Two groups, two different liberties

The ACLU's recent attempts to prevent the Pentagon from sponsoring a religious based organization that denies homosexual rights and filing suit questioning a Virginian law allowing nudist colonies to set their own rules has raised the ire of Conservative groups, most notably in this article the Liberty Council:

Juxtaposed, the two cases show that the ACLU "has no moral compass," according to the conservative legal group, Liberty Counsel.

Lindsey Martin, an attorney for the Liberty Counsel, said the group isn't trying to make a statement about whether the ACLU should fight the Virginia law. "We're just pointing out who they choose to defend and which causes they choose to champion," she told CNSNews.com . She said the Liberty Counsel "wanted to juxtapose the positions that they take."

Let's take a look back to a post on this very blog from Nov 10th, 2004:

Just wondering is anyone knows if Rush and Hannity et al. are championing the so called "godless" ACLU:

The preacher with a hole in the knee of his jeans and a pocketful of prayer cards waded through the late-night crowd — young men with hats on sideways, women in saucy dresses, hired hands passing out fliers for escort services. Tom Griner turned a raised palm toward Robert Jones, a 21-year-old visiting from Illinois.

"Jesus saves!" Griner shouted.

"Maybe," said Jones, not stopping to chat. "But he didn't win me $500 last night."

The way the American Civil Liberties Union sees it, the 1st Amendment was made for nights like this. The organization in recent months has turned a small band of street preachers into unlikely symbols of free speech — fighting, sometimes in noisy confrontations with police and casinos, for the preachers' right to spread the gospel on the Las Vegas Strip.

That darn ACLU, fighting for preachers rights on public sidewalks. What kind of moral compass are they following here, anyway?

If the ACLU were actually a religious group, then conservative groups my have a right to be upset. But they are not. Instead, they fight for the civil rights of everyone, from street preachers to those who live in nudist colonies. While I do not agree with all their views(the nudist colony issue is a bit murky to me), I do agree that they should be allowed to fight for causes they find just and find the limits of the U.S. Constitution, rather than trying to shred them all together.

I'm planning on send the Liberty Council a copy of the L.A. Times article above. I'll let you know their reply.