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At Liberty

A Case for Religious Liberty

At Liberty

At Liberty

News

4.8585 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2019

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At the ACLU, we receive lots of holiday mail, and not all of it brings tidings of comfort and joy. In this episode, we share a few letters that accuse the ACLU of being "anti-Christian" or "anti-religion.” To respond and dispel the falsehood, At Liberty spoke with Dan Mach, the director of the ACLU’s Program on Religious Freedom and Belief. Mach tells us about the uphill battle of protecting religious liberty, and how the separation of church and state serves people of all faith backgrounds.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

0:07.9

I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.

0:18.4

Tis the season for nativity scenes, giant minores, and other religious symbols to be prominently

0:24.3

displayed in all manner of public places. But is this even allowed? What about the separation

0:29.6

of church and state? On today's episode, we're joined by Dan Mack, the director of the ACLU's

0:35.0

program on religious freedom and belief. Dan and his team focus on

0:38.8

protecting the separation of church and state, an increasingly uphill battle. We'll talk about

0:43.8

why the separation of church and state is so important and some of the tough religious liberty

0:47.8

questions before the courts. Dan, thanks very much for joining us. Welcome to the podcast.

0:52.9

Thanks for having me.

0:57.8

So I want to start out by reading some not-so fan mail.

1:03.4

The ACLU receives a lot of angry letters throughout the year, but they take a special tone around the holidays.

1:06.2

So let's read a few of our recent card, shall we?

1:07.3

Let's do it.

1:11.4

So there's one, it's a nice beautiful blue card, and inside it says,

1:14.0

Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season.

1:16.2

Keep Christ in Christmas.

1:17.2

God bless.

1:23.6

Another one says, even though you're trying to destroy this nation, even though you don't believe in God, God still loves you.

1:31.2

And the last gem has a picture of the baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary on the front. And on the inside, it says, ACLU, you better have Jesus in your

1:37.8

lives or it's hell. There is a heaven and hell. Merry Christmas. So Dan, is the ACLU anti-Christian or anti-God?

1:49.2

Absolutely not.

...

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