Evolutionists’ Hero Compared Communists to the Founders
Dr. Paul Kengor, FloydReports.com
No, that’s not “Clarence the Angel” of It’s a Wonderful Life fame. The Clarence in this article is much less inspiring—a humbug, really. I’m thinking of Clarence Darrow, dogmatic defender of atheists.
As Christians this time of year absorb another spate of snipes at their revered holy day, they might pause to remember Darrow. Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) was the wise-cracking, aggressive lawyer who took on William Jennings Bryan in the 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trials,” an epic battle over faith in the public square. Bryan was a three-time Democratic Party presidential nominee. He was old-school, when Democrats were much more conservative. Darrow’s courtroom denunciation of Bryan is immortalized in the awful movie, Inherit the Wind, which portrays Bryan as an idiot and Darrow as brilliant defender of civil liberties, “tolerance,” and “reason.”
These are reasons why modern secular liberals uphold Clarence Darrow as conquering hero. These liberals are a sharp departure from religious progressive forebears like Bryan, Woodrow Wilson, Dorothy Day, and Jane Addams, among many others. Today’s progressives love Darrow.
That’s all well-established. What was new to me, however, was the discovery that the farthest extreme of the political left—namely, American Communists—likewise loved Darrow. This was a shock, absolutely unexpected, as I encountered Darrow’s name repeatedly in the Soviet Comintern Archives on Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
The ACLU’s Communist, Atheist Roots
Dr. Paul Kengor, FloydReports.com
The ACLU seems unusually active right now. What gives? Maybe it’s the Christmas season, which always seems to spring the ACLU into high gear, making it more miserable than usual.
I tried to ignore the latest round of ACLU legal challenges against religious Americans, but they became too much. The surge has been remarkably ecumenical, not singling out Protestant or Catholic interests.
First, I got an email from Mat Staver’s group, Liberty Counsel, highlighting a bunch of ACLU lawsuits. Then I read a page-one, top-of-the-fold headline in the National Catholic Register, “Catholic Hospitals Under New Attack by ACLU,” regarding an ACLU request to compel Catholic hospitals to do abortions. Next was an email from a colleague at Coral Ridge Ministries, forwarding a Washington Times article. Then came another email from yet another Christian group on lawsuits somewhere in Florida. And on and on.
That was just a sampling of this year’s Christmas cheer, courtesy of the American Civil Liberties Union. At least the ACLU always finds a way to unite Protestants and Catholics.
In the interest of faith and charity, I’d like to add my own ecumenical offering—a history lesson. It concerns some fascinating material I recently published on the ACLU’s early founders, especially three core figures: Roger Baldwin, Harry Ward, and Corliss Lamont. I can only provide a snapshot here, but you’ll get the picture.
First, Roger Baldwin: Baldwin was the founder of the ACLU, so far to the Left that he was hounded by the Justice Department of the progressive’s progressive, Woodrow Wilson. Perhaps it was a faith thing. Wilson was a progressive, but he was also a devout Christian, and Roger Baldwin was anything but that.
Baldwin was an atheist. He was also a onetime Communist, who, among other ignoble gestures, wrote a horrible 1928 book called Liberty Under the Soviets….
Faith is the Source of America’s Greatness
Floyd and Mary Beth Brow, FloydReports.com
“America is great because she is good.” Those famous words by Alexis de Tocqueville still hold true as they did when he spoke them centuries ago. In the holiday season, we see repeated demonstrations of this goodness. De Tocqueville also noted, “The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.”
And moreover he said, “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.”
In the 40 years since 1970, secular humanism has assaulted the fabric of this faith. The American Civil Liberties Union and various associations of atheists and Marxist-leaning intellectuals have attempted to disconnect America from God. They have failed….
Senate Panel to Reconsider Obama’s Pro-Abortion Judicial Picks
Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com
The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider sixteen of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees during a hearing Thursday, including several who have been panned for advocating abortion. Some of the more controversial nominees include Goodwin Liu, Edward Chen and Louis Butler, nominated to appeals court and district court positions.
The nominees made it past the committee before but, since they never received Senate votes and time ran out on their nominations, Obama nominated them again.
Liu, nominated to become to a United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is most infamous for his beliefs that the Constitution evolves per the view of judges.
Chen, nominated to a district court judgeship in California, and Butler nominated to become a distract court judge in Wisconsin, are also pro-abortion.
Goodwin Liu is a professor at the liberal University of California, Berkeley and Ed Whelan, a judicial expert writing at National Review, says Liu is a problem because he believes the Constitution to be a “living” document — the same view as those jurists on the Supreme Court who invented an unlimited right to abortion throughout pregnancy in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases.
“Goodwin Liu has urged judicial invention (usually in an “interstitial” role) of constitutional rights,” he wrote previously.
Liu “presents a volatile mix of aggressive left-wing ideology and raw inexperience,” Whelan adds.
“Liu is closely aligned with various left-wing groups. For example, he is (or recently was) on the boards of directors of the American Constitution Society, the ACLU of Northern California, and the National Women’s Law Center. He apparently practiced law for about two years,” he notes.
Meanwhile, Obama nominated Edward Chen, a U.S. Magistrate, was nominated for a federal judgeship in San Francisco. Chen is a former attorney for….
LifeNews.com
The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider sixteen of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominees during a hearing Thursday, including several who have been panned for advocating abortion. Some of the more controversial nominees include Goodwin Liu, Edward Chen and Louis Butler, nominated to appeals court and district court positions.
The nominees made it past the committee before but, since they never received Senate votes and time ran out on their nominations, Obama nominated them again.
Liu, nominated to become to a United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is most infamous for his beliefs that the Constitution evolves per the view of judges.
Chen, nominated to a district court judgeship in California, and Butler nominated to become a distract court judge in Wisconsin, are also pro-abortion.
Goodwin Liu is a professor at the liberal University of California, Berkeley and Ed Whelan, a judicial expert writing at National Review, says Liu is a problem because he believes the Constitution to be a “living” document — the same view as those jurists on the Supreme Court who invented an unlimited right to abortion throughout pregnancy in the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton cases.
“Goodwin Liu has urged judicial invention (usually in an “interstitial” role) of constitutional rights,” he wrote previously.
Liu “presents a volatile mix of aggressive left-wing ideology and raw inexperience,” Whelan adds.
“Liu is closely aligned with various left-wing groups. For example, he is (or recently was) on the boards of directors of the American Constitution Society, the ACLU of Northern California, and the National Women’s Law Center. He apparently practiced law for about two years,” he notes.
Meanwhile, Obama nominated Edward Chen, a U.S. Magistrate, was nominated for a federal judgeship in San Francisco. Chen is a former attorney for….
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