Onward Christian Lawyers

By Rick Gillespie

03-09-95. In this week's Time there is an article titled "Onward Christian Lawyers", which talks about the attempts by the religious conservatives to inflict Christianity on the rest of us, under the guise of "defending the rights of believers".

Some choice quotes from this article:

"Christians from the 1960s on have taken a major beating in the legal arena and have lost a lot of their liberties." -- Mathew Staver, president of the Liberty Counsel

[what liberties have Christians lost?!?!]

"We just want to see a level playing field for people of all faiths," -- "Pat" Robertson

[ol' Pat wouldn't know a level playing field if he tripped over one]

"Too many people have tried to create a new standard based on whether a single person gets their feelings hurt. What about the emotional injury suffered by the vaster number of people who wish to be able to express their faith freely?" - Ernest Jim Ishtook, Republican representative from Oklahoma who will be sponsoring an unrevealed religion amendment to the constitution

[who is stopping them?! uh, what the heck is the 1st amendment about, then?]

"The purpose should be to ensure that religious citizens and religious speech are permitted to play a role in American life equal to any other ideology, philosophy, or persuasion." - Michael McConnell, UofChicago law professor, speaking about the to-be-proposed religion amendment

[IMHO, currently, religious ideas seem to be overrepresented in the law]

What most frustrates me about the article is that the writer, himself, never challenges the absurd statements that he quotes. Instead, the final paragraph is a quote from Barry Lynn of the "Americans United for Separation of Church and State" which challenges the ideas that religion, particularly Christianity, is under attack.

This article, of course, fits right in with _Time_'s pro-religion slant. If I *ever* see something in it criticizing religion I will be amazed. Instead, we get cover stories on angels :-(

Ironically, Time is perceived as "left-wing" by the conservatives.