The ACLU’s War on Parents
By Alan Sears
It’s
tough to be a parent. In fact, raising your child these days to develop into a
healthy, happy, responsible adult has never been harder. Violence and sex
saturates television and movies, popular music is filled with profanity and
rage – even video games often focus on the darkest edges of human behavior.
It is bad enough that the culture seems at war with parents. But more
disturbing are the actions of courts to damage the link between parent and
child. And no 
group
has done more to inflict damage on parental rights though the courts than
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) working with its zealous allies.
The
ACLU defines itself as the “nation’s guardian of liberty” dedicated to preserve
the individual rights and liberties of all Americans. But in reality, this
leftist legal organization has devoted itself to destroying the rights of
parents to raise children in the manner they deem appropriate.
In December, the ACLU praised a
Washington State Supreme Court ruling that prevents parents from listening to
their minor children’s telephone conversations. The high court determined that
a mother violated the state’s Privacy Act when she monitored a discussion
between her 14-year-old daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. The content of
this conversation helped convict the boyfriend of a violent crime.
The
ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case against the mother and in
favor of overturning the conviction. Douglas Klunder
of the ACLU explained the group’s position stating, “I don’t think the state
should be in the position of encouraging parents to act surreptitiously and
eavesdrop on their children.”
Attorney
Randall Gaylord, the prosecutor on the parent’s side, was rightfully
incredulous. “I’m concerned that a 14-year-old’s right to privacy now trumps
the parent’s right to be a parent,” he said.
The
ACLU is also undermining parents’ right to teach their children traditional
moral and religious beliefs. One of the latest battlegrounds in the
organization’s war against parents is in Boyd County, Ky.
The
fight began when the local school district settled an ACLU lawsuit over the
right of a student group, the Gay-Straight Alliance, to meet on campus. Part of
the agreement mandated that all students, staff and teachers view a one-sided,
hour-long video promoting “tolerance” of homosexual behavior.
Understandably,
many parents objected to the content, resulting in the desire of about a third
of the students to opt-out of the program. Angry at this exercise of basic
parental rights, the ACLU threatened new legal action if every student didn’t
view the propaganda.
“Parents
don’t get to say I don’t want you to teach evolution or this, that, or whatever
else,” said James Esseks, litigation director for the
ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. “If parents don’t like it, they can home
school, they can go to a private school, they can go
to a religious school.”
Mr. Esseks doesn’t seem to get it. Public schools should be just that: open to the public. That means open to everyone. Is the public school system merely for students who aren’t Christian and who can afford to go to private schools? Indoctrination in the homosexual agenda is not the same as reading, writing, and arithmetic, and most Americans know that.
Attorneys
with the Alliance Defense Fund are currently battling on behalf of the parents
to ensure that their constitutional rights and those of their children are not
violated by this so-called “diversity training.”
Even
on decisions of life and death, the ACLU wants to cut parents out of the
picture. The group is strongly opposed to any type of law mandating parental
notification when a minor seeks an abortion. In their fact sheet on the issue,
the ACLU seems scandalized that parents might have a role to play in this most
major of decisions: “These bills would give parents such absolute control over
their children’s lives that, in some instances, the minors’ own constitutional
rights would be threatened and their health and well-being endangered.”
Howard
Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, elaborated on the group’s
position: “When the state forces parents to be involved, the consequences are
often catastrophic.”
Parents,
Mr. Simon, are not the problem.
In
an age where leaders everywhere are crying out for parental involvement in the
lives of their children, the ACLU stands out-of-touch – proud to be an obstacle
pursuing its own agenda without regard for any of the consequences.
Sadly,
the ACLU has proven time and time again their ill intent toward American parents.
Despite their claims of standing up for the individual, this arrogant band
of leftists is attacking a most basic human right: that of nurturing and protecting
one’s child in an often-dangerous world.
Alan
Sears is the President, CEO, & General Counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund
(ADF). The ADF was formed in 1993 by Dr. James
Dobson, the late Dr. Bill Bright, the late Larry Burkett, Dr. D. James Kennedy,
and other founders who had been prayerfully seeking God’s direction for the
right person to lead the fledgling organization. They selected Sears, of whom
Dr. Bright said God had uniquely prepared for this role. In 10 short years, God
used Sears to grow ADF from an idea to the nation's largest religious liberty
legal alliance. Sears previously held numerous positions with the United States
Government including the Department of Justice, under Attorneys General William
French Smith and Ed Meese III, as an Assistant United
States Attorney and Chief of Criminal Section; as Director of the Attorney
General’s commission on Pornography; and the Department of Interior under
Secretary Donald Hodel as an Associate Solicitor,
with other not for profit public interest legal organizations, and in the
private practice of law. This article appeared on WorldNetDaily.com, September
15, 2005.
