Firing Blanks in the “War On Christmas” part iii.

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Yo! In your FACE, Santa!

Our Story So Far: In parts i. and ii., we watched as an hysterical reporter at the Washington Examiner free newspaper in Washington D. C. reprinted verbatim a press release from the Dean of the law school at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, accusing the Attorney General of Oklahoma of banning Christmas at Southwest Oklahoma State University. We watched the Rightie Blogosmear™ attack the hapless A.G. and then pull back when one found out that there was … nothing to the story. Some retracted. Others didn’t.

The hysterical reporter then tried to suggest that it wasn’t his fault he didn’t check the facts in the press release, but retained the right to call the Oklahoma Attorney General insulting names. Then we took a look at the dean of the Liberty University and his claim that he also worked 65 hours a week for the “charitable” legal foundation registered out of a post office box in Orlando, Florida, and noted that the charity’s tax return for 2005 brought some interesting things to light, not the least of which was that they were raising money for their war on “the War on Christmas” by asking for a tax-deductible donation of $24.99 plus shipping and handling for a book on how you can defend your Christmas rights against secular humanist encroachment.

And, that “Liberty Counsel” makes some of its money by selling t-shirts.

Now, the Scherzo to this Four Part Mini-Series, the Third Movement:

iii. UNDER GOD, get it? UNDER God you damned heathens!

The Monica Goodling story highlighted just how many Regent University and Liberty University “lawyers” had been infiltrated into the Department of Justice.

Liberty University’s Law department was only created in 2003 — Falwell was evidently jealous of the “reach” that Pat Robertson’s “Regent University” law school was having. So, while there hasn’t been the time for Liberty law graduates to have the impact that Regent grads have had, just give them some time. Consider the rock that they’re crawling out from under.

Stop a moment and ask yourself ‘What is Liberty University?” Well, here’s something to chew on from Wikipedia:

The university has a code of student conduct, documented in “The Liberty Way”, including possible reprimands (and with the accumulation of reprimands, fines) for attending dances, violating curfew, viewing R-rated movies (on or off campus), drinking, smoking, viewing sexually explicit material, entering the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex (on or off campus), and participating in unauthorized petitions. The phrase “That’s not the Liberty Way,” is commonly heard across campus, used by students and professors alike as a good-natured “poke” at the school’s rules. On several occasions Falwell described the school as ‘Bible Boot Camp.’ He exhorted Liberty’s students to burn it down if it ‘ever turned liberal’. In the summer of 2005, the university announced that it was slightly relaxing its class dress code to allow flip-flops, capri pants, jeans, and other casual articles of clothing (but not shorts) to be worn in the classroom. Faculty members work under a contract requiring them to abide by similar behavioral codes.

We forget that religious fanaticism is very real in America. I doubt very seriously that any but the smallest percentage of Americans would find this “lifestyle” acceptable. It’s worse than Annapolis or West Point, and I particularly enjoy how some place called “Liberty University” can insist on the Orwellian dictum that students may not be caught “participating in unauthorized petitions.” But, it gets worse (in a “liberty” sense, that is):

Faculty

Using “non-tenured teaching faculty” was a matter of pride to Falwell, as it allows the administration to keep a firm grip on the behavior of the academic community. As Falwell once stated, “When we ask a faculty member be dismissed when he’s teaching something wrong, our president understands and it’s good to do that — because your paycheck may not be coming along next week if you don’t.”

Accreditation

Liberty was founded in 1971 and received Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation in 1980. In 2006, Liberty successfully completed re-accreditation, and remains currently accredited by SACS and TRACS. The law school, which opened in 2003, gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association in 2006, which enables its graduates to sit for any bar examination in the United States.

In these fertile waters swim the legal sharks of “Liberty Counsel.”

Or, perhaps we should say, “shark,” since Mathew Staver has been its guiding light since its founding in 1989.

According to an About.com article, “Liberty Counsel’s Aggresive Tactics“:

The Orlando Sentinel reports [May 23, 2004] on Mathew Staver and his law group, the Liberty Counsel:

His group is spearheading fights in California, New York and Massachusetts, crafting appeals that could go to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is also working to roll back other rights for gays, overturn Roe v. Wade and ensure that Christians can freely evangelize in public schools. … He fought to force two mentally retarded Florida women to give birth to children of rapists; supported “Choose Life” license plates; opposed gay adoptions and fought to retain “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Staver, who attends First Baptist Church of Orlando, does have a very conservative agenda, including that Christians should pull their children from public schools, where he says religious freedoms aren’t protected. And he believes that even in cases of rape and incest, abortion should be banned. … Staver threatened to sue a library in Jacksonville because it gave children certificates for completing Harry Potter’s “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” a collection of books. Staver accused the library of promoting witchcraft.

“They certainly don’t stand for freedom because they engage in a Talibanish-like approach,” said Lance Block, an attorney who fought Staver over the fate of a mentally retarded woman who was impregnated while in a Miami-area group home. “They’re trying to force mentally retarded women to have babies. There’s nothing free about that.”

For Christmas 2004, MediaMatters reported:

Fri, Dec 17, 2004 12:22pm ET

Liberty Counsel president Mat Staver baselessly asserted Florida mayor was hostile to Christianity because he was Jewish

The report is well worth reading. Staver is another Faux Nooz talking head, and the “War on Christmas” is very much one of his cash cows. (Remember, they trademarked “Help Save Christmas™” and “I [heart] CHRIST mas™.”)

And here’s what they crowed Liberty Counsel’s blog on August 20:

[The CNN report] “God’s Christian Warriors” will lead off with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical university. Christiane Amanpour flew from London to conduct the interview, which was Rev. Falwell’s last media appearance before he died on May 15.

Following Rev. Falwell are interviews with Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, and Megan and Mandy Chapman. Staver spoke about training a new a generation of lawyers, judges and policymakers to influence law and public policy from the perspective of a Christian worldview. He also spoke of Liberty Counsel’s success defending religious freedom in the courts. Megan and Mandy were Liberty Counsel clients, whom Liberty Counsel successfully defended against the ACLU regarding graduation prayer. They both now attend Liberty University, and Megan is an intern with Liberty Counsel.

CNN spent eight days filming Liberty Counsel and Liberty University. One of the interviews with Dean Staver was done against the backdrop of the School of Law’s unique Supreme Courtroom, where the central features reflect an exact replica of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Er … kind of totally creepy, guys. An EXACT replica of the Supreme Court? Wasn’t there some kind of prohibition against idol-worship in those Ten Commandments that when I give you $50 to “defend” you’ll give me a charm bracelet of? (And, come to think of it, isn’t using Christmas as a “Cartoon of Mohammed” by our American Taliban, a form of creating an idol? After all, there is nothing in the New Testament that says “venerate the Birth.” That was all added to the catechism much later.)

Almost not worth mentioning that Liberty Counsel loved the Alito nomination and thinks that the sun shines out of Scalia and Thomas’ asses — if that’s not redundant– as regards Constitutional law:

Today, President Bush nominated Samuel Alito to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Liberty Counsel praises the nomination and is elated that President Bush kept his campaign promise that he would appoint Justices like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Liberty Counsel is a nationwide, public interest litigation, education and policy organization that specializes in constitutional law.

And this year, SWOSU and the Oklahoma Attorney General (did I mention that he’s a DEMOCRAT? No? Gee. Wonder what might have happened if he’d been a Republican?) weren’t the only targets of Staver, and The Liberty Counsel’s dies irae [from the "American Family News Network" December 7, 2007 -- Pearl Harbor Day, coincidentally.]:

Officials at Liberty Counsel say K-Mart and Sears have renamed “Christmas trees” to “holiday trees” in their advertising. According to Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, a ministry supporter asked K-Mart why it took the action.

“A representative from Sears Holding Corporation, which owns K-Mart as well, wrote back and said that Sears is a diverse company and it did not want to offend any of its associates or valued customers,” explains Staver. “It also said this in its letter: we decided to call them, speaking of Christmas trees, holiday trees, because even if Christians are the only religion that use the Christmas tree, we do not want complaints from other customers from different religions complaining about our use of [the term] ‘Christmas trees.’”

Staver says such a response is ridiculous and should be cause for a boycott by concerned Christians. He says in an effort not to offend, the retailers have in fact offended a large portion of their base. Sears took similar action two years ago, Staver points out, but was forced to reprint the ads to include “Merry Christmas” after a large public outcry.

Well, let’s cut to the chase. Staver is a rabid, nasty, fanatic who went to two screwball “bible” colleges and then went to the Kentucky U. law school. He may be a crypto anti-semite in that bizarro manner of the extreme Religious Right: they need Jews so that Jesus can return. Then, if they don’t convert, Jesus tosses ‘em all in the fiery pit — or, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

I don’t have to delineate the strange reversal involved in Liberty University, Falwell and Staver — the chronicle of their Christian “charity” towards those that differ with them theologically is entirely too well known to repeat here.

So, instead, let’s now see how Mr. Holier-Than-Thou Defender of Christmas™ and The Ten Commandments™ (Charlton Heston action figure sold separately) dealt with the false report about the “ban” on Christmas at SWOSU.

Remember, Liberty Counsel, there’s only ONE litigation day left until Christmas. Make the most of it!

Tomorrow, the conclusion (already written, but, really, would you have wanted this twice as long?):

iv. the Grand Finale, fireworks and all

Liberty Counsel/Mathew Staver released a followup press release on the flap, declaring “victory” in the non-controversy [emphasis added] …[HERE]

Courage.

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