The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) gets defensive when accused of being hostile to the concerns and freedoms of Christians, but there’s no denying the troubling track record. Everyone knows it. A conservative Jewish friend of mine calls the ACLU the “Anti-Christian Liberties Union.”
I’ve written about its history in books, with special attention to ACLU founders Roger Baldwin and Harry Ward and early board members Clarence Darrow and William Z. Foster, head of Communist Party USA and a militant atheist.
No one, however, has written about the ACLU like Bill Donohue of the venerable Catholic League. Donohue has done books, articles, news releases and even his dissertation on the ACLU, for which he interviewed Baldwin. His Catholic League has long monitored the group. He says of the ACLU: “I am convinced that most of its board members and senior officials harbor a deep animus against religion. Nothing bothers them more than Christianity, especially Catholicism.”
Currently, Donohue is calling attention to a crazy ACLU case. It’s yet another example that makes Christians believe the ACLU is hostile to their faith.
The ACLU of Massachusetts is challenging a decision by the city of Quincy to erect two statues of Catholic saints outside the public safety building. The saints are Florian and Michael the Archangel, the patron saints of firefighters and police officers, respectively.
As Donohue notes, the ACLU knows religious statues adorn buildings in the nation’s capital, including the Capitol, Supreme Court and Library of Congress, as well as public buildings throughout Massachusetts.
So why object to these statues? The ACLU explains in a letter to the Quincy city council: “the contemplated statue of Saint Michael … depicts a figure stepping on the neck of a demon. Such violent imagery is particularly abhorrent in light of the murder of George Floyd and other acts of police brutality throughout the country.”
Yes, you read that right. The Massachusetts ACLU is complaining that a statue depicting Michael the Archangel stepping on the neck of a demon — which is represented in all Catholic religious imagery of the archangel — evokes the image of George Floyd’s neck being stepped on. Donohue responds by asking simply, “Is the ACLU crazy?” Indeed.
But there’s more at work here. There’s ideology and ignorance.
The Massachusetts ACLU is ignorant of basic religious facts. There’s a famous St. Michael the Archangel Prayer, composed in the 19th century by Pope Leo XIII, recited at the end of Mass in many Catholic parishes. It implores the saint to “defend us battle” and “be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.” It urges the archangel to “cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world.”
That longtime Catholic prayer has nothing to do with George Floyd.
And yet, in our secular age, so many people lack such basic religious knowledge. Some other examples:
A few weeks after being shot in Butler last July, Donald Trump actually posted the Michael the Archangel Prayer. In response, former Clinton official Robert Reich inveighed: “Trump increasingly suggests … his opponents are ‘evil spirits’ to be ‘cast into hell.’ If you don’t find this terrifying, you’re not paying attention.”
Last year, liberals on social media blasted “traditional Catholics” for describing the Rosary and Virgin Mary as a “weapon” against evil. But Catholics have long believed that. Mary herself is often depicted as stepping on the neck of the serpent — i.e., the devil. Her spouse, St. Joseph, is known as “Terror of Demons.”
This should tell the ACLU something, namely: It’s unwise to stack your organization with people ignorant of the religions they’re dealing with. The ignorance comes off as hostility. If you don’t want to appear that way, then create a “DEI” program for your own staff. Include diverse people with different beliefs.
And, if you refuse, then don’t complain when others interpret your ignorance as hostility toward their religion.