Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Students' display on university campus features Marx, Lenin, Stalin as Wise Men, Pelosi angel

Posted: December 5, 2006
5:08 p.m. Eastern

University of Texas students set up an "ACLU Solstice Barn" on campus

In tongue-in-cheek deference to the American Civil Liberties Union, students at the University of Texas are displaying an "ACLU Solstice Barn" on campus, featuring politically correct figures.

"We've got Gary and Joseph instead of Mary and Joseph in order to symbolize ACLU support for homosexual marriage, and of course there isn't a Jesus in the manger," said Tony McDonald, chairman of the Young Conservatives of Texas branch on the Austin campus.
The group installed the "crèche" on the West Mall of the campus for display yesterday and today.

The three Wise Men in the display are Lenin, Marx and Stalin, McDonald told WND, because ACLU founder Roger Baldwin, while director of the organization, was a backer of Soviet-style communism.

As director of the ACLU in 1934, Baldwin wrote an article entitled "Freedom in the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R." in which he said "the Soviet Union has already created liberties far greater than exist elsewhere in the world." He later moderated his views but maintained a commitment to socialism.

"The whole scene is a tongue-in-cheek way of showing the many ways that the ACLU and the far left are out of touch with the values of mainstream America," McDonald said in a statement.

The scene also features a "terrorist shepherd" and an angel with Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi's face, using a photograph of the soon-to-be speaker of the House from San Francisco

"The ACLU and other left-wing extremist groups are working diligently to destroy Americans' rights to the free expression of religion," said the Young Conservatives' Executive Director Joseph Wyly.

Wyly pointed to the city of Chicago's decision this week to ban advertisements for "The Nativity Story" movie from a local Christmas festival, fearing they might offend non-Christians.

"It's just more evidence that there is a war on Christmas being waged by the far-left in this