{"id":6121,"date":"2004-05-17T06:42:30","date_gmt":"2004-05-17T13:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/05\/17\/the-message.html"},"modified":"2004-05-17T06:42:30","modified_gmt":"2004-05-17T13:42:30","slug":"the_message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/17\/the_message.html","title":{"rendered":"The message"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ACLU often gets a (generally) bum rap for being “anti-religion,” when in reality it is anti-state<\/i>-religion, fighting the state imposing official religious messages and stances on individuals. A good example of the difference can be seen in a recent case where the ACLU assisted a student with a religious message in a high school yearbook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan — often known for helping to keep religion out of schools — announced a settlement Tuesday with Utica Community Schools that reinstates Moler’s religious message in the yearbook.
\nMoler, who was a class of 2001 valedictorian at Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights, was among a group of high-achieving students school officials asked to submit a few words to pass on to their classmates for the yearbook. She used a biblical verse, Jeremiah 29:11: ” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ ”
\nThe entry was cut from the yearbook; school officials told her at the time that it was because it was religious. So Moler enlisted the ACLU’s aid.<\/p>\n

You can’t solicit personal messages in a neutral forum and then exclude ones for specific religious content — any more than you can require folks to provide only religious messages, or only give an audience to religious messages.<\/p>\n

Makes sense to me.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/u>: Les has more <\/a>(so to speak).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ACLU often gets a (generally) bum rap for being “anti-religion,” when in reality it is anti-state-religion, fighting the state imposing official religious messages and stances on individuals. A good…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10504,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/03\/but_what_if_he_wanted_a_p.html","url_meta":{"origin":6121,"position":0},"title":"But what if he wanted a picture with a pointed stick?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Jan-07 11:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Kid wants a yearbook picture with him in his chain mail and prop sword. School administration says that violates its \"no weapons\" policy. Mix in the ACLU, \"photo deadline\"...","rel":"","context":"In "School Daze"","block_context":{"text":"School Daze","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/school-daze"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/yearbook.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":136668,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/03\/the-evolution-of-yearbook-signatures.html","url_meta":{"origin":6121,"position":1},"title":"The Evolution of Yearbook Signatures","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Jun-18 7:39am","format":false,"excerpt":"The headline isn't quite right -- the article doesn't delve much into the why of people signing yearbooks, or why it has changed over the decades. But it does cover the trends of change over time, which is itself interesting. (I would guess it is also US-centric. I would think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/yearbooks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":29101,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/03\/yes-this-is-definitely-how-an-anti-christian-administration-behaves.html","url_meta":{"origin":6121,"position":2},"title":"Yes, this is definitely how an anti-Christian administration behaves","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Aug-12 11:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"If by that you mean \"bending over backwards to let faith-based organizations discriminate religiously in hiring.\"I disagree with the way the sloppy (and shadowy) way the policy is being followed by the Adminstration, but it's even more gobsmacking that the Religious Right's loudest mouths keep talking about how Obama hates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16815,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/02\/26\/taliban-aclu-acorn.html","url_meta":{"origin":6121,"position":3},"title":"Taliban! ACLU! ACORN!","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Feb-10 4:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, actually, this doesn't have to do anything with ACORN, but I figured it was part of the mantra of EVIL EVIL EVIL THAT IS INFESTING THIS NATION and so deserved a shoutout. So ... back in January, a teacher got in trouble at a middle school in Maryland because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/american-flag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6079,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/05\/26\/a_cross_to_bear.html","url_meta":{"origin":6121,"position":4},"title":"A cross to bear","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-May-04 9:32am","format":false,"excerpt":"The county seal of Los Angeles County (my old stomping grounds) is shown to the right. It was designed in 1957 by then County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. The ACLU is...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/blog\/images\/lacounty.gif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40017,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/11\/religious-monuments-for-the-goose-are-religious-monuments-for-the-gander.html","url_meta":{"origin":6121,"position":5},"title":"Religious Monuments for the Goose Are Religious Monuments for the Gander","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Dec-13 8:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not to mention for the Monkey.'The Universal Society of Hinduism plans to submit an application to the Oklahoma State Capitol Preservation Commission for permission to place a statue of Lord Hanuman on the statehouse grounds.'All of this started with the Oklahoma State Legislature passed a special measure to allow for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}