Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 1, 1995                   TAG: 9509290100
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ACLU, TOO, HAS TAKEN TO RABBLE-ROUSING TO RAISE FUNDS

In particular, its leaders have been accused of using misleading, inflammatory rhetoric - and sometimes just downright lies - to scare up support from misinformed or uninformed followers.

That certainly has happened. Anyone who has received fund-raising letters from the likes of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Donald Wildmon or D. James Kennedy has seen that rhetoric. The letters vilify homosexuals, secular humanists, public-school teachers and, perhaps more than any other group, the ACLU.

In the fund-raising letters, the American Civil Liberties Union is renamed the Anti-Christian Liberties Union and other such titles. It is described as the ultimate enemy of religious freedom, perhaps the primary tool of Satan himself.

So, perhaps it is understandable that the ACLU should strike back.

The organization's membership solicitation letter arrived last week. Anybody who thinks the "Radical Right" - as the ACLU letter labels it - has a lock on misleading, inflammatory ranting should read this letter.

The six-page missive uses the "Radical Right" label no fewer than eight times. Members of the "Radical Right" are "intolerant, bigoted extremists" planning to "set fire to the Bill of Rights."

In a not-so-subtle comparison with Nazis and other fascists, we're told there is a "nationwide axis of right-wing lawyers" who want public schools to "impose religious beliefs on children."

There may be just a whiff of truth in there, but no clear scent.

The letter says the Virginia legislature enacted a law to "mandate prayer in public schools." I guess the principals in my kids' schools missed that one, since neither of my children has been forced to pray in school this year. Virginia law allows "student-initiated prayer" and permits school districts to impose a period of silence at the beginning of the day, but it doesn't require anyone to pray.

Another paragraph says one Virginia school board voted to use the Bible for the study of grammar, history and literature as "a pretext for sectarian indoctrination." If the reference is to the Bristol School Board, it actually voted to study a proposal to use the Bible. The ACLU's letter might also have noted that the vote was later reversed.

In its bid to fire up support, the ACLU has demonstrated itself to be no better than its opponents.

It happens that religious conservatives' attacks on the ACLU are misplaced. Though I haven't agreed with every position taken by the organization, it generally has been faithful to its mission of protecting individual liberties.

So why does the ACLU resort to the same kind of misleading tactics that its opponents use to raise money?

Because it works. Those who use the method know that it brings in money.

The ACLU expects that the letter it sent - predicting the virtual collapse of American civilization and law unless you send in your "$20, $35, $50 or $100" - will inspire a higher level of contributions that a more reasoned, thoughtful, balanced letter.

The ACLU knows there is so much competition for your money that only a sensational appeal will motivate you to loosen your purse strings.

But what has the organization done to its own image? The letter concludes with the organization's dedication to "tolerance, diversity and equality." They are admirable, important values protected by the American Constitution.

Unfortunately, the longer-lasting impression I'll have from this letter is that the ACLU is a desperate organization willing to say just about anything for money.

I can't help but wonder how many other people there are who support many of the goals of the ACLU - or any group that uses similar fund-raising techniques - but who can't bring themselves to make a donation based on this kind of appeal.

I don't want to financially support any organization that is exacerbating the rifts in our society - even in a fund-raising letter - rather than working to heal them.