6 Mar 08
John T. Auberger, Town of Greece Supervisor
One Vince Tofany Blvd
Greece, NY 14612
(585) 225-2000, (585) 723-2459 fax, www.greeceny.gov
Re: Pledge of Assistance with AU Lawsuit
Dear Supervisor Auberger:
As the leader of a national, grass-roots organization that defends people who pray “in Jesus name,” I am writing to assist you with public relations, fundraising, and/or legal research/referrals to help you defend and win your lawsuit against Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU). These “professional complainers” (the anti-religious left) falsely attack you, and try to bully you to abolish free speech and free religious expression by visiting citizens who pray during Greece Town Board meetings. Please don’t settle or even negotiate with AU, and stand firm against them!
First, I highly recommend you immediately contact any of three pro-bono religious liberty law-firms, each of which have experience litigating cases like yours:
-The Rutherford Institute, John Whitehead, 1-434-978-3888 (www.rutherford.org)
-The Moral Law Foundation, Roy Moore 1-334-262-1245 (www.morallaw.org)
-The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), 1-800-TELL-ADF
Note the ADF specifically promises to defend, pro-bono, any government officials who defend freedom of public prayer content. ADF has written specific prayer guidelines to safeguard freedom in any New York government, which I recommend you adopt, here: http://www.telladf.org/adfresources/default.aspx?cid=4134
I’ve included their helpful legal arguments for NYS in the attachment to this letter.
Second, you can successfully defend your lawsuit, based on the principle clearly explained by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991 in Lee v. Weisman 505 U.S. 577:
“The government may not establish an official or civic religion as a means of avoiding the establishment of a religion with more specific creeds. ... The State’s role did not end with the decision to include a prayer and with the choice of clergyman. [They] provided a copy of the ‘Guidelines for Civic Occasions’ and advised him that his prayers should be non-sectarian. Through these means, [they] directed and controlled the content of the prayers. ... It is a cornerstone principle of our Establishment Clause jurisprudence that it is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers.”
In other words, if you had required “non-sectarian” prayer content, (as AU now pressures you to do), you would’ve literally violated the Establishment Clause, by creating an official state-religion (called non-sectarianism), and forcing your guest chaplains to conform to AU’s official government religion, and pray to their false government-sanitized god, or face exclusion, denied equal opportunity given to
favored non-sectarian faiths who conform to their prayer guidelines. That’s clearly unconstitutional, revealing AU’s secret mission, to abolish the church with state sword.
AU’s lawsuit against you complains that sectarian prayers ending “in Jesus name” constitute government speech endorsing Christ. They wish the First Amendment banned the public expression of illegal words like “Jesus” during public prayer! But Chaplains or Board members or any praying citizens do not (and cannot possibly) represent official government speech during their divine moment of public worship. They stand as private citizens (not government actors) representing their own faith and conscience toward their own God. By allowing citizens to speak and pray freely, your government doesn’t honor their specific religious belief, rather it honors freedom itself. The legitimate government purpose (for the Lemon test) is to demonstrate public respect for freedom and diversity. Letting many faiths take turns equally, without favoring one faith over another, exactly fulfils government’s original purpose.
They will falsely claim Marsh vs. Chambers 463 U.S. 783 (1983) required the removal of words like “Christ” when actually those judges ruled no such thing. Instead the Supreme Court upheld 6-3 a chaplain’s right to pray a non-sectarian prayer on the floor of any legislature, but stopped short of mandating all prayers be non-sectarian.
They will misquote many other case law precedents from around the country, which legal cases are detailed in my attached three WorldNetDaily articles, but please be assured the recent trend of cases have been decided in our favor, against AU.
We recently scored legal victories in Indiana, Ohio, and in Tulsa Oklahoma, whose new prayer policy (also attached) provide a liberty model you might follow.
When the U.S. Navy tried to punish me (a former chaplain) for praying in Jesus name, the U.S. Congress sided with me and 85% of American voters, restoring the rights of chaplains of all faiths to pray publicly according to their conscience. My friends and I can mobilize many pastors to stand with you firmly against AU’s anti-free-speech pressure. Please call my cell at 719-360-5132 or email if you wish to discuss these matters. God Bless you.
I Pray In Jesus Name,
Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt
Attachments:
1) Three Worldnet Daily Articles by GJK
2) New Tulsa City Council Prayer Policy
3) ADF’s legal arguments for prayer “in Jesus name”
“Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…” 2 Cor 5:11 (KJV)