprisingly, when The Golden Compass opened, American Atheists loved it. 46 They also loved it when Kathy Griffin shouted “Suck it, Jesus” at the Emmys. 47 In all of these cases, it is not the Catholic bashing that upsets the radical secularists, it’s the fact that Catholics respond.
Even voluntary expressions of religion bother the saboteurs. When an elective Bible study course was offered in Odessa, Texas, in 2007, the ACLU and People for the American Way filed suit. The infraction? Religious indoctrination. 48 Similarly, when Florida Governor Jeb Bush launched a contest encouraging students to read the C. S. Lewis Christian allegory The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Americans United objected (The Golden Compass would have been fine). 49 If ailing veterans elect to access religious services, count on the Freedom From Religion Foundation to sue, 50 and bank on the same group to protest state government invocations, even when they are nondenominational, nonsectarian, and nonproselytizing. 51 Not only do school vouchers bother the ACLU, the ADL, Americans United, and People for the American Way, they object to the right of the voters to decide whether they want them; these groups filed suit trying to block a Florida referendum on this issue in 2008. 52
What really gets the goat of these zealots is when a prominent politician references God or religion in public. So when George W. Bush said in his 2000 presidential campaign that Jesus was his favorite philosopher, People for the American Way demanded that he “explain why he picked [Jesus].” 53 The same group, and others, went after Senator Joseph Lieberman in 2000 when all the Democratic vice presidential candidate did was say that “there must be a place for faith in America’s public life.” 54 Following the logic of these secular extremists, the Founders were un-American.
When Bush mentioned God and religion in his second inaugural address, Barry Lynn accused the president of sending a message that “in order to be truly American, you must also be religious.” 55 As a matter of fact, the weekend before Bush gave his address, the ACLU, Americans United, People for the American Way, Freedom From Religion Foundation, and many other radical secular groups held an “emergency meeting” in anticipa
tion of Bush’s remarks; the umbrella group that organized the strategy session was the American Humanist Association. 56
There are occasions when the efforts of secularists to sabotage the United States become so indefensible that they actually serve to undermine their mission. Consider what happened after 9/11. After the House voted 404–0 urging public schools to display “God Bless America” posters, Lynn chastised the congressmen: “I think they have their priorities out of line.” 57 What really drove the secular nihilists mad was the sight of steel beams in the shape of a Christian Cross that was left standing amid the World Trade Center rubble. When government officials decided to include the Cross as a permanent memorial at Ground Zero, American Atheists issued a news release calling it “insulting” to nonbelievers and pledged to fight the issue in court. 58 These people are obviously incapable of being shamed.
The actions of some secular activists are so depraved as to be beyond any reasonable defense. Any woman who would write a book titled Abortion Is a Blessing has disqualified herself from national discourse on this issue. The author, Anne Nicol Gaylor, founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, published her screed just two years after the Roe v. Wade decision. She was applauded by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and NARAL. 59 Her atheist organization has become increasingly aggressive in recent years, posting its antireligion message on billboards across America and displaying similar signs next to nativity scenes on state grounds.
Of all the persons involved in the secular sabotage of America, none is more infamous than Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the queen of American Atheists and another sexual libertine. Known mostly for getting prayer kicked out of the public schools, she ripped off her own members by absconding with more than $600,000 in the 1990s. The FBI revealed in 2001 that it had found the bones of her mutilated body. 60
O’Hair’s belief that “Religion is the most monstrous idea in the world” 61 was something she came to quite early in life: when she was about 12 or 13, she read the Bible “from cover to cover” in one weekend. That was it—she just knew it was a lie. It certainly had a profound effect on her own morality: “I will defecate and urinate when I damn well please and as the spirit—and the physical necessity—moves me.” Even dogs know better. She also said, “I will engage in sexual activity with a consenting male any time and any place I damn well please.” 62 The refrain “not in my backyard” never sounded more persuasive. In any event, when she is remembered by secularists like Alan Wolfe as being “dictatorial, irresponsible, racist, overbearing, corrupt, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-Catholic and at times criminal,” 63 then there really isn’t much more that can be said to salvage her reputation.
Battle Over the Courts
The secularists have used and abused the law to get what they want, and much of their success is due to left-leaning judges who delight in writing the law, not interpreting it. But religious conservatives have struck back, alarming those who seek to use the courts as their favorite forum in the culture war. This issue spiked in 2005 when Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, brought Catholics and Protestants together in Louisville for what was billed as “Justice Sunday.” It was an event designed to mobilize Christians in an effort to secure fair treatment for traditional Catholics and evangelicals being considered for the federal bench. Speakers included Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Al Mohler, Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Charles Colson, and myself.
The secular left was predictably apoplectic. Reverend Jim Wallis led a protest of the event accusing the participants of instigating “a religious war.” 64 Reverend Barry Lynn spoke with his usual restraint when he declared, “This is the closest thing to a civil war within the religious community that I’ve seen in the past 25 years.” 65 Before a single speaker made his remarks, Frank Rich of the New York Times called the forum a “judge-bashing rally.” 66
We had such a good time in Louisville that Perkins called another “judge-bashing rally” in Nashville. I was particularly pleased that the New York Times ran an editorial denouncing my suggestion that the Supreme Court should be able to overturn a congressional enactment only by a unanimous vote. Actually, the idea (which the Times said was “terrible”) 67 was first floated by Supreme Court Justice John Marshall in the early nineteenth century and was later advanced in the 1960s by New York University professor Sidney Hook (under whom I studied as an undergraduate).
The secular saboteurs are deathly afraid of losing the courts. Indeed, they will stop at nothing, including reaching into their portfolio of bigoted tricks. Consider what happened within 24 hours of the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court by President Bush. Adele M. Stan of The American Prospect ran a piece in its online edition charging Bush with “Playing the Catholic Card.” She had the audacity to say that Bush was “betting he’s bought himself some insulation—any opposition to Roberts, particularly because of his anti-abortion record, will likely be countered with accusations of anti-Catholicism.” She went even further than this on her blog when she said that “Rome must be smiling” at Bush’s choice. 68
Mario Cuomo was so bold that he said on Meet the Press that Roberts should be asked, “Are you going to impose a religious test on the Constitution? Are you going to say that because the pope says this or the Church says that, you will do it no matter what?” John MacArthur of Harper’s put his elitist mind to work by dragging Roberts’s wife into the matter: “The Roberts couple seem to be very well-educated; I wonder whether in their high-minded socializing with Clarence and Virginia Thomas (at the College of Holy Cross) and Robert and Mary Ellen Bork (at the lay Catholic John Carroll Society), they find time for informal book chat.” Dahlia Lithwick, legal analyst for Slate, looked into her crystal ball: “And I wouldn’t underestimate the influence of his religion, that Scalia and Thomas, one of the very reasons they may not have drifted leftward has a lot to do with very, very strong religious views that pull them to the right. And I think that probably John Roberts will fall into that camp in that sense.” 69
Catholic liberal E. J. Dionne said “it would be helpful if Roberts gave an account of how (and whether) his religious convictions would affect his decisions as a justice.” Imagine Dionne asking a secularist whether his agnostic convictions would affect his decisions—it would never happen. Christopher Hitchens, my sparring buddy, proved once again his fondness for Catholics, at least orthodox ones: “If Roberts is confirmed there will be quite a bloc of Catholics on the court. Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas are strong in the faith. Is it kosher to mention these things?” NPR’s Nina Totenberg opined, “Don’t forget his wife was an officer, a high officer of a pro-life organization.” She then went in for the kill: “He’s got adopted children. I mean, he’s a conservative Catholic.” 70 Adopted kids? That’s a sure sign he doesn’t like abortion. Probably believes in God, too. How Roberts survived all this is still unexplained.
The courts matter so much to radical secularists, of course, because they know the people are not prone to validate their extremist views via their lawmakers. Power to the People, as Laura Ingraham demonstrated in an influential book by that title, is the one power this gang really abhors.
Secular zealots have always professed a love of the masses in the abstract—it’s just people they hate. That’s why they loathe the legislature and love the courts: lawmakers answer to the people, judges do not. “Democracy by the people, for the people and of the people” may roll off the lips of schoolboys, but to radical secularists it is the refrain of chumps. They always think they know better, and that is why they smirk at the idea of government by consent. As far as they are concerned, the masses would be lucky to have them occupy the command posts. Which explains why consulting the people is the last thing they would ever do.
CHAPTER 7
Democratic Sabotage
Secularists Capture the Democratic Party
The role that Catholics have played in shaping the Democratic Party is legendary, but those who were born a few decades ago would never know this from t
heir own experience. When at one time the Irish cop was the prototypical Democrat, today it is the gay activist. This is surely one of the most dramatic sociopolitical stories of our time.
Beginning with the presidential election of 1972, a trend has been evident: religious conservatives have chosen the Republican Party as home base and secularists have taken command of the Democratic Party. According to Geoffrey Layman of Columbia University, “the religious differences between the activist bases and electoral coalitions of the Democratic and Republican parties are growing.” 1 After examining the data, Layman concludes that “There was a clear growth in Democratic secularism between 1976 and 1992, but it took place in fits and starts.” 2 It has continued ever since, notwithstanding Barack Obama’s attempt to reverse course. Though Obama tried to bridge the “God gap,” it did not help his campaign when he spoke about those folks (the white working class) who like to “cling to guns or religion.” Nor did it help that his religious mentor was Reverend Jeremiah “God damn America” Wright.
A whole array of issues emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that saw the strength of secularists within the Democratic Party; in the 1970s and 1980s religious conservatives mobilized against them. But there is more to this than just choosing up sides—there is a tremendous amount of hostility between the two groups. For example, two political scientists from Baruch College, Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio, analyzed the results of the 2004 American National Election Studies and found that “Two-thirds of white secularist Democrats registered negative feelings toward the Catholic Church and of this group of anti-Catholic Democrats, 86% also expressed antagonistic feelings toward fundamentalists.” 3
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