Thursday, May 19, 2011

NJ: ACLU threatens high school over graduation site

We read:
"A New Jersey high school with a 70-year tradition of hosting graduation ceremonies in a historic auditorium is standing firm against legal threats from the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims the event violates the separation of church and state because of the Christian-owned site's religious displays.

For generations, graduates of Neptune High School have walked down the aisle of the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, where the impressive 6,500-seat venue dominates the landscape of one of the area’s most historic beach towns."

Source

The ACLU really are extremists. They will not be happy until there is no mention of Christianity anywhere in the land.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The ACLU really are extremists. They will not be happy until there is no mention of Christianity anywhere in the land."

Sound good to me.

Dean said...

Troll at 12 o'clock. Well, 12:11 to be exact.

Anonymous said...

Idiot at 12:20 to be exact. Why is it that anyone who is not a conservative is an extremist? I will take the ACLU over Focus on the Family any day.

Dean said...

Troll = extremist? Did I step on somebody's toes?

Anonymous said...

This site really brings out the intolerant! Trying to get rid of Christianity when over 70% of the US calls themselves Christian. How intolerant!

Anonymous said...

There's a whole spectrum of attitudes in those supposed 70%. Even atheist Dawkins calls himselef a "cultural Christian".

sig said...

Atheists and non-Christians are just jealous that they din't come up with the regal and palatial venues to gather that evoke an environment of comfort and safety.

Stan B said...

The atheists have built many, many monuments to their deeply held beliefs - Gulags in Russia, Re-Education Camps in China, Killing Fields in Cambodia - all wonderful reminders of what happens when the cruelty of man is not tempered with the Mercy of God.

Anonymous said...

This exact thing happened in a nearby town. The local church had the largest auditorium and offered its use to local high schools for free. In addition, the church donated their A/V suite and made DVD copies of the graduation ceremonies at cost for the graduating class.

The building is air conditioned and as afternoon / evening showers are frequent in the area, the facility was allowed people to see their loved ones graduate at no cost to the schools, in comfort and without the threat of dealing with bad weather.

Someone sued saying that the graduation being held in a church violated "separation of church and state." The church offered to move the area in which graduates received their diplomas off to the left or right of the dais so the cross that hung over the center of the dais would not be filmed. That was not acceptable to the people suing. The school board gave in without a fight and demanded that the church remove or cover any references to religion in the building.

The church refused, saying something along the lines of "we believe that we have acted with the best motives in being part of the community. We have offered our facilities at no cost to the schools while incurring costs ourselves. We are a church. We are a member of the community. We will not change or cover up who we are."

The graduations have returned to football stadiums in the sweltering heat.

Anonymous said...

It's really ironic that such a massive group of lawyers can't interpret the very plain words of the first amendment.

However, it's far more likely that they understand it, but knowingly choose to ignore it.

~Darko

Anonymous said...

"Did I step on somebody's toes?"

Nope. Talking about the ACLU not trolls, dimwit.

Anonymous said...

"all wonderful reminders of what happens when the cruelty of man is not tempered with the Mercy of God."

LOL

Anonymous said...

Stan B obviously hasn't heard of the many torture chambers, gallows and stakes for burning those who didn't submit correctly to the Church's authority during the many centuries of Christendom.
Those cruelties he ascribes to "atheism" were actually to various forms of communist totalitarianism. Does Stan really think all atheists are communists? Though it wouldn't be so surprising if he did.

TheOldMan said...

The phrase "separation of church and state" does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. The first amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Running a graduation in a church-owned facility is does not make a law "...respecting an establishment of religion..." Even stretching to say that using public funds to rent such a site somehow helps establish a religion is nonsense in this case because the church offered the site gratis.

jrdolph@verizon.net said...

Anon 3:33
The church you are referring to cannot be equated with Christianity. The apostate organization, headquartered in Rome, was guilty of torturing christians of other faiths. Where to you think the name ana-baptist came from. Believers that did not accept infant baptism were called ana-baptist (rebaptizers) later shortened to baptist. The first church was not in Rome but in Jeruselem. Baptist do not trace their history thru the apostate church.

Anonymous said...

The Catholic Church would certainly regard itself as Christian and with more historical authority than any off-shoots like Baptists (which was not an off-shoot of the first pre-Pauline Jerusalem church as 4:05 AM would like to imply, even if they look back to John the Baptist, or whatever). But here we go again with the "True Scotsman" argument!

Anonymous said...

It cracks me up how you guys can have a serious conversation about mythology.

Joey said...

The Baptist do not derive their name from John the Baptist. When infant baptism was first practice was in the 2nd century. Regular Christian groups, those not affiliated with Rome, refused to accept infant baptism they were persecuted. A one time both heads of the catholic church, Roman and Orthodox, were excommicated. When an adult wanted to become a member of what was called the regular church they had to be rebaptized, thus the name anabaptist. The word baptize is not a translated word, but a transliterated one whose meaning is summersion, dipped or plunged beneath. It requires one be able to believe and an infant is incapable of that.

No Other Cheek said...

Knowing that atheists will burn in hell for all eternity should bring comfort to all. Hopefully they will be joined by all leftists.

Anonymous said...

Someone who finds comfort in the prospect of other humans burning in Hell, deserves the same.

Anonymous said...

Just for the record here, the deprivations of the atheist socialists of the 20th century as represented by Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot killed far more people than all the religious persecutions in all of history combined.

Of course that does not excuse those religious persecutions in the slightest but it should serve as a warning to take care about the nature of the people that you place into positions of authority and power.

Stucco Holmes said...

I guess Anon12:40 did not read all of Anon3:33's comment.

sig said...

@Anon 9:01, as a Christian , I take absolutely no comfort in knowing that someone chooses to go to Hell--that result truly saddens me. But I do take comfort in knowing that God gave us all a free will to choose, and that my choice to be saved by Grace through the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ can never be taken away from me, regardless of what those so passionately opposed to Christianity may do.

To quote C.S. Lewis, "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." Ponder that for a while and then start thinking about things a bit more eternal.

Anonymous said...

Some free choice - follow Christ or go to Hell!

Anonymous said...

12:40 doesn't know what a syllogism is - as in: "dogs have 4 legs; and cats have 4 legs; so cats must be dogs!

Anonymous said...

"Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot killed far more people than all the religious persecutions in all of history combined."

What about God? He has certainly killed more people than the above amateurs. And the list will grow after May 21st. And this list does not include deaths caused by disease and natural disasters.

Anonymous said...

Guess you can't go any better than drowning the entire globe in one go - excepting a tiny sample, which somehow managed to repopulate the human, animal and plant world remarkably quickly but could only have been achieved with incestual breeding on a grand scale!

Spurwing Plover said...

Time for the ACLU to be totaly abolished they are realy a bunch of leftists who need to quit using the figure of lady liberty and use the hammer and psycle logo of the commie dirtbags