Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity

208 Pages·2004·2.96 MB·English

by  David Limbaugh

PERSECUTION

How Liberals are Waging War
Against Christianity
D L
AVID IMBAUGH
Copyright © 2003 by David Limbaugh
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To my son, Scott Armstrong Limbaugh
I WANT TO THANK REGNERY PUBLISHING for its confidence in and support of this
project. I am grateful to my principal editor, Rick Pearcey, for excellent suggestions
throughout. He was a pleasure to work with, extremely diligent and responsive, and the final
product was much improved by his efforts. Harry Crocker was also extraordinarily helpful in
the editing process, as always, and helped to tighten the language in the earlier chapters in
particular. Harry was a believer in this book from the beginning and was of invaluable
assistance, from the initial outline to the final product. Thanks also to Rowena Itchon for
valuable research assistance. I also want to thank Trish Bozell for her magical touches in the
closing phases. During the final weeks, Paula Decker proofread and edited masterfully and
patiently, and graciously endured my endless last-minute changes right down to the deadline.
I want to thank Greg Mueller and his Creative Response Concepts for their support and
assistance. And I thank Brannon Howse with Worldview Weekend for providing me
background materials and helping to put me in touch with various other people and resources.
I also want to thank Liberty Counsel's Mathew Staver and the Rutherford Institute's John
Whitehead for helping to clarify important points about various cases their fine organizations
worked on for the cause of religious liberty. I also appreciate Wallbuilders and David Barton
for providing me with materials. I thank Karen England of Capitol Resource Institute for
assistance in clarifying certain troublesome California legislation. My thanks to Greg Hoadley
of the Center for Reclaiming America for helping me sort through some of that legislation as
well and for helping to introduce me to Dr. D. James Kennedy. Jerry Newcombe was also
helpful in introducing me to Dr. Kennedy and in providing certain background materials on
America's Christian origin. I am appreciative of my friend Randy Black's sharp eye for current
examples of discrimination and for forwarding me news stories as he encountered them.
I am very grateful for the participation of some of America's most influential Christians in
the final chapter of this book: Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Michael Novak, Dr. Marvin Olasky, Dr.
Ravi Zacharias, Nancy Pearcey, and Dr. D. James Kennedy. It is an honor to have their
thoughts within the covers of my book. I am also very grateful to some of their assistants for
helping to facilitate these interviews: Mary Anne Bunker for Dr. Kennedy, Ron Reno for Dr.
Dobson, Michael Leaser for Dr. Novak, and my friend Danielle DuRant for helping with the
Dr. Zacharias interview and for a host of other things.
Special thanks to my good friend Sean Hannity for listening and for his support and ideas
throughout the project.
I remain grateful to Ann Coulter for her invaluable advice when I was writing my first book,
Absolute Power. That advice proved just as helpful for this book and will guide me through
any books I do in the future. I also want to thank the following friends for their support and
guidance during the project: Mark Levin, Phyllis Schlafly, Michelle Malkin, and Emily
Costello.
And, I want to thank my friends Pastor Ron Watts, Associate Pastor Rob Mehner, and Dr.
Steve Johnson for spiritual nourishment and mentorship.
As always, I thank my brother, Rush, for his inspiration and support on this and all other
projects I pursue.
Finally, book projects demand a grueling work schedule, and most of all I am indebted to
my wife, Lisa, and the kids for their perennial encouragement, support, and patience.
Contents
Introduction
Part I The War in Our Public Schools
Chapter 1 Christianity Out, Part 1
Chapter 2 Christianity Out, Part 2
Chapter 3 Secularism In, Part 1
Chapter 4 Secularism In, Part 2
Chapter 5 The Battle for the Academy
Part II The War for the Public Square
Chapter 6 Purging Christianity from the Government and Government Property
Chapter 7 Muzzling Public Officials, Employees, and Appointees
Chapter 8 Public Attacks on Churches and Christians and Purging the Private Sphere
Chapter 9 State Endorsement of Non-Christian Values and Hypocrisy in Our Culture
Chapter 10 The Media and Hollywood Wars Against Christianity

Part III The War in Perspective
Chapter 11 America's Christian Roots
Chapter 12 America's Liberty at the Crossroads

Notes
Introduction
THIS BOOK CHRONICLES discrimination against Christians in American society. While
tolerance is touted as the highest virtue in our popular culture, Christians are often subjected to
scorn and ridicule and denied their religious freedoms. In no way does this book mean to imply
that other groups are not subjected to discrimination or to deny the seriousness of that
discrimination. The difference, however, is that it seems that when other groups (or individuals
from those groups) experience discrimination or mistreatment the popular culture properly
decries it. But when it comes to anti-Christian discrimination, the culture's attitude seems to be,
"Yes, please do shut up those Bible-thumping idiots!"
Anti-Christian discrimination occurs in a variety of contexts throughout our culture, from the
public sector to the private sector, in the mainstream media and in Hollywood, in the public
education system and in our universities. Often the discrimination comes from activist judges
misinterpreting the law (the hostility to Christian religious freedom infects our judiciary as
much as anywhere else); other times it comes from entities misapplying the law. It also comes
from what we call "political correctness." The discrimination mostly stems from a hostility to
Christianity and from rampant disinformation in our society about what the Constitution
actually requires in terms of the so-called "separation of church and state."
Though there is a significant body of law safeguarding religious liberties, the law is not always
followed-even when the courts interpret it correctly (in accordance with the framers' original
intent). Now, it is also true that though the courts, including the Supreme Court, have often ruled
directly against the obvious original intent of the Constitution, I can't always say their rulings are
unconstitutional. Why? Because the law is what the highest court says it is. Even if it's wrong,
the court is the final arbiter. What I can say is that these rulings ought to be seen by the Court as
unconstitutional. This highlights why the appointment of Supreme Court justices and other
appellate judges who hold to the original intent of the Constitution is so vital to the preservation
of our liberties. When we cast our ballots for politicians, we should think about that.
Anti-Christian discrimination in our society is getting more blatant and more widespread
every day. The cultural assumptions of our society influence changes in the law, and the culture
is moving against the public expression of Christian belief. The famous prayer case we discuss
later, Engel v. Vitale (1962), could not have occurred at any other time in our history. And since
1962, the wedge of secularism against the public expression of Christianity has been driven
much, much farther.
The fundamental issue, as mentioned earlier, is that people freely throw around phrases, such
as the "separation of church and state," without understanding their true meaning, especially
under the Constitution as originally written. So let's establish a few basic facts.
First, we must recognize that the framers believed that religious freedom was of paramount
importance; it was a primary reason for emigration to America. Religious freedom was so
important to them that they sought to guaranty it by the placement of two separate clauses in the
very first amendment to the Constitution. The First Amendment begins with the two clauses back
to back: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof . . .” The first clause is known as “The Establishment Clause" and the
second, the "Free Exercise Clause.
You'll note there is no language in either-or anywhere else in the Constitution-mandating a
wall of separation between church and state. That phrase, as we'll see in Chapter One, comes
from a letter of Thomas Jefferson, several years after the Constitution and Bill of Rights were
well in place. Moreover, the phrase has been taken out of context, distorting what Jefferson
meant. Nevertheless, those advocating a strict separation (often referred to in this book as
"separationists"), point to the "Establishment Clause” as evidence the framers intended a strict
separation.
But it's important to understand that both clauses, the establishment Clause and the Free
Exercise Clause, were adopted by the framers for the explicit purpose of promoting, not
suppressing religious freedom. That may be obvious with the Free Exercise Clause-its literal
language says as much-but people tend to overlook it with the Establishment Clause. The
purpose of the Establishment Clause was to prevent the federal government from establishing a
particular denominational religion that would serve to inhibit our religious freedoms; it was not
intended to keep Christianity out of the public square. Yet today the Establishment Clause is
routinely used to suppress people's free exercise rights of religion in our schools and in public
life.
Of course, one of the problems of applying original intent analysis to these issues is that the
relationship between government and education today is radically different from how it was at
the time of the nation's founding.
In the first place, the Establishment Clause only restricted the federal government, not the
states. Its language makes that quite clear, "Congress shall make no law..." At the time of the
ratification of the First Amendment, many states in fact had state-established religions. There is
no better evidence-besides its plain language-that the Establishment Clause was never intended
to prevent state governments from establishing their own religions. Again, the language of the
clause is instructive. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." That
clearly meant that the federal government was precluded from establishing a national religion,
but also that the federal government was precluded from interfering with the right of individual
states to do as they pleased respecting the establishment of their own religions. Later, of course,
the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified and the Supreme Court, in a series of abhorrent
decisions we will discuss later, ruled that the First Amendment Establishment Clause was
applicable to the states through incorporation in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment.
While there is no question that these decisions were gross examples of judicial activism and
that the Fourteenth Amendment was never intended to constitute a federal restriction on the
state's right to establish a religion, these precedents are now the law of the land. Worse, though,
is that as government has grown, so too have its restrictions on the free exercise of religion.
The courts say that public schools, because they are partially funded by federal money (First
Amendment) and because they are predominantly funded by state money (Fourteenth
Amendment) cannot engage in activities that are deemed an endorsement of a religion. Just the
slightest nod to a religion will be enough to trigger an Establishment Clause violation. As we'll
see, many schools and courts take this to absurd extremes, and to get to these absurd extremes
they have had to torture the original intent of the Constitution.
Indeed, we should remember that when the Constitution was written, Christian religious
instruction was the primary purpose of education. To the extent that we can imagine public
schools being endorsed by the founders, we can be certain that they would not have objected to
religious instruction, but would have insisted on it. If the founders could have anticipated that
our schools would become a government near-monopoly and that the Establishment Clause
would be stretched beyond recognition to prohibit Christian instruction, I think it's safe to say
they would have opposed public education altogether.
We all know the framers were among the wisest men in history. Ignoring their original intent
for the First Amendment of the Constitution, as we shall see, has already had alarming
consequences for our precious freedoms. And unless we do something about it, it's going to get
worse, seriously worse.