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L.A. Bends in the Culture Wars, Part Tres

CAMPAIGN FOR CALIFORNIA FAMILIES (CCF)www.savecalifornia.com
June 8, 2004

ARROGANCE IS KING IN L.A. COUNTY
"If people want to keep the cross, they need to remove the Democrats,"
says CCF

Los Angeles - Faced with an outpouring of public outrage, three Democrats on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors rejected the cross and the people today when they re-affirmed their decision to strip the cross from the county seal in order to satisfy the ACLU. Voting to remove the cross on the five-member board were Democrats Gloria Molina, Yvonne Burke and Zev Yaroslavsky. Voting to keep the cross were Republicans Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe.

Today's hearing attracted more than 1,000 supporters of the cross, who gathered inside and outside the supervisors' chamber. In the two-and-a-half hours of public testimony, virtually all the speakers favored keeping the cross. Among them were syndicated talk-radio hosts Dennis Prager and Carlos Ortega; local talk-show host Paul McGuire of KBRT; community leaders Jesse Lee Peterson and Mark Isler; and Christian pastors such as Dr. Kenneth Ulmer of Faithful Central Bible Church and Pastor Jack Hayford, founding pastor of Church on the Way in Van Nuys and president-elect of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

* * *

"Those who don't respect the Constitution are doing everything in their power to remove Christian values in society," said Randy Thomasson, CCF Executive Directorm, whose comments appeared this week in the Los Angeles Daily News. "When our founding fathers wrote, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,' they didn't mean to yank crosses off public property. That wrong-headed philosophy is from Democrat politicians like Yvonne Burke, Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky, not from James Madison and George Washington."

"At the time of our founding fathers," Thomasson explained, "the word 'religion' meant a specific religious denomination, such as Presbyterian, Baptist, Anglican or Catholic. Therefore the First Amendment prohibits Congress from creating an official state denomination, such as in Great Britain where Queen Elizabeth is the formal head of the Church of England. While the establishment clause was narrowly written to prohibit an official "Church of the United States," the free-exercise clause - "or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" - was meant to guarantee the free flow of religious expression everywhere else. This freedom includes the right of federal, state, and local governments to respect and promote Christian symbols such as the cross, or other religious values the people hold dear. It's the American way."

"This outrageous vote demonstrates that anti-Christian arrogance is king in Los Angeles," said Thomasson. "Given that Democrats are the only ones attacking the cross, it's obvious that if people want to keep the cross, they need to remove the Democrats."

This could get to be really, really interesting. Could it be that the long-expected backlash to the systematic removal of Christian symbols from public life is beginning?

BK


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