Alabama Taliban Declares Jihad on Trial Lawyers

The Alabama Christian Coalition recently sent a mailer to Alabama voters that attempts to scare their flock with “liberal trial lawyers”. PDF file here but I’ve copied portions below, with my emphasis supplied for portions that I thought were especially dreadful. (My comments will appear parenthetically.) The mailer has very slick lawyers apparently representative of these evil forces.

Trial Lawyers are behind the forces undermining our rights and our beliefs. (Forces sounds really "evil" doesn't it? "Rights" to be intolerant idiots that don't know a goddamned thing about our Consitutions?)

Your Christian beliefs and rights as an American are being systematically undermined by liberal trial lawyers. Huge payoffs from lawsuits are extracted by trial lawyers, who then fund ultra-liberal politicians and judges. Lawyers are filing frivolous lawsuits across America to remove God from our schools and court houses, impose gay marriage on society, and force churches and religious not-for-profits to accept homosexuality. (Many liberals simply advocate fairness. If an organization takes government money then they should follow civil rights laws.)

Trial lawyers also funded politicians who, once elected, attack Christian beliefs and try to exclude conservative justices from our courts in order to push their liberal, anti-Christian agendas. (Radical theories like "unitary executive" and strip searching ten year old girls did it for many as to Alito. If people disagree with your ideas then they are anti-Christian?)

Trial lawyers funded politicians who:
• Opposed judges by using Roe v. Wade as a “litmus test”
• Support taxpayer funding of abortions
• Promote “gay marriage” and adoption
• Believe God should be excluded from our schools and public places
• Block appointment of conservative judges who promote traditional family values (I thought God was everywhere? He/she/they can't be excluded. Judges just judge and they don't promote.)

Supporting Liberal Extremists - Trial lawyers donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic National Committee and their liberal agenda. Trial lawyers are the ones who were big contributors to politicians like Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton and also funded John Kerry’s campaign in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000. (Non partisan?)

Becoming Liberal Judges - Trial lawyers are also infiltrating our courts by making sure their own are appointed to as many judgeships as possible. The Chief Justice of the court that decided the Terry Schiavo case and who over-turned Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s school voucher program because it allowed students to attend Christian schools was a trial lawyer before being appointed to the Court. (I actually looked up her record and have read summaries of the reasoning of both decisions. They followed the law. Not sharia law. Not the Dictates of Dobson. Just our law.)

Our Values - Liberal trial lawyers and the politicians they support are trying to fill the courts with judges that support their anti-Christian causes. In the cases of now Justices Roberts and Alito, trial lawyer-backed politicians attacked the religious beliefs of two potential judges in an attempt to exclude them from the Supreme Court. Trial lawyers are using tactics to exclude Christians from serving on juries. A recent handbook published by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) advises trial lawyers to dismiss jury members who profess a strong belief in God or Christianity because their beliefs make them unable to hear a case impartially. (I'm wondering if this brochure would not be exhibit A for that idea. 6000 year old earth and propaganda that is designed to scare the hell out of "Christians" and ... I rest my case.)

"Trial lawyers are one of the biggest threats to the erosion of our U.S. Constitution, traditional family values and religious freedoms in Alabama and America today.”
—John Giles President, Christian Coalition of Alabama

Trial lawyers are getting rich and funding the forces attacking our Christian values.

The Birmingham News has Nick Foster, Director of the Inter-faith Alliance of Alabama, providing an Op-Ed dated Sunday, April, 23, 2006 entitled “Christian Coalition should be forthcoming”. Mr. Foster questions the CC’s “logic” and “non-partisanship”, plus rightly points out that many trial lawyers are motivated by faith in helping the little man fight big business abuses. He also asks why the Alabama Christian Coalition refuses to disclose their funding sources. Margaret Ebrahim, wring in Mother Jones, reports that efforts such as these are increasingly common from fundamentalist leaning organizations.

I’m not sure where to begin on all of this yet the main effort for blogging is challenging fools with facts. James Dobson and the Religious Reich has to be challenged. “True believers” will continue "drinking the kool aid" yet reasonable people will push back and reduce their effectiveness. Political-religious radio and media, like the conservative media machine built off talk radio, has to be confronted. As more and more people realize just how extreme and bizarre many of these groups are they will perhaps lose their legitimacy. Peace … or War!