{"id":300,"date":"2010-08-04T15:26:07","date_gmt":"2010-08-04T15:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/08\/religious-discrimination-at-it.html"},"modified":"2010-08-04T15:26:07","modified_gmt":"2010-08-04T15:26:07","slug":"religious-discrimination-at-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2010\/08\/religious-discrimination-at-it.html","title":{"rendered":"Religious Discrimination At Its Worst: ACLJ Lawsuit Must Fail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay,
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

You
\nmust REALLY like the Burlington Coat Factory. <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s
\nthe only logical explanation I can come up with for why the American Center for
\nLaw and Justice, which claims it’s all about preserving Americans’ religious
\nfreedom, would file a lawsuit<\/a> today to preserve a building in lower Manhattan
\nthat once housed the retailer<\/a>.  I mean, I never really thought of the
\nBurlington Coat Factory as a historic landmark, but to each his own. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unless,
\nthis isn’t at all about the Burlington Coat Factory, but rather a desperate
\nattempt to make a legal argument (and a very weak one at that) to stop the
\nbuilding of an Islamic Community Center — a center that would be built with
\nprivate funds on private land in Manhattan. <\/span><\/p>\n

But
\nthat would be religious discrimination, don’t you think? It would especially be
\nunbelievable for a group such as yours, which claims its mission is to preserve
\nreligious liberty for all, to get in the way of Americans who want to practice
\ntheir faith. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yet
\nthis morning, you sent an e-mail to your members headlined,  “Not on Our
\nWatch: No to Islamic Mosque at Ground Zero.” Then I thought, what if the ACLJ
\nisn’t for religious liberty for all, but rather only for the religious liberty of
\nthe religious groups it approves of? <\/span><\/p>\n

You
\nknow that’s not how our Constitution works, Jay. In the United States, religious
\ngroups are free to erect meeting spaces on private land as long as they comply
\nwith land-use laws.  Yesterday, New York City’s Landmarks Preservation
\nCommission voted unanimously to allow construction of an Islamic center in
\nlower Manhattan. If the owners of this building are complying with the law, why
\ncan’t you?  <\/span><\/p>\n

As
\nMayor Bloomberg said in a speech<\/a> yesterday,  <\/span><\/p>\n

“This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never
\nchoose between religions or favor one over another. The World Trade Center site
\nwill forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be
\nuntrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and
\nAmericans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.<\/p>\n

“For
\nthat reason,” he continued, “I believe that this is an important test of the
\nseparation of church and state as we may see in our lifetimes, as important a
\ntest. And it is critically important that we get it right.”<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Jay,
\nI believe our country will get it right. Your opposition to the private
\nconstruction of this house of worship is shameful. It goes against our
\ncountry’s spirit of tolerance, respect and acceptance, and I’m convinced
\nwithout out a doubt, that your frivolous lawsuit will fail. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jay, You must REALLY like the Burlington Coat Factory. That’s the only logical explanation I can come up with for why the American Center for Law and Justice, which claims it’s all about preserving Americans’ religious freedom, would file a lawsuit today to preserve a building in lower Manhattan that once housed the retailer.  I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328,4,5],"tags":[347,344,399,348,349,352,345,351,51,67,342,353,350],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-discrimination","category-religious-freedom","category-separation-of-church-and-state","tag-american-center-for-law-and-justice","tag-ground-zero","tag-ground-zero-mosque","tag-islam","tag-islamic-community-center","tag-manahattan","tag-mosque","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-religious-discrimination-2","tag-september-11","tag-world-trade-center"],"yoast_head":"\nReligious Discrimination At Its Worst: ACLJ Lawsuit Must Fail - 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\/2010\/08\/religious-discrimination-at-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious Discrimination At Its Worst: ACLJ Lawsuit Must Fail - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jay, You must REALLY like the Burlington Coat Factory. 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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\/300","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=300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}