ACLU's 'Bible Crusade' Reaches Into Small-Town America
by Jim Brown
March 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Christian attorney says the ACLU is resorting to "old tricks" by filing a federal lawsuit to stop The Gideons International from giving Bibles to fifth-graders at a public school in Missouri. With more than a quarter million members in 181 countries, The Gideons -- founded in 1899 -- place and distribute more than 63 million Bibles every year. That equates to an average of one million every six days, or 120 per minute. With that wide a distribution network by such an established ministry, it causes one to wonder why the American Civil Liberties Union would worry about distribution of Scripture in a tiny Missouri community of slightly more than 300 people.
But that is exactly what is happening. The ACLU is seeking an injunction barring South Iron Elementary School in Annapolis, Missouri, from allowing The Gideons into the classroom to distribute the Bibles.
Last spring, the school board in Annapolis voted 4-3 to let the Bible distribution continue, overriding the advice of the school's attorney and the wishes of Superintendent M. Homer Lewis -- who tendered his resignation at the end of the school year, voicing concerns about a potential lawsuit related to the Bible distribution and the possible financial drain on the district.
According to the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, last fall two Gideon representatives were permitted to enter a classroom of fifth-graders and, in the presence of the school principal, deliver a brief speech about the Bible and then hand out copies of the Bible to the students. Tony Rothert, legal director for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, says because the giveaway happened during class time, it makes it look like the school is endorsing it.
Unfortunately, says attorney Steve Crampton, court precedent is on the ACLU's side. "Federal courts in particular have gone the extra mile with the ACLU and its cronies in these kinds of cases," says Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy (CLP) in Mississippi. He explains that in such cases, the courts have basically held that any kind of acknowledgment by a public school -- even "a nod of the head" toward Christianity in particular, says the CLP attorney -- constitutes the "establishment" of a religion by Congress, as the First Amendment says.
But despite that history of litigation in favor of groups like the ACLU, Crampton shares that he is hopeful the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Roberts, will clearly articulate new guidelines for cases involving the Establishment Clause.
"You just look at the text of the First Amendment -- what does it say?" the attorney asks rhetorically. "It says 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.' Well last I checked, Congress has not delegated to the South Iron Elementary School in Annapolis, Missouri, any authority to make law of any sort. Second, of course, there is no law at all at issue here; it's a mere distribution of a book."
And that book -- the Holy Bible -- is endorsed by three of the world's major religions, he points out, thereby making the ACLU's claim erroneous that the Missouri school's actions endorse a specific religion. Regardless, Crampton says he applauds the district's willingness to challenge the law and recognize the usefulness of distributing Bibles.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
