AU and ACLU Team-Up to Silence Bible-Believing Christians
By Roger A. Moran

   If ever it appeared that Americans United for Separation of Church
and State (AU) had become the "religious liberty" arm of the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), that appearance is more vivid now than
ever before.

   Marking a clear _public_ move to the left, on September 22, 1992, the
governing board of AU officially endorsed one of the top leaders of the
ACLU as their next Executive Director. Barry Lynn, who had been a member
of AU's National Advisory Council, was the legislative counsel for First
Amendment issues for the Washington office of the ACLU from 1984 to
1991.

Americans United Staff and Governing Boards

   While the staff of AU consists of everything from a self-proclaimed
Secular Humanist to a former Executive Director of the Southern
California Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, the increasingly
dominant factor within AU is that of the ACLU.

   With former ACLU legislative counsel Barry Lynn at the helm of the
organization serving as the Executive Director, Steve Green (formerly a
board member of the Vermont ACLU) is AU's legal director. And AU's
latest employee, Susan Hansen, serving as editorial assistant for AU's
_Church and State Journal_, was a staffer in the Washington office of
the ACLU.

   Though AU's Board of Trustees and National Advisory Council have
included leaders from a wide variety of liberal organizations (People
for the American Way, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the
American Humanist Association, the National Education Association, the
Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights, the National Coalition Against
Censorship, and many other well- and less-known liberal extremist
groups), the ACLU is very much represented on the governing boards of
AU.

   The current legislative counsel for the ACLU (Robert Peck) and the
ACLU's legal director (Steve Pershing) both serve on AU's National
Advisory Council. Also serving on AU's board in recent years has been
former Indiana Senator Birch Bayh, a member of the national ACLU board.

ACLU Leaders Speakers at AU's National Church/State Conference

   ACLU involvement with AU has also included a steady flow of ACLU
leaders speaking at AU's annual national conference. In recent years,
ACLU leaders have included Senator Birch Bayh, an AU National Advisory
Council member and a 1987 AU conference speaker; in 1989, prior to his
appointment as Executive Director, Barry Lynn was an AU conference
speaker; in 1991 and again in 1993, Nadine Strossen (president of the
ACLU) was an AU conference speaker; and, most recently, in 1994, Jane W.
Whicher, Staff Counsel for the ACLU of Illinois, was an AU conference
speaker.

The ACLU's Church/State Committee

   Also of interest is the ACLU's National Church/ State Committee. This
committee, responsible for formulating much of the ACLU's church/state
policy, has in recent years included four prominent, past and present AU
board and staff members:

1. John M. Swomley, former long-time AU trustee, serves as chairman of
   the committee, and currently serves as President of Americans for
   Religious Liberty, a humanist organization. (In 1985, Swomley
   received the Humanist Pioneer Award from the American Humanist
   Association.)

2. Edd Doerr, a former 16-year Executive Staff member of AU, served most
   of that time as editor of AU's journal, _Church and State_. Doerr was
   also a signer of _Humanist Manifesto II_ and, from 1985 to 1991
   served as chairman of the board of the American Humanist Association.
   Doerr has served as Vice-President of the Religious Coalition for
   Abortion Rights and now serves as Executive Director of Americans for
   Religious Liberty.

3. Barry Lynn, formerly the legislative counsel for the ACLU, now serves
   as Executive Director for AU. Lynn also serves on the Advisory Board
   of Americans for Religious Liberty.

4. Robert Peck, National Advisory Council member and conference speaker
   for AU, currently services as legislative counsel for the ACLU.

   Serving on the ACLU's National Church/State Committee has given these
individuals a significant amount of influence in determining ACLU policy
and in framing the national debate on church/ state issues.

Barry Lynn, AU/ACLU and Child Pornography

   Both a lawyer and ordained United Church of Christ minister, Lynn is
probably best known among conservative Christians for his testimony on
behalf of the ACLU before the Attorney General's Commission on
Pornography, where he argued that child pornography should come under
the Constitutional protection of the First Amendment.

   In a September 1993 televised debate on the wall of separation
(hosted by William Buckley's _Firing Line_), AU's new Executive Director
re-affirmed his position on child pornography. In the debate Congressman
Henry Hyde asked of Barry Lynn: "Is there a constitutional right to
produce or to view child pornography?"

   Lynn responded: "The American Civil Liberties Union thinks there is."

   Hyde: "What do you think?"

   Lynn: "What do I think? I happen to have worked for the American
Civil Liberties Union and I agreed with that position. I don't
understand though...what this has to do with church/state matters."

   Hyde: "I think we all just wanted to know if you think there's a
right to view and produce child pornography."

   Lynn: "My personal opinion about child pornography viewing I don't
think is terribly relevant. That was a position of the ACLU. I worked
for the American Civil Liberties Union."

   What Mr. Lynn doesn't understand is that his, and the ACLU's,
understanding of the First Amendment in general does not represent the
views and understandings of most Americans.

AU and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)

   While Barry Lynn's position concerning child pornography seems
radical and bizarre to Bible-believing Christians, AU's official
position in regard to the NEA is just as bizarre.

   At the 1990 AU National Conference, the organization gave their
highest honor, the Madison-Jefferson Award, to Congressman Pat Williams,
"for his stalwart defense of religious liberty."

   According to AU's monthly journal, _Church and State_:

   "...Williams came under fire from religious conservatives for
   defending the National Endowment for the Arts against charges that
   it has funded "sacrilegious" works of art. Few fellow House
   members came forward to _stand with Williams against censorship_."
   (emphasis ours)

   Declaring himself to be "proud to be one of the watchmen on the wall
of separation between church and state," Congressman Williams argued
that efforts "to restrict funding of art deemed "sacrilegious" by the
standards of narrow sectarian interests" represented a threat to
separation of church and state (See article entitled _Desecration of
Christ_.)
 
   Speaking at the 1994 AU National Conference, ACLU attorney Robert
Peck explained why religious conservatives should not be offended by
such NEA-funded "art" as the depiction of Christ in a container of urine
or the portrayal of Christ injecting drugs into His veins. According to
Mr. Peck, these "artists" were "trying to send a deeply spiritual
[message] -- that had to do with the fact that Christ is a part of all
of us including our bodily fluids" and "that Christ was in...even the
person who is a drug addict."

AU/ACLU and Tax Exempt Status

   AU's position on the tax exempt status of churches is gradually
emerging. At this year's AU National Conference, speaking before the Law
and Theology Student Seminar, ACLU attorney Robert Peck stated the
ACLU's opposition to tax exemption for churches. Even more interesting
(knowing AU's and ACLU's hostility toward the political expression of
religious conservatives) was Mr. Peck's reasoning as to why tax
exemption is bad:

   "We do not believe that churches should get tax exemption at all.
   Thus, they do not have the danger of curbing their speech, in
   order to make sure that they don't endanger it."

   Reiterating the same argument, AU's legal director, Steve Green,
asked this question to the seminar participants:

   "Is it unfair for government to be basically saying, churches, you
   have a prophetic mission? You have a right to speak in the market
   place of ideas, to state your position. However, if you go a
   little too far though -- you kind of start crossing the line,
   start advocating or endorsing particular candidates, etc., then
   we're going to cut this off... And the concern has been that
   subtly, government is basically forcing religion to compromise its
   views and its values by virtue of the tax exempt status."

   Further revealing AU's position in regard to tax exemption for
churches, AU trustee John V. Stevens, Sr., in a 1993, 9-page letter of
resignation, writes of a trustee meeting:

   "I asked what Lynn's position was on tax exemption for religious
   organizations. He stated he was opposed to such tax exemptions. I
   thought I misunderstood, so I repeated the question. Again, he
   stated his opposition. Some trustees agreed with him. I heard no
   one agreeing with me."

AU and the Gay Rights Agenda
 
   Working for social acceptance of gay and lesbian lifestyles has been
a major part of the Left in general, and the ACLU, specifically. But
increasingly, AU is now openly joining the ranks of the left even in
this area. At their recent national conference, AU's director of
Chapters and Faith Groups stated that "opposition to promoting
homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle" in the public schools
represents a serious threat to church/state separation. At the same
conference, the Reverend Meg Riley, director of the Office of Lesbian
and Gay Concerns for the Unitarian-Universalist Association, was elected
to the governing board of AU.

    Further revealing AU's support and promotion of the gay and lesbian
lifestyle is the organization's participation in the production of the
_How to Win_ manual against the Religious Right manual where gay and
lesbian rights is a consistent theme.

   But most recently, Barry Lynn wrote in his monthly column in AU's
_Church and State Journal_ that he "finds no fault with such a
theological stance" as thanking God for the "diversity" that He
"created," including both "gay and straight." Indeed, such theological
understandings are typical of the religious make-up of AU.

   While AU has been far to the left of center since its very beginning
in 1947, its public move to the left has intensified with the coming of
Barry Lynn to the post of Executive Director. It would appear that gays
and lesbians aren't the only ones coming out of the closet.

From: St. Louis MetroVoice, May 1995, Vol. 5, No. 5.

