When newly appointed convenience store manager Mike Ruestik was visited by a sales representative from the store's news and periodicals distributor, he had no idea what that visit would cost him. The sales rep told Mike about a variety of new products that the company was offering to its customers including a number of pornographic magazines. Mike wasn't interested. His desire for a decent, family oriented store was incompatible with selling pornography, and so he placed his regular order of magazines and passed over the smut.

Two days later he was astonished to receive a call from a local lawyer. He was informed that his "arbitrary refusal" to order certain magazines was, in effect, "censorship" a "clear violation" of the free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution. He was then threatened with an ultimatum: either stock the pornography or else face a lawsuit. He asked the attorney why he couldn't stock whatever he wanted to in his store. He also inquired about what had happened to the concept of free enterprise.

The lawyer wasn't interested in hearing Mike's perspective on the issue, and their conversation ended with Mike declaring, "I'll see you in court." It never came to that. The corporate office for the store decided it would be smarter to avoid a lawsuit, and Mike was fired. Neat and simple.

The ACLU Assault

This recent case is but one of hundreds of ACLU involved cases where, in the name of protecting civil liberties, our freedoms are being methodically stripped from us. Other cases include:

Tanya Meyers, who was prevented from beginning an innovative, federally funded program to teach illiterate adults to read, because the classes would have taken place in a church building. An attorney called her and threatened an injunction because the program constituted "an unconstitutional establishment of religion." The injunction was obtained.

Layle French and his family, who are facing financial ruin, due to a lawsuit for discriminatory business practices in violation of the Minnesota Civil Rights Act. Their crime? They refused to rent their house to an unmarried couple because of their Christian views that sex before marriage is a sin.

In other cases ACLU lawyers have attempted to: halt the singing of Christmas carols in public facilities; deny tax-exempt status for churches (while keeping it for themselves and various occult groups); put an end to all military and prison chaplains; eliminate all Christian scenes and symbols from public property; prohibit voluntary Bible reading in public schools, even during free time; remove "In God We Trust" from our coins; and purge the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Getting to the Root

Just what kind of a creature is this ACLU? Today it is a thriving organization of 250,000 members who contend that their primary interest is upholding the Bill of Rights. The ACLU retains seventy staff lawyers and 5,000 volunteer attorneys, handling an average of 6,000 cases at any one time, with an annual budget of fourteen million dollars.

To really understand the ACLU you must go back to its source founder Roger Baldwin.< Although the organization was a result of the coming together of a number of radical nonconformists who found it convenient to pool their resources and their visions, it was Baldwin who became the dominant personality. In the early days, Baldwin himself admitted that it was his "one man show." The organization's first staff attorney, Arthur Garfield Hayes, often quipped, "the American Civil Liberties Union is Roger Baldwin."

As a youngster Baldwin appeared to have been heavily influenced by his radical grandfather and anti-capitalist aunt. His grandfather, William Henry Baldwin, whose anti-Christian views got him thrown out of the local YMCA, seemed to take a perverse delight in holding as many unorthodox views as possible on all matters related to morality and religion. His aunt, Ruth Standish Baldwin, was a member of the Socialist party, and threw herself passionately into various utopian, socialistic causes. From these two Roger learned the ways of radicalism.

Responding to World War I

Baldwin's initial efforts with the group that would eventually become the ACLU involved draft resistance during the First World War. The group was called the Bureau of Conscientious Objectors. It was established in May of 1917. This organization was set up in order to help draft dodgers learn strategies of resistance and to provide them with legal and financial support.

One of the first pieces of literature that he wrote for the new Bureau was declared "unmailable" by the Post Office because of its "radical and subversive views." The organization's activities quickly gained such immediate disapproval from most of America that the FBI was prompted to raid its offices, and all the Bureau's files were confiscated.

Shortly after that Roger Baldwin was himself drafted. Practicing what he preached, he refused to serve, and in court he professed his commitment to anarchism and his allegiance to socialistic reform. For his refusal, Roger was sentenced to a year in the penitentiary.

After his release he married a woman named Madeline Doty in a typically "progressive" wedding which was devoid of a ring or any religious symbols. The marriage was to be "open" where each would be responsible for their own expenses. Madeline was to keep her own name. Roger declared: "I am unalterably opposed to any woman taking my name. It's all I've got to identify me, and I am not going to give it away to a woman."

With such a grand and pretentious start, it was a mere two months before Baldwin left his bride and "went on the bum" to experience life as a common laborer. Having convinced himself that he was the new savior of the proletariat, he decided it would be good for him to get a feel for their lot by working among them. His intentions were overcome by the experience of hard work, however, and after three months he returned home, having decided it was a lot easier to be the friend of the workingman than to actually be a workingman. On his return he took control once more of the Civil Liberties Bureau, and renamed it the American Civil Liberties Union.

Baldwin was an unabashed admirer of Communism in general and Russia in particular. In his book Liberty Under the Soviets, he praised the Soviet Union for the "far more significant freedom of workers" and the "liberty won for anti-religion." Of the ACLU Board and National Committee members elected during the early years of the organization, nearly eighty percent had Communist affiliations, and a full ninety percent of the cases the organization defended involved Communists.

Such is the source of the prestigious organization known today as the ACLU. In recent years they have burst into the moral arena and sought to: legalize the distribution of all pornography; remove all ethical standards for radio and television; do away with all rating codes for movies; deregulate bath houses, nude bars and massage parlors; provide homosexuals with a privileged "minority" status; legalize prostitution; and allow for open sexual solicitation in public places.

It should be evident to all that the ACLU is a formidable anti-family, anti-morality, and anti-Christian organization. Their lawyers are working feverishly to make immorality a way of life in America. Should they succeed, our nation would fall to such depths of depravity as to make the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah appear virtuous.

How Shall We Respond?

In the name of civil liberties, America's standards for decency are being overturned. Perversity is becoming legal, while Christianity is quickly becoming illegal in all but the most private sectors. For us to hide our heads in the sand, sing our hymns on Sunday,< and try to pretend that all is well, is inexcusable ignorance.

The people of God must respond by fighting, spiritually and legally, for the moral standards that were once unquestionable. May we never be guilty of despising those who labor in the governmental arena for laws and policies that reflect Biblical values. Jesus tells us to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's," and in our culture that surely must include the responsibility of being involved in the political process. While not all are called to run for office, we can support Christian legal and political organizations such as the Rutherford Institute and the Christian Coalition, which are taking up the fight, case by case in the courts, and race by race in the political arena, to preserve Christian freedoms.

Ultimately, the battle is a spiritual one. The compulsion of the ACLU to rid our nation of every semblance of Christianity is but a reflection of the spiritual condition of its members. Jesus put it this way: "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed" (John 3:19,20).

Ungodly men and women have always been uncomfortable with the presence of Jesus Christ. Though His cross is a reflection of God's great love, it is also a declaration of God's estimation of sin, and of the certain fiery destiny of those who refuse the grace and love of Jesus. May we, who belong to Him, hold His banner high and fight the good fight of faith, looking unto Jesus, who was crucified for our sins, raised from the dead for our justification, and is coming soon!

Note: Material in this article was primarily gleaned from the excellent book "Trial and Error" by George Grant (Adroit Press, 1989). Those who desire to learn more about the ACLU's pernicious influence upon our nation would do well to purchase this book.

Christian Organizations Working
to Counter the ACLU

We recommend that you write to at least one or two of the following organizations and ask to be put on their mailing lists. When you do so, be thoughtful enough to include a donation with each request to help them cover their printing and mailing costs. We also recommend that you remember these groups in your prayers and that you supply them with financial support as you feel led of the Lord.

1) Christian Advocates Serving Evangelicals (CASE)
A Christian legal action group that exists to defend First Amendment issues related to the free exercise of religion and the freedom of religious speech. Headed up by Jay Sekulow, one of the most successful defenders of Christian rights in America. Mailing address: P.O. Box 64429, Virginia Beach, VA 23467. Telephone: 804/523-7239.

2) American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ)
A national network of attorneys who are willing to fight for the religious rights of Christians. The organization often takes the initiative in confronting the ACLU and other humanist groups. Mailing address: 1000 Centerville Turnpike, Virginia Beach, VA 23463. Telephone: 804/424-7777.

3) The Rutherford Institute
A Christian civil liberties organization founded by John W. Whitehead, a renowned authority on Constitutional law. Works through a network of attorneys nation wide who contribute their services. Mailing address: P.O. Box 7482, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Telephone: 804/978-3888.

4) The National Legal Foundation
A public interest law firm dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights, specifically freedom of religion, speech, assembly and press. Mailing address: P.O. Box 64845, Virginia Beach, VA 23464. Telephone: 804/ 424-4242.

5) Christian Legal Society
Provides lawyers who are willing to help Christians on a case-by-case basis to get the legal assistance they need to protect their Constitutional rights. Mailing address: 4208 Evergreen Lane, Suite 222, Annandale, VA 22003. Telephone: 703/642-1070.

6) Christian Law Association
A legal ministry dedicated to assisting Evangelical churches and Christians. Mailing address: P.O. Box 30, Conneaut, OH 44030. Telephone: 216/593-3933.

7) Concerned Women for America
Provides legal services for cases based on biblical, traditional, moral, and pro-family issues. Headed up by Beverly LaHaye. Mailing address: 370 L'Enfant Peromenade S.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20024.

8) American Family Association
The organization headed up by Donald Wildmon that fights against indecency in the media and humanist attempts to undermine the family. Mailing address: P.O. Box 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803. Telephone: 601/844-5036.

A Case Example

The Rutherford Institute is currently involved in defending a 10 year old boy named Raymond Raines. The case is scheduled to be heard in a federal district court in St. Louis Missouri. What terrible crime did this young boy commit? Praying over his lunch!

In a recent mailing by the Rutherford Institute, John Whitehead, the founder and president, wrote: "No case better exposes the lengths to which certain people will go to separate Christians from the mainstream of our society. And no case better underscores the total and absolute necessity of our mission to defend religious freedom and parental rights."

On three different occasions and in full view of all the other students in the lunchroom this boy was forcibly removed from his seat and sent to the principal's office for discipline. His only "offense" was to bow his head and pray silently over his lunch.

On one of the occasions, the principal himself yanked Raymond from his seat and told him point-blank that he could not pray over his lunch. And if that wasn't enough, the school officials forced him to sit apart from the other students and made fun of his religious beliefs and practices.

Whitehead added in his letter: "Helpless children are now the victims of the ACLU and various anti-religion coalitions. And that's why we're fighting to stop these groups from crushing every expression of faith in our public life."

The Christian community in America needs to wake up. The Humanists are on the attack, determined to erase the imprint of Christianity from American culture. The Church, the family, and individual Christians are going to come under increasing attack.

Christians cannot remain passive. The evil will not simply go away. We are engaged in a cultural and religious war. We must fight back. We can do that through prayer and by taking a public stand for righteousness. Do it!