Atheists are coming after us, and they’re using the courts to do it.
It’s been happening for decades, and they scored the first victory in the conflict way back in 1963 right here in Pennsylvania, when atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair sued the Abington school district to abolish prayer in schools. She won, and our nation has been paying the price ever since.
Since that time, courtrooms across the country have served as the coliseums for back and forth duels between those who want to stamp out any and all public expression of religious faith, and those who rightly believe religious freedom is a paramount right.
Lose in this arena, and lose our fundamental freedoms. It’s as simple as that.
And it’s why we’re engaged in the fight for religious liberty.
Yesterday afternoon, another salvo in the battle was fired, this time launched by a Wisconsin group, the “Freedom from Religion Foundation,” and aimed squarely at Pennsylvania.
This godless atheistic group has filed suit in Federal Court against Rep. Rick Saccone (R-Allegheny) and several others for his sponsorship of a unanimously adopted House resolution declaring 2012 “The Year of the Bible” in Pennsylvania.
They claim that the “Year of the Bible” resolution is unconstitutional – that it violates the “U.S. Constitution’s mandatory separation of church and state.”
This despite several facts:
• Nowhere in the Constitution are the words “Separation of church and state.” The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, and prohibits a national church.
• Our history and our State Capitol building are full of references to the Bible and actual Scripture verses.
• Many of our Founding Fathers and past presidents and governors regularly cited the Bible, declared days of prayer and fasting and National Days of Thanksgiving to God.
• President Ronald Reagan designated 1983 as the national Year of the Bible at the request of Congress, which in October 1982 passed a resolution authorizing him to do so.
We must not allow ourselves to be bullied and destroyed by those who deny God and look to restrict our freedom. These attacks must be resisted. We need your help and involvement as we stand for liberty in the courts and the public square.
Our Independence Law Center is in the courts even now defending life, marriage and religious freedom. With the help of our friends and supporters, we’ll be there for Rep. Saccone, and to do everything we can to make sure that not only will 2012 remain the Year of the Bible, but that our ability to practice our faith in the public square will be protected.
Frankly, we can do no less.
Bravo, Michael. As a lawyer,and a woman of faith, I am tired of the constant attacks not only from self-identifying atheists but those who claim to be people of faith but who are unwilling to allow religion to exist in the Public Square. I am reminded of Mario Cuomo’s speech at Notre Dame in 1984 talking about his ‘personal’ objection to abortion but his unwillingness to ‘impose’ his views on other people. Rhetoric, all of it.
Thanks very much for posting this.
Christine
Small correction if I may. Prayer in public schools was not abolished after the suit by Madalyn Murray O’Hare. To this day kids are still free to pray in public schools as long as it doesn’t disrupt class(I’m sure nobody would wish their child to do that anyway.) The clarification of the first amendment as a result of the lawsuit merely states that the school or it’s representatives could not lead the prayer, which considering all the different faiths of students in public schools seems quite reasonable. Many people seem to think this means prayer in school is illegal but that is just not so. So go ahead and tell your kids to pray in school if they wish. They can pray before class, in the halls, at their lockers, at study hall, at recess, and at lunch time. Basically any time that isn’t class time. It is, and always has been, legal for them to do so and the O’Hare suit didn’t change that.
The “Year of the Bible” resolution on the second line says “Wheras the Bible, the word of God……” One of the premises that is just assumed to be true in this resolution is that the Bible IS the word of God, which means that Christianity is true, and every other religion is false. They clearly endorsed one particular religion. The founding fathers wanted government and religion to stay separated. They were well aware from the example of Europe what happens when religion gets the power of the government on their side. They use it to supress the other religion, even if it is just a different sect of the same religion. “The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from
these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.” James Madison.
Tim, quite the contrary, the founders had no objections to stating that Christianity was the only true religion. What they wanted to avoid was preferring one denomination over another, but it isn’t valid to say that they didn’t want to prefer Christianity. The Declaration itself includes the words “In the year of our Lord”. Most of the founders believed that Protestant Christianity was required of our nation if the laws they were putting in place were to work.