Maryland Conservatarian

Just came across today’s page one article in the Washington Post on the Alliance Defense Fund. (Bringing the Church to the Courtroom) Not familiar with the fund? Post writer Peter Slevin describes it as:

“a socially conservative legal consortium”

…and then provides us with even more useful details about it. We learn that associated with the Fund are “D. James Kennedy, leader of Florida's Coral Ridge Ministries and one of the prominent Christian conservatives who fashioned the alliance in 1993…

“…and other conservatives -- including James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family and William Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ”

…as well as “Reagan-era prosecutor Alan Sears.”

Since you are judged by the company you keep, ominously, the Fund has worked with the “American Center for Law & Justice, founded by evangelist Pat Robertson, and Liberty Counsel, backed by the Rev. Jerry Falwell.”

Not surprisingly then, some of the Alliance’s projects can bring “enormous attention -- particularly from the religious right and conservative media outlets”

Fortunately, the Alliance has not gone unnoticed; some prominent nonpartisans have weighed in:

“They're not for some form of generic religious freedom. They're for Christian superiority, that Christians take over the courts," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.”

“"They know that a teacher who has a pattern of proselytizing has crossed the line," said Charles C. Haynes, a senior scholar at the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center, asserting that the ADF went too far.”

“They seem to have an ACLU-envy problem. They distort the position of the ACLU to justify themselves," said Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU's Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.”

While these additional sources are a welcome counter, I am a little disappointed that Mr. Slevin could not find at least someone from a known Liberal organization to add a little balance.