ADF Agrees to Defend West Va. School in 'Jesus Portrait' Lawsuit
by Jim Brown
August 25, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Alliance Defense Fund has agreed to represent a West Virginia school board that's being sued by two liberal groups for allowing a portrait of Jesus Christ to hang in a high school hallway. The two organizations -- Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of West Virginia -- are suing the Harrison County Board of Education over a portrait of Christ that had displayed in the main hallway of Bridgeport High School for more than 40 years. The painting was recently stolen from the building.
Americans United and the ACLU contend the presence of the portrait is an "unconstitutional endorsement of religion" that interferes with the right of all students at the school to "freely express their religious beliefs." In the process, they say, Bridgeport High is providing students a "shoddy civics lesson."
Gary McCaleb, senior vice president of the Alliance Defense Fund, says his firm hopes "to bring the Constitution back to where it should be -- not where it's been mutated by the far Left."
If people would examine the Constitution as it was written and intended, says McCaleb, this case never would have arisen. "It's only because the Constitution has really been distorted over the years by litigation from groups like the ACLU that even gives a cause of action in a case like this," he asserts. Such litigation, he continues, gives rise to constitutional issues surrounding religious displays. "[So] we just think the school district needs a good legal counsel and a good vigorous defense in this situation," says the attorney.
As to the litigants' contention that the portrait constitutes government endorsement of religion, McCaleb maintains that argument fails the "reasonable observer" test. He explains that federal courts are finally recognizing that if a government entity provides a display or some sort of accommodation of religion -- "and nobody complains [about it] for decade after decade" -- then it is not reasonable that "somebody with a particularly tender conscience comes along and feels offended or somehow injured by a passive display."
McCaleb also argues that part of the lawsuit is currently moot, considering the portrait is no longer hanging in the school's hallway. It was recently stolen by a masked man who broke into the building.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
