The Courts have a war on Jebus huh?
The Christian right folks over at worldnetdaily are patting themselves on the back when this court ruling actually strikes a blow –against- the believers and not –for- the believers.
"Jews for Jesus is pleased to put this frivolous lawsuit behind it and move forward," said Mathew D. Staver, president and general counsel for Liberty Counsel, which represented Jews for Jesus. "The lawsuit was a theological attack wrapped in a legal pleading against Jews for Jesus as a Christian organization, because of its outreach to the Jewish community.
So, what’s the nuts and bolts of this lawsuit?
Jews for Jesus claimed this woman went out and accepted Jesus Christ as her lord and savior.
But as WND reported, Circuit Court Judge Catherine Bruns agreed in May 2004 to a motion by Liberty Counsel to dismiss the case, which argued it was not defamatory to call someone a Christian. A defamatory statement, the group said, must be highly offensive to a reasonable person.
Simply calling someone a Christian in America is not highly offensive to a reasonable person, nor should it be, Liberty Counsel stated.
So… any one out there in blog view land who is a member of say the Baptist church let me ask you a question. If the local Church of Satan published you in the membership rolls would you find that offensive? How about Atheist international? How about the local wiccan association? How about the Unitarian Universalist church?
If you believe that you have a special religious identity with god and your friends and family all believe it, then saying you have gone 180* from that identity can indeed be defamatory.
How much of a tort it is… well, that is debatable.
But in utterly disrespecting this woman’s religious beliefs it will be harder for Christians in the future. It will be harder for anyone to defend their religious beliefs.
But heck the Christian right is to short sighted to see it why should I point this out to them?
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