I received an email from the ACLJ which I was following for updates on Pastor Saeed in Iran. It kind of didn't make sense to me... Here's what I was sent:
We’ve mobilized a legal team to defend a right we never thought would be threatened – the right to display an American flag.
A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California struck a blow against freedom, against education, and against basic common sense when it ruled that students could be punished for wearing clothes that displayed our nation’s flag.
What had these students done wrong?
Nothing.
The students who wore the American flag were actually targeted and threatened by other students who objected to the display of our nation’s flag. Yet the school didn’t punish the students who issued the threats, it punished the students they threatened. It punished patriotism.
This case is hard to believe, but we’re taking action.
Our attorneys are working hard on a new amicus brief asking the full Ninth Circuit to hear the case, but we need your support. During our March Matching Challenge every tax-deductible gift will be doubled. Please consider giving today.
Jay Sekulow
ACLJ Chief Counsel
ACLJ Chief Counsel
(Big green button right below stating: "Contribute Now - Double your gift"
This peaked my curiosity, how could this happen? I started doing some research to find out exactly what happened and I started feeling a little concerned about the lack of honesty in the email I received from a Christian organization. It seems to me, this email is full of inflammatory exaggeration without any explanation for how this could happen. Looks like the purpose of this email is to get you angry... And what should you do with this anger? CONTRIBUTE NOW!
I found out the situation indeed is a tough one... the day this happened was Cinco De Mayo and apparently the school is in a very rough area with gang activity and the administration was concerned that a group of white students wearing shirts with American flags would be targeted for violence during some Cinco De Mayo festivities. However, despite what the email from ACLJ says, the students weren't punished at all. They were asked to change their shirt or turn it inside out for their own protection and two of the boys who refused were sent home but without any punishment at all, the other boys with smaller flags on their shirts were allowed to wear them and continue their day normally. So clearly, this is NOT an issue regarding the war against patriotism, it's about preventing violence and possible injury to its students.
A dangerous and damaging message to send... I may be seeing this incorrectly, but it seems for the sake of getting more money they are twisting the truth to motivate us through bitterness, which is the LAST thing any Christian should do... How exactly are you supposed to turn the other cheek when you're so furious with false belief that someone is willfully destroying the place you live? This is exactly what the Bible talks about when it says, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
Does this seem fair that an American student should be prevented from wearing an American flag? Of course not, I think that's crazy, but if you look at the situation, and see that there is no school wide ban on American flags, but that out of protection for these students, the administration made a tough call on this one day where they feel it could have incited a very dangerous situation.
But instead of getting the whole truth from ACLJ, I get this slanted lie, barely representing any truth at all in my assessment... and a request for donations to fight this great evil. Christians should be fighting against the ACLJ's tactics more than they should be fighting against the school administration, shouldn't they? Divisiveness in the Christian community is often talked about in the scriptures as extremely damaging, and that's exactly the message this email sends. It doesn't spur Christians on to anything at all positive, it is simply more fuel for a fire that shows no signs of going out. What's more damaging, a Christian being manipulated into having contempt for those with a different political understanding for the purpose of gaining more money or a few children advised to change their clothing to promote safety?
