Is The Bush Gang Creating Our Own Version Of The Religious Police?

DOJ Unveils Religious Discrimination Education Initiative

Maybe it's because of the number of civil liberty abuses and secret spying programs that have been instituted by the Bush gang, or maybe it's because my faith in Bush, Cheney, and their attack dog Gonzalez (who hasn't met a civil liberty he wouldn't attack on sight), but the entire idea of this program scares the hell out of me. It also smacks of unnecessary redundancy since we already have a part of the DOJ that deals with discrimination and hate crimes (a misnomer because all crimes have some element of hate inherently present in them).

So my "Spidey senses" are tingling and I am concerned that this effort is nothing less than the ultra-conservative Religious Right--especially the super vigilant and zealous Christian Right that has a lot of media and political influence, access and power--implementing another attack on the secular nature of our government and instituting a de facto body of religious police. The fact that this report was released and the program announced at a Southern Baptist Convention--a Christian denomination staunchly entrenched in the extreme Christian Right--also gives me reason to question the legitimacy of the program.

While I am all for civil liberties education, including those related to religious freedom, I am wondering why the DOJ Civil Liberties Division isn't creating an educational program covering all our civil liberties? Certainly we have a lot more violations of civil rights related to voting, abuse of process, police abuse, search and seizure violations, etc., than we do religious discrimination. What I suspect is that this is a push by the DOJ under the ultra-conservative agenda of Bush and Gonzalez to increase the push for Christian Right doctrines, dogma and agendas.

I have stood up for religious liberties, even fighting for the right of Christian families to home school their children. The ACLU, of which I am an active member, has stood up for religious liberties more often than it has defended the principle of separation of church and state. So, we have to ask if we really need these services? Are there really that many crimes committed against religious people to justify this program and approach? Are these educational programs going to be offered to Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan and other religious groups and individuals, or is it only going to be presented at places where the Christian Right live and breed? What about educating the public about other civil rights and liberties? Why isn't the DOJ pushing a program that would affect our public schools by developing a curriculum for "civics," government and social studies? Are the members of the Political Right seeking to mend fences with the Religious Right/Christian Right just before the all out war of the 2008 Presidential Campaigns get under way?

Something about this program--and the agenda pushing it forward--stinks to high heaven!

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales unveiled the First Freedom Project (FFP) Tuesday afternoon, a new Department of Justice initiative aimed at stricter enforcement of laws against religious discrimination and educating the public about their rights in this area. The DOJ will hold training seminars across the US in conjunction with the program, and the FFP website includes instructions on how to file a religious discrimination complaint with the DOJ. The program was prompted by a DOJ report, also released Tuesday, that describes how the DOJ's Civil Rights Division has "dramatically increased enforcement" of religious discrimination laws between 2001 and 2006.

Gonzales made the following remarks during a Wednesday meeting of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention:

"The Department of Justice has actively pursued cases involving religion not just in access to education and public facilities, but in equal access to housing, lending, and employment as well. Over the past six years, we have had many successes. We've launched scores of investigations involving religious discrimination in education and housing, a sharp and marked increase in the Justice Department's enforcement of these important federal protections. We have fought to maintain and make clear the crucial distinction between improper government speech endorsing religion and constitutionally protected private speech endorsing religion.

Why should it be permissible for an employee standing around the water cooler to declare that 'Tiger Woods is God,' but a firing offense for him to say 'Jesus is Lord'? These are the kinds of contradictions we are trying to address...

As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen and preserve religious liberty in this country, I am unveiling today a new initiative: the First Freedom Project. Under this program, the Department will build on our extensive record of achievement in this area and commit to even greater enforcement of religious rights for all Americans."