What is the Christian Legal Society?

[trotsky]

Don't be fooled - some here may promote the CLS as "progressive" for offering free legal services to the poor.

Read the fine print. The services they offer focus around "protecting" one's alleged religious right to discriminate against others, or to proselytize unfettered.

In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, they argued for the right for their student club to discriminate against LGBT students.

They lost, thankfully.

In Christian Legal Society v. Walker, they did the same thing.

Read for yourself all the cases they are proud to have been in - see the side they took, and judge for yourself how "progressive" they are.

https://www.clsnet.org/page.aspx?pid=454

[Angry Dragon]

1. I always thought they were gods' lawyers

[guillaumeb]

2. The entire story is a bit more nuanced:

Here is a link. Note that they represent many types of clients in a wide variety of situations.

https://www.clsnet.org/page.aspx?pid=756

Here is one example:

Justice and Mercy Legal Aid Clinic
Steve Thompson, JAMLAC Director
913 N. Wyandot Street
Denver, CO 80204
JAMLAC provides legal services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. Our services include victim advocacy, legal consultations and representation on a case by case basis. We provide services for victims in the following areas:
Family Law Matters (divorce, child custody, child support, protection orders)
Immigration Matters
Bankruptcy
Sealing of Records
General Civil Matters

And again, not that it will matter to those who read my actual posts, I did not call the group progressive. I described certain actions as progressive.

[trotsky]

3. Uh huh.

I'll let people draw their own conclusions.

You think they're doing progressive things, and you're certainly entitled to your own opinion. Even if you're the only one who holds it.

[guillaumeb]

4. And you are entitled to select certain actions,

and ignore those that do not support your conclusions.

[trotsky]

12. When those actions ARE HATE SPEECH AGAINST THE LGBT COMMUNITY...

and LEGAL ACTION TO ENABLE BIGOTRY, fuck yeah I'm going to "select" them.

You want to ignore hatred and bigotry in your quest to try and find "progressive" religious people and orgs to praise.

I will never ignore hatred and bigotry. So very sorry. You stand alone here on DU doing that.

[guillaumeb]

18. Keep deflecting, and diverting.

And be judged by your actions.

[Lordquinton]

10. None of this is in a vacuum

You are the one ignoring nuance here.

[guillaumeb]

11. No, some are insisting that any group that is not 100% approved by them cannot do good work.

SO providing free or low cost legal services to the homeless must be condemned.

[trotsky]

14. And you're complaining about others using straw men?

What a laugh.

"providing free or low cost legal services to the homeless must be condemned."

PROVE someone said that. Link to the post(s).

You can't. I know you won't. Because no one said that. The GROUP is being condemned because of their anti-LGBT bigotry.

[guillaumeb]

20. Wrong again, becasaue the FRC is being condemned

even though I wrote about the legal society.

[Lordquinton]

16. Beam Me Up Scotty did a sufficient write-up

On why you are wrong, and no amount of straw can change that.

Have fun including hate groups in your praise.

[guillaumeb]

5. Another example:

Christian Legal Clinic of Metro Denver - Triage Legal Clinics
Director, Jim Helfrich
[phone]
[e-mail] 
Volunteer Attorneys provide one-on-one legal advice for one hour Friday afternoons throughout Denver. Clinics are for consultation only, not full representation. Please call ahead to schedule an appointment. Clinic Locations and Hours:
Denver Rescue Mission (1130 Park Avenue West, Denver, 80217/ 303-294-0157) Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Communities of Faith United - COFU (Temporary Location: Amazing Grace Community Church, 541 E 99th Pl, Thornton. CO 80229/ 720-616- 1896) Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Samaritan House (2301 Lawrence St., Denver / 303-294-0241) Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Salvation Army (2136 Champa Street, Denver, 80204 / 303-296-2456) Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Providence Network (801 Logan Street, Denver / 303-860-8404) One Friday per month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
More Life Center (2220 S. Chambers Road, Aurora, 80014 / 303-256-2909) Friday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Centro San Juan Diego (2830 Lawrence St., Denver, 80205 / 303-297-8696) Third Friday of each month from 9am to noon.

You are welcome.

[trotsky]

15. Does the Christian Legal Clinic of Denver allow LGBT lawyers to join their staff?

Please inquire and let me know. You are a big fan of these groups so I assume you would love to get in touch with them about the good work they are doing.

[guillaumeb]

19. The contact information is available.

[guillaumeb]

6. One more:

CLS Pro Bono Project
Blane McCarthy, Director
P.O. Box 56860
Jacksonville, FL 32241
[phone] / Fax: [phone]
[e-mail] 
Serving the clients of City Rescue Mission and others in the Jacksonville area

[trotsky]

17. City Rescue Mission of Jacksonville, you say?

Jacksonville LGBT-Inclusive HRO Gets Green Light In Committee, With Major Change
http://news.wjct.org/post/jacksonville-lgbt-inclusive-hro-gets-green-light-committee-major-change

A Jacksonville City Council committee voted Monday morning to recommend the full City Council vote yes on expanding the city’s human rights ordinances to protect LGBT people.

...


Jacksonville's anti-discrimination laws protect people on the basis of characteristics like race and religion in the areas of housing, employment and public businesses. The HRO bill would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list.

...

Gulliford asked “What about an organization that’s operated on religious principles, but is not affiliated with anything?”

He said operators of the City Rescue Mission religious homeless shelter are concerned about the bill.

Yay, CLS! Defending anti-gay bigots!

Keep digging, dude. You are doing a great job utterly humiliating yourself and exposing your true agenda!

[Iggo]

7. Tell me what progressive causes theyre against, and I'll tell you if they're progressive.

[beam me up scottie]

8. Why would anyone promote a group that provides legal advice to anti-lgbt groups?

Their actions prove they're not progressive.

That would be like promoting a group that provides legal services to white supremacists.

It's not like we're talking about the ACLU here, this group is openly and proudly opposed to secularism in this country and specializes in defending Christians who discriminate.

[guillaumeb]

9. See post #2.

There are many affiliates with the CLS. Click on the link if you wish.

[trotsky]

13. Because someone is SO UPSET that a few atheists have unfavorable opinions about religion...

and that *gasp* they actually VOCALIZE those opinions on an OPEN INTERNET MESSAGE BOARD, that same someone feels a desperate need to "counter" any negative talk about religion by grasping at straws to try and shine a spotlight on the depressingly rare occurrences of religious groups doing good things.

And I say they are depressingly rare, because of the quality of groups this person is picking. A legal society that PROMOTES BIGOTRY AGAINST THE LGBT COMMUNITY. Are you fucking kidding me?

[beam me up scottie]

21. Yup.

If someone wanted to draw attention to progressive people of faith why would they choose to highlight and defend David Nammo who is a member of a known hate group and then go on to praise another group that actively advocates restricting the rights of women and lgbt people?

Surely there are other examples who aren't raging homophobes and misogynists.

That's like praising the KKK because their group adopts highways and saying "See? These guys aren't ALL bad, caring about our environment is progressive!".

We should reserve our accolades for people and organizations that don't advocate oppression.