‘Tis the season to empty your bank account!

As I desperately try to find gifts for my nephew that my parents haven’t already bought for him, the ACLU will be flooding state and federal courts with frivolous lawsuits about trees.

Neato! The ACLU is wasting our tax dollars with the goal of protecting our free society.

The interesting thing about a free society is that it depends upon the intrinsic goodness of individuals to provide stability. If people were intrinsically evil, a police state would be the only stable society possible.

This is why we have religious freedom. Because government cannot legislate the way we think, society needs some influence to bring out the best in people, and the personal investment one makes in his local church is a better teacher than some distant legislature. The government is prohibited from intervening in religious affairs because the government’s goals are often less than noble (to put it politely).

It is perfectly legitimate for our leaders to have genuine faith. Indeed, we should want them to be faithful because a belief in God can provide an ontology most favorable to our ideals of personal rights and the extinction of sexism, racism etc.

Why does the ACLU hate religion?

I’m asking. If anybody knows the answer, please e-mail me.

What cruel irony that an organization founded to protect our rights is spear-heading a campaign to empty our lives of the first right listed in the Bill of Rights.

Religious freedom does not mean that we must try not to offend anyone. Religious freedom means we can express our beliefs regardless of what others think. Indeed, the entire First Amendment protects us from being prosecuted just because someone’s feelings got hurt, but the ACLU will sue anyone on behalf of that crybaby.

The fact that these lawsuits are targeted exclusively at Christmas while other holidays go unchallenged demonstrates how the ACLU perpetuates the religious bias it supposedly opposes. If the ACLU started attacking all religious symbols, it would violate the free exercise rights of everyone. The only logical option is to back off.

Since when is the ACLU logical?

I’m asking. If anybody knows the answer, please e-mail me.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not is irrelevant. This is the one time of year people are reminded every 10 minutes about the multitude of charitable causes. While Jesus’ teachings are related to this fact, what kind of person would refuse to donate just because it is Christmas?

A person of any faith can acknowledge that Christmas has brought this good thing to the world that may not otherwise be here. A good thing helping to bring out the best in people.

This is the season we best realize how religion creates goodness.

What could the ACLU possibly dislike about that?

I’m asking. If anybody knows the answer, please e-mail me.

Merry Christmas!

Don Norvell is a physics graduate assistant and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].