{"id":94,"date":"2008-11-11T15:24:23","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T15:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html"},"modified":"2008-11-11T15:24:23","modified_gmt":"2008-11-11T15:24:23","slug":"jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html","title":{"rendered":"Jay, You Are Making Me Even More Nervous"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your latest post on Summum should make it clear to lawyers and non-lawyers alike that this case was, is and should forever be seem as a case about whether the government can prefer some religions over others and promote their preferred messages.<\/p>\n<p>If, as you put it, Pleasant Grove is &#8220;engaging in government speech which gives the government authority to control its message&#8221;, you seem to be saying that &#8220;control&#8221; is always constitutionally proper even if the &#8220;control&#8221; is the choice of a favored religion.&nbsp; If the President or Congress says &#8220;Christianity is the national religion&#8221; he or it is allowed to do so because it is &#8220;control&#8221; of its message.&nbsp; You can&#8217;t mean this.<\/p>\n<p>Your analogy between picking a Ten Commandments monument over a Summum monument in a park and selecting a book for inclusion or exclusion in a library is strained to the point of breaking the elastic.&nbsp; Most libraries have vast unused shelf space, and with internet connectivity a &#8220;virtual&#8221; space as large as cyberspace itself.&nbsp; Thus, a library&#8217;s inclusion of a particular book is hardly the kind of judgment of imprimatur that attaches to choosing giant monuments in an open park.<\/p>\n<p>Let me also clarify one other point.&nbsp; F. Scott Fitzgerald was a &#8220;fallen&#8221; Roman Catholic according <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholiceducation.org\/articles\/arts\/al0027.html\">to many scholars<\/a>, but he wrote with a background of Catholic doctrine in several of his works.&nbsp; Were he unshelved for replacement by Harry Potter, he could argue that the library was in fact making selection judgments based on religion: preferring wizardry to Catholic theology.&nbsp; The Supreme Court decision in <a href=\"http:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/us\/457\/853\/index.html\">Pico<\/a> would give him a framework in which to start.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, if your argument prevails in its totality, you will be given a decision which affirms that where cities can pick and choose among religious icons it is those city governments &#8220;speaking&#8221;.&nbsp; If that is the case,&nbsp;the conclusion seems inescapable that courts&nbsp;will not be able to&nbsp;approve the &#8220;tyranny&#8221; of the majority in selecting favored faiths while directing&nbsp;an animus againt other faiths (or non-belief)&nbsp;crying out for a place in the park. Is this what&nbsp;you really&nbsp;want?&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your latest post on Summum should make it clear to lawyers and non-lawyers alike that this case was, is and should forever be seem as a case about whether the government can prefer some religions over others and promote their preferred messages. If, as you put it, Pleasant Grove is &#8220;engaging in government speech which&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-separation-of-church-and-state"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jay, You Are Making Me Even More Nervous - 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\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jay, You Are Making Me Even More Nervous - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your latest post on Summum should make it clear to lawyers and non-lawyers alike that this case was, is and should forever be seem as a case about whether the government can prefer some religions over others and promote their preferred messages. If, as you put it, Pleasant Grove is &#8220;engaging in government speech which&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-11T15:24:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jay, You Are Making Me Even More Nervous - Lynn v. Sekulow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jay, You Are Making Me Even More Nervous - Lynn v. Sekulow","og_description":"Your latest post on Summum should make it clear to lawyers and non-lawyers alike that this case was, is and should forever be seem as a case about whether the government can prefer some religions over others and promote their preferred messages. If, as you put it, Pleasant Grove is &#8220;engaging in government speech which&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html","og_site_name":"Lynn v. Sekulow","article_published_time":"2008-11-11T15:24:23+00:00","author":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2008\/11\/jay-you-are-making-me-even-mor.html","name":"Jay, You Are Making Me Even More Nervous - Lynn v. 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Sekulow","description":"A debate blog about church, state, faith and politics with Jay Sekulow and Barry W. Lynn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/98ebaf547801cce8ce6fff4c27f51fc8","name":"Rev. Barry W. 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\/94","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=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}