President's Message: How the Courts Stole Christmas

What is happening in this great nation is a bit scary if one stops to pay attention to how quickly our laws are changing. And perhaps the most disconcerting part is that the laws are being changed, not by members of Congress who we elected to create our laws, but by the courts who are supposed to protect the interpretation of those laws—to keep them safe and unchanged from the meaning that Congress intended.

We are witnessing our entire legal system gone awry! Liberal federal and state courts all across the country are taking it upon themselves to change the law and the result is astounding! When most of us were in school 20-40 years ago, who would have dreamed that someday it would become illegal for the school choir to sing "Silent Night" or "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" or that it would be illegal for someone to offer a prayer at a football game or at a high school graduation?

Who would have dreamed that someday some court would decide that "one nation under God" was "unconstitutional" as part of our Pledge of Allegiance to the flag? Who would have believed that a copy of the Ten Commandments would not be allowed on public property and that the thousands of Nativity scenes that for decades have been a part of our nation's Christmas tradition would now be adorning landfills because some judge or some court somewhere has now decided, after all these years, that it is "unconstitutional" to have such offensive paraphernalia on public grounds?

It occurs to me that these same courts have upheld the rights of the adult entertainment business world to bombard us and our children with pornography and unrelenting "sexual content" while hiding under the protection of "free speech." I don't get it!

It seems to me that things in our great country have become a bit "mixed-up," "convoluted," and, to me, just down right scary! The Founding Fathers of this nation that we now fondly call "America" carefully constructed a document known as the Constitution that would serve as the foundation of our rule of law. Shortly after the writing of the Constitution our Founding Fathers wrote the Bill of Rights, which would establish the rights of the people. The first words of this Bill of Rights state:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech..."

Several ultra-liberal courts have twisted the meaning of this part of our Constitution to mean something entirely different than what the Founding Fathers intended. Somehow these liberal judges believe that the Constitution prevents the acknowledgment of God or the exercise of religion in a public place or on public property.

Anyone who can read English or who knows anything about the history of our Founding Fathers knows and can read for themselves that the Constitution does not prevent the acknowledgment of God in public places. It actually states that no law shall prohibit the free exercise of religion. The liberal courts are actually interpreting the Constitution to mean exactly the opposite of what it says.

Those judges who are on a mission aren't paying much attention to the complete sentence. It's not that they do not know it's there; they just do not want to acknowledge it. No one questions that what the courts are now doing to our Constitution is entirely different from what our Founding Fathers intended. The courts have now become the lawmakers—something that neither the Founding Fathers nor the Constitution intended. Hardly anyone wants the courts to be doing what they are doing, but the people seem powerless to stop them!

Most federal judges and many state judges are appointed for life. Sometimes the power they are entrusted with seems to go to their heads and it is now becoming commonplace for judges to change the law to suit their own whims. In other words, if they do not like the law they have discovered that they have the power to change the law. And once they are appointed it is very difficult to stop them.

The sad thing is that most of us just stand there while these freedoms that we have always taken for granted are being torn from us one by one.

Now that we have taken prayer out of the classroom...
Now that we have taken God out of the Pledge of Allegiance...
Now that we have taken the Ten Commandments out of our courtrooms...
Now that we have taken Christ out of Christmas...
Now that we have taken freedom of religion from the Constitution...
I guess we have things pretty much where we want them.

On the other hand, if it's not how you want it, remember this is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Therefore, don't just stand there! Get out and vote for the candidate of your choice at the next election.

During this wonderful Holiday season, let us remember that the freedom to worship as we choose should not be taken for granted. For whatever reason it is the tendency of mankind to restrain those freedoms and to limit them. These freedoms were restricted before our Constitution was written. They are restricted in many countries today and if taken for granted, they may be slowly taken from us again.

And so, to all of our Christian and Jewish friends, we say:

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah!
Let's make this a joyous Holiday Season.

And let's not take these precious Holidays for granted!

Sincerely,

Frank