It’s always amusing to see religious right loonies suddenly discover the separation of church and state only when other religions take advantage of the same rights and access that they have, especially when they don’t even acknowledge the existence of that concept much of the time.. But Calvin Beisner is taking this to an absurd degree. He thinks it’s a violation for the EPA to promote environmental protection:

The film adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax features a tiny, but tenacious creature who “speaks for the trees” and fights industrialism. Cal Beisner, national spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, says this is just one of many films geared toward children to spread such a message.

“Disney movies stretching all the way back into the 1940s had environmentalist themes and still do,” he notes. “This is not a Disney production, but The Lorax is certainly picking up what was truly an environmentalist theme in Seuss’ book.” And he says it is taking it a step further than, for example, Disney’s Pocahontas.

Still, what really concerns Beisner is the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency is among nearly 70 partners with Universal in promoting the film.

“What you’ve got there is the mixing of taxpayer dollars into the promotion of a clear ideology that has a particular religious flavor to it,” the Cornwall Alliance spokesman concludes. “And frankly, I think that this is a violation of the separation of church and state.”