More evidence that Florida is bizarro world

[The Backlash Cometh]

Get a look at who was in charge of the ACLU for the last few years:

George Crossley fought the ACLU for years when he was an evangelist -- then became a leader of the rights group after his stunning fall from grace and subsequent prison term.

Now they're at odds again.

Saturday, he was ousted as head of the local ACLU chapter -- along with the board of directors that supported him -- because Crossley was seen as a loose cannon who repeatedly overstepped his authority.

For most of the 1980s and '90s, Crossley was Central Florida's poster boy for conservative Christianity -- a Baptist preacher who called for bans on strip clubs, controversial art exhibits, movies, sex education and even Judy Blume books for young adults.

Then he was arrested and convicted of hiring a hit man to kill the husband of a former lover, whom he met in his Sunday school class.

He emerged from a 2 1/2 -year prison sentence with a new agenda: to protect the rights of the poor and disadvantaged.

For the past three years, he served as chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union's Central Florida chapter board of directors, where he used his voice to speak for the voiceless.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-crossley0708dec07,0,781542.story

So a purely corrupt person who falls from grace looks for redemption by finding Jesus; and one who already has Jesus in his life, but hires a hitman, finds redemption in the ACLU?

[ngant17]

1. if Crossley wants to be a union organizer/activist

he should focus on doing that kind of work. There are a few AFL-CIO affiliated unions here (i.e., Iron Workers Local #808) that would probably like to have some extra volunteers for organizing activities. OTOH the ACLU is not the best avenue for that most honorable cause so I think the ACLU was doing the right thing by removing him from this largely ceremonial position.

This should NOT stain the Orlando chapter of the ACLU, quite the contrary, it is evidence of its tolerance and open door policy when someone like Crossley is free to work in on their behalf. He needed to stick to their program to be the most effective, someone should have reminded him that civil liberties is not about union organizing. There are lots of people who might be against labor unions but they will strongly champion increased civil liberties.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Yup, that's a good one--finding Jesus and finding the ACLU.

But if you think about it, it makes a crazy kind of sense. Jesus, if he were alive today, would be a member of the ACLU. He was an advocate of the downtrodden, the excluded, those suffering discrimination, the poor, thieves, prostitutes, the accused, the minority, the vulnerable, the hated--and his life and teaching are a powerful argument against capital punishment and society's often misdirected vengeance.

So, if you believe what Jesus really said, and what he did, then defending the human rights of every individual is a logical next step.