Americans United’s Web site<\/a>: <\/p>\n“Sen. Ted Kennedy was a great champion of church-state separation. It’s not just that he consistently voted to support that principle – he really got it. He deeply understood that only a high and firm wall of separation between church and state could protect our liberties. He knew the reasons why our Founders established church-state separation and why we need to preserve it. He got how church-state separation protects the rights of both religious and non-religious people.<\/p>\n
“One of the things that made Sen. Kennedy so effective was his powerful presence. I first met him in the 1970s during a meeting designed to address issues of concern to residents of Washington, D.C. There were probably 40 people in the room, all squabbling about how to proceed. When Sen. Kennedy walked in, all talking stopped. He outlined a plan of action, and we divided up the work.<\/p>\n
“In subsequent years, I had many occasions to work with Sen. Kennedy and his staff. Although he belonged to a powerful political family, I always found him to be down to earth and engaging. He always took the time to intensely study whatever issue came before him, and his command of the facts and the workings of the Senate were impressive.<\/p>\n
“When Sen. Jesse Helms tried to push a school prayer amendment through the Senate, Ted Kennedy stood up to block it. When President Ronald Reagan sought to put Robert Bork on the Supreme Court, Ted Kennedy led the charge to stop him. When bills were introduced in Congress to fund religious schools with tax funds, Ted Kennedy was the first to speak up in opposition.<\/p>\n
“At the same time, Sen. Kennedy was a consistent supporter of the free exercise of religion and deplored any effort to chisel away at this cherished right of the American people.<\/p>\n
“At Americans United’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1997, Kennedy sent videotaped remarks commending AU’s work. ‘Through the years,’ Kennedy said, ‘we have worked well together to ensure that when the First Amendment says [Congress shall make] no law [respecting an establishment of religion], it means no law. May it always be so.’<\/p>\n
“Sen. Kennedy truly cannot be replaced. He was an institution and will be remembered as one of the great heroes of religious liberty and church-state separation. Americans United sends its condolences to the senator’s family. We mourn his passing but honor his legacy – a legacy of freedom that will stand for many years to come.” <\/p>\n
I welcome all of you to join in this conversation and share your thoughts about Sen. Kennedy, a truly great American.<\/p>\n
To subscribe to “Lynn v. Sekulow” click <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.<\/font><\/span><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span> <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, our country has lost one of its strongest defenders of the Constitution, Sen. Edward M.Kennedy. He was a longstanding civil rights advocate and will be greatly missed. I issued this statement about Sen. Kennedy this morning via Americans United’s Web site: “Sen. Ted Kennedy was a great champion of church-state separation. It’s not just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[242,51,67,241],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress","category-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-church-state-separation","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-sen-edward-kennedy"],"yoast_head":"\n
Sen. Kennedy Will Be Missed - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/08\/today-our-country-has-lost.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sen. Kennedy Will Be Missed - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today, our country has lost one of its strongest defenders of the Constitution, Sen. Edward M.Kennedy. He was a longstanding civil rights advocate and will be greatly missed. I issued this statement about Sen. Kennedy this morning via Americans United’s Web site: “Sen. Ted Kennedy was a great champion of church-state separation. 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Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}