The U.S. Supreme Court is about to decide whether a war memorial in the form of a Christian cross that has stood unchallenged for 75 years in the Mohave Desert of California will be allowed to stand. The upcoming decision of the Supreme Court will add to the confusing line of cases that have evolved in recent decades as the High Court has intellectualized (secularized) the First Amendment’s provision that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Surely the Court cannot fail to see the longstanding heritage that Americans enjoy under our national motto, “In God We Trust”. Is the American Cemetery at Normandy, France, for example, to be abolished with its many traditional grave markers such as that which now stands covered and boxed up in the Mohave Desert? Now we must wait for the Court to decide whether the judgment of prior generations will stand as legal precedent or be disregarded as merely fleeting sentiment? Why? What has changed? What does that say about our country and the direction we are headed? Are we less in need of and, therefore, more willing to retreat from the “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence” expressed in our Declaration of Independence? Absolutely not.
President John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” And yet, today, we are witnessing the distortion and misapplication of our Constitution to prohibit the full and free expression of moral and religious truths in public life.
THE ACLU IN TODAY’S SOCIETY
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is referred to by some as the “Anti-Christian Liberties Union” because of their widespread efforts to eradicate all public references to or exhibitions of America’s moral and religious heritage. They seem determined to erase from the American memory all public evidence of our nation’s religious origins and foundation. Strangely, this is being done in the name of “Liberty”. (Such arguments are counter to the scriptural truth, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 2 Cor 3:17). An excellent book on this subject is The ACLU vs. America, Exposing the Agenda to Redefine Moral Values by Alan Sears and Craig Osten.
REMEMBERING D-DAY AND THE AMERICAN CEMETERY AT NORMANDY FRANCE
As a nation, we must never forget the memory of D-Day. Row upon row of marble Crosses and Stars of David are the defining feature of the American Cemetery at Normandy, France. They mark the graves of 9,387 service members. Most of them were killed during the Normandy Campaign that began on June 6, 1944 (“D-Day”). In the Cemetery’s Garden of the Missing, the names of 1,557 service members whose remains were not recovered are also engraved on Stone Tablets.
Winston Churchill had the foresight to create an artificial harbor in Normandy. He knew that the thousands of troops that would line the beaches of France could only carry enough supplies for a few days. The troops would suffer without reinforcement of supplies. Engineers took Churchill’s concept and built huge concrete blocks that would be used to create the docks needed for a portable port. Because of the secrecy required, workers in England built the giant blocks without even knowing what they were.
More than just floating blocks were needed to create the artificial port and harbor that made the Normandy invasion possible. In the first days after the invasion, the Allies sunk several ships to make a breakwater. Then the blocks built in England were towed across the English Channel. They were assembled and served as the base of protection for the invasion. The port was operational soon after the invasion. The entire undertaking, including all of its engineering and advance planning, was truly a miracle.
The American Forces landed at Omaha Beach, which is about 170 miles west of Paris, France. General Eisenhower hoped for a low tide, a full moon and good weather. That left only a narrow window of three days during the month when the invasion could be undertaken.
The Allies left England on June 5th but they had to turn back because of bad weather. The next day was not much better but Eisenhower gave the go ahead. At the same time, General Rommel of Germany took the day off. He went to Germany to see his wife because it was her birthday. He didn’t think the Allies would try to invade France in such bad weather.
The Allied invasion was a triumph of military coordination, secrecy and planning. The bold attack was also a tremendous risk. Ultimately, it succeeded because of the individual soldiers’ bravery in combat. An invading army had not crossed the unpredictable English Channel since 1688. 5,000 ships stretched as far as the eye can see. They transported over 150,000 men and nearly 30,000 vehicles across the channel to the French beaches. Six Parachute regiments of 13,000 men were transported by over 800 planes. More than 300 planes dropped bombs over the coast of Normandy in advance of the invasion.
By nightfall on June 6th, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded but more than 100,000 had made it safely ashore. Their courageous invasion secured the French coastal villages. Within weeks, supplies were being unloaded at Utah and Omaha Beaches at the rate of over 20,000 tons per day. The captured German soldiers were sent to American Prisoner of War camps at the rate of 30,000 POW’s per month. From D-Day until Christmas 1944, 33 detention facilities were positioned in Texas alone.
As President Ronald Reagan so memorably declared on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day, the brave Allied forces joined in battle to reclaim the European continent for liberty. For four long years, nations fell, Jews cried out in the camps where they were cruelly kept and millions more cried out for liberation as well. Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. It was there at Normandy that the rescue began. There, the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
At dawn, on June 6, 1944, two hundred and twenty-five Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of the cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring invasions that can be imagined. Their charge was to climb the steep and desolate cliffs and overcome the German resistance that sought to stop the Allied advance. The Rangers stormed the cliffs and began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the base of the cliffs and pulled themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When a rope was cut, they climbed, shot back, and held their footing. One by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top of the cliff. They began as a force of 225 but after two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN’S TRIBUTE TO THE “BOYS OF POINT DU HOC’
President Ronald Reagan honored and hailed the surviving American Rangers as the “Boys of Point Du Hoc, [the] men who took the cliffs, [the] champions who helped free a continent, [the] heroes who helped end a war.” On the 40th Anniversary, he asked the survivors who gathered at that historic site why they risked everything? Why did they do what they did? What impelled them to put aside their instinct for self-preservation and risk their lives to take those cliffs? “Somehow,” said President Reagan, “we know the answer. It was faith and belief. It was loyalty and love….[Also], something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock- hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause.”
Today, Christian Crosses and Jewish Stars of David mark the sacred spot where the great cause of liberty was so bravely defended and successfully advanced 65 summers ago. The graves face westward towards the United States. Like other overseas American Cemeteries, France gave the United States the cemetery land free of any charge or tax. The Cemetery is managed by the American Government under Congressional Acts that provide yearly financial support to maintain them. The U.S. Flag flies over these foreign soils. There is no legal opposition to this continuing tradition.
SEASONS OF SILENCE AND SELECTIVE OPPOSITION TO THE VOICE OF RELIGION IN AMERICA
The ACLU says not a word about the inspiring American landmark at Normandy. They rely on and benefit from the fact that American citizens (and judges) are far away and seldom mindful of this stirring tribute. Think back also to how silent and irrelevant the ACLU was after the terrorist attack of 9/11. Such moments drive our nation to its knees. The ACLU then must wait for calmer times to resume its efforts to cause America to betray its national motto and our heritage.
When 9/11 struck, there was no ACLU opposition when national prayer and religious services were held throughout the land. We saw America at its best then when we united and pleaded for God to again sustain us in one of our darkest hours. The ACLU is nowhere to be found when a nation turns to God in humble dependence. Only later, when seasons of peace and security open the window of opportunity for them to advance their anti-religion agenda, do they again file their suits and embroil the nation in talk of whether public expressions of faith in God should be “tolerated” in this “enlightened” age.
In the pending case of Salazar v. Buono, we will soon receive the United States Supreme Court’s latest ruling on this subject. It is an opportunity for the Court to not only protect the 75-year-old display of a World War I memorial but also every citizen’s right to publicly express their religious faith. (The fact that it was on government owned land is the basis of the ACLU’s opposition and its ongoing efforts to erase all public evidence of a religious nation).
The memory of D-Day and the American Cemetery at Normandy should stir a continuing reaffirmation of our national motto, IN GOD WE TRUST and renewed opposition to the anti-religion agenda of the ACLU. National Cemeteries and war memorials such as Normandy are both welcome and appropriate. They remind and inspire the living as they honor and pay tribute to the fallen defenders of our liberties. As Lincoln urged at Gettysburg, may “this nation under God” take from “[the] honored dead” “increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion….”
We must not allow the ACLU and others to abuse and twist our Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion until it somehow mandates freedom from religion at all costs and in every instance. The incoherence of the Supreme Court’s reasoning is seen in the fact that the Supreme Court has shown incredible leniency towards obscenity because people are said to be free to look away or change a television channel, etc. Then, the Court turns around and rules that agnostics and atheists must be guaranteed a society void of any public evidence of religious faith, which they do not approve?
The Founders spoke of and guarded against the “tyranny of the majority.” They never could have imagined the “tyranny of the minority” that we are witnessing today in the name of freedom.
RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE
William J. Federer has written, “A nation born for religious tolerance no longer tolerates religion”. In his book, Backfired, he asks:
“How did America go from pilgrims seeking freedom to express their Judeo – Christian beliefs to today’s discrimination against those very beliefs in the name of tolerance? [We are witnessing] “Ten Commandments taken down, “Under God” removed from the Pledge, Prayer prohibited, nativity scenes banned, Boy Scouts sued, religious art and music censored, Salvation Army defunded, Christmas carols stopped, Bible called ‘hate speech, religious symbols erased off city seals, etc.”
President Ronald Reagan framed the question perfectly. He said:
“The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance. Question: Isn’t the real truth that they are intolerant of religion?”
THE ACLU PROFITS FROM AND RELIES UPON THE ATTORNEY FEES IT RECOVERS BY FILING LAWSUITS TO CHALLENGE AND REVERSE AMERICA’S PUBLIC RECOGNITION OF THE CREATOR
It is important to note that the ACLU has a substantial financial incentive to file lawsuits wherever and whenever it can. The Civil Rights’ Attorneys Fee Awards Act of 1976 allows the ACLU to collect attorney’s fees for its suits against crosses, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments. (Is it any wonder why every ALCU backed suit these days is packaged and presented as a violation of an alleged “civil right”?). American taxpayers are, thus, paying for the expansion of the ACLU and the spread of secularism and moral relativism.
The ACLU has an estimated annual budget of $14 million. When the ACLU and its supporters filed their lawsuit to force former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore to remove the Ten Commandments Monument from the Supreme Court Building in Montgomery, they were awarded $540,000.00 in attorney’s fees and expenses. Alabama taxpayers funded that award, which replenished the ACLU coffers and spurs them to file more anti-religion suits all across America. Kentucky taxpayers paid $121,500.00 when the ACLU sued to block a Ten Commandments display outside the State Capitol. Tennessee County was forced to pay $50,000.00 to the ACLU for the same experience. In Utah, the ACLU announced a scavenger hunt with a prize for anyone who could find a Ten Commandments monument the ACLU could sue to remove.
The 1976 statute is being abused. Sadly, many a City, County or State feel they must back down and succumb to the high cost of threatened litigation. The fact that a lawsuit challenging a 75 year old World War I memorial out in the middle of the Mojave Desert can make it all the way to the United States Supreme Court is a tragic commentary on both our society and our legal system.
Christmas is coming soon and the profitable business of ACLU “political correctness” suits continues. We cannot allow such ant-religion tactics to go unopposed. Fortunately, the Alliance Defense Fund and other organizations and are diligently and effectively working to defeat the ACLU in these court battles. Still, the question lingers: Why is America so full of faith and prayer in times of trial but then somehow feels we must retreat in the face of secularism in times of peace and “domestic tranquility?”
Remember D-Day, Normandy, our Founding Declaration of Independence, our National Motto, our moral and religious heritage as Americans and the eternal truth that “Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord.” (Psalms 33:12).
Posted by: LaVar Christensen