Executive Director Speaks to Dunn United Ministerial Association
December 13, 2007
By Joshua Michaels
Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc
In the wake of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) challenge of Gideon Bible distribution in Harnett and Cumberland Counties, the North Carolina Christian Action League (CAL) Executive Director, Rev. Mark Creech met with DUMA (Dunn United Ministerial Association) to discuss the situation, Monday, December 10th.
The meeting at Betsy Johnson hospital in Dunn was comprised of 15 ministers of various denominations from the Dunn area. Creech established that action by these ministers was of the essence, but the right kind of action was predominantly essential.
Creech quoted over a dozen sources ranging from scholars, documents, court cases, and the Bible in his presentation. Each source addressed ways to undo the ACLU's efforts to undermine religious expression by treating it is as second-class form of speech.
Hollis Fedrick, DUMA president and Coats Church of God pastor, said, "We're very appreciative of Rev. Creech coming here today." Fred Baker, Convention of Original Freewill Baptists, and Gene Love, Beacon Rescue Mission, both commended Creech's presentation.
Baker said, "He killed two birds with one stone. He informed us about the CAL, which I don't think we really understood what they were doing, and he let us know what to best do with our situation." An enthused Love added: "Made me want to charge hell with a water pistol!" A laugh and a sigh later, Love added: "It makes us want to go to work. All we need to do is go — go do something."
Creech proposed that while students clearly have a constitutional right to distribute Bibles among their classmates, Gideons also have that right, if done properly. He contended that the Gideons cannot be prohibited from sharing religious materials if the school allows other outside groups to visit campus and distribute their materials.
He also said the place of literature distribution can be important. Walking into a classroom with a boxful of Bibles and giving them to every student may be considered by some courts to be unconstitutional. Placing the Bibles in a hallway on a stationary table allowing for disinterested students to avoid them is the best manner for distribution, he said.
Third, timing is also an issue. "The best time is just before or just after the official school day starts or ends," he said.
Creech also argued that the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian group of legal professionals who specialize in First Amendment rights issues, reviewed the Gideon distribution of Bibles in Cumberland and Harnett counties and deemed their actions were not unconstitutional for the reasons the ACLU claims. ADF said the ACLU's basis for the prohibition on Bible distribution to elementary schools (the Court case Peck v. The Upshur County Board of Education, which the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled distribution of religious materials to elementary grade students is unconstitutional due to the impressionability of their age) is wrong, citing Good News Club v. Milford Central School, in which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected this argument, ruling student age is irrelevant to constitutional policy.
Creech respectfully cited the yielding of school officials to the ACLU's intimidations and a corollary unwillingness by Gideons International to sue for the religious rights of everyone as the reason the ACLU's secularist agenda was succeeding in the two counties.
"But I agree with former Representative John Sauls and pastor of Crossroads Church in Broadway, who recently said to the Dunn Daily Record: 'Its about time somebody makes the ACLU start spending some of their money...We live in fear too much of organizations like this and we should start putting up a fight.'" He said.
Creech passed out a copy of a letter sent by the ADF to the Harnett and Cumberland County school superintendents that offered their legal services free of charge should they rescind the prohibition on Gideon Bible distribution and consequently face litigation by the ACLU.
Religious leaders control the moral climate of their community, said Creech.
"To watch a community descend into the abyss of secularism in silence — to let it descend to the grave of the bleached bones of a godless society without fighting for its life — would be the greatest of sins," he said. Creech then quoted Reformation giant Martin Luther, "'Though we be active in the battle, if we are not fighting where the battle is the hottest, we are traitors to the cause of Christ.' May none of us be found traitors to the cause of Christ," he pleaded.
"Freedom in this country was bought by sacrifice." Creech concluded. "The founders of this great land were men of means, but most of them were impoverished to purchase our freedoms. They were ridiculed and much of the world in their time thought they were men most foolish. But by their actions we have been spared the tyranny and oppression of other nations. God forbid that we should let what they secured for us be lost forever because we were not willing to make the same sacrifices when freedom and religious liberty were threatened in our own day."
"His podium was a factory-produced cardboard box instead of hand-crafted oak, and his audience was a handful of ministers instead of the nation's masses, but neither made much difference. His words seemingly carried the humble yet powerful authority of a Christian apostle," concluded one attendee.
Christian Action League of North Carolina, Inc
In the wake of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) challenge of Gideon Bible distribution in Harnett and Cumberland Counties, the North Carolina Christian Action League (CAL) Executive Director, Rev. Mark Creech met with DUMA (Dunn United Ministerial Association) to discuss the situation, Monday, December 10th.
The meeting at Betsy Johnson hospital in Dunn was comprised of 15 ministers of various denominations from the Dunn area. Creech established that action by these ministers was of the essence, but the right kind of action was predominantly essential.
Creech quoted over a dozen sources ranging from scholars, documents, court cases, and the Bible in his presentation. Each source addressed ways to undo the ACLU's efforts to undermine religious expression by treating it is as second-class form of speech.
Hollis Fedrick, DUMA president and Coats Church of God pastor, said, "We're very appreciative of Rev. Creech coming here today." Fred Baker, Convention of Original Freewill Baptists, and Gene Love, Beacon Rescue Mission, both commended Creech's presentation.
Baker said, "He killed two birds with one stone. He informed us about the CAL, which I don't think we really understood what they were doing, and he let us know what to best do with our situation." An enthused Love added: "Made me want to charge hell with a water pistol!" A laugh and a sigh later, Love added: "It makes us want to go to work. All we need to do is go — go do something."
Creech proposed that while students clearly have a constitutional right to distribute Bibles among their classmates, Gideons also have that right, if done properly. He contended that the Gideons cannot be prohibited from sharing religious materials if the school allows other outside groups to visit campus and distribute their materials.
He also said the place of literature distribution can be important. Walking into a classroom with a boxful of Bibles and giving them to every student may be considered by some courts to be unconstitutional. Placing the Bibles in a hallway on a stationary table allowing for disinterested students to avoid them is the best manner for distribution, he said.
Third, timing is also an issue. "The best time is just before or just after the official school day starts or ends," he said.
Creech also argued that the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian group of legal professionals who specialize in First Amendment rights issues, reviewed the Gideon distribution of Bibles in Cumberland and Harnett counties and deemed their actions were not unconstitutional for the reasons the ACLU claims. ADF said the ACLU's basis for the prohibition on Bible distribution to elementary schools (the Court case Peck v. The Upshur County Board of Education, which the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled distribution of religious materials to elementary grade students is unconstitutional due to the impressionability of their age) is wrong, citing Good News Club v. Milford Central School, in which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected this argument, ruling student age is irrelevant to constitutional policy.
Creech respectfully cited the yielding of school officials to the ACLU's intimidations and a corollary unwillingness by Gideons International to sue for the religious rights of everyone as the reason the ACLU's secularist agenda was succeeding in the two counties.
"But I agree with former Representative John Sauls and pastor of Crossroads Church in Broadway, who recently said to the Dunn Daily Record: 'Its about time somebody makes the ACLU start spending some of their money...We live in fear too much of organizations like this and we should start putting up a fight.'" He said.
Creech passed out a copy of a letter sent by the ADF to the Harnett and Cumberland County school superintendents that offered their legal services free of charge should they rescind the prohibition on Gideon Bible distribution and consequently face litigation by the ACLU.
Religious leaders control the moral climate of their community, said Creech.
"To watch a community descend into the abyss of secularism in silence — to let it descend to the grave of the bleached bones of a godless society without fighting for its life — would be the greatest of sins," he said. Creech then quoted Reformation giant Martin Luther, "'Though we be active in the battle, if we are not fighting where the battle is the hottest, we are traitors to the cause of Christ.' May none of us be found traitors to the cause of Christ," he pleaded.
"Freedom in this country was bought by sacrifice." Creech concluded. "The founders of this great land were men of means, but most of them were impoverished to purchase our freedoms. They were ridiculed and much of the world in their time thought they were men most foolish. But by their actions we have been spared the tyranny and oppression of other nations. God forbid that we should let what they secured for us be lost forever because we were not willing to make the same sacrifices when freedom and religious liberty were threatened in our own day."
"His podium was a factory-produced cardboard box instead of hand-crafted oak, and his audience was a handful of ministers instead of the nation's masses, but neither made much difference. His words seemingly carried the humble yet powerful authority of a Christian apostle," concluded one attendee.
