Post by Moses on Apr 22, 2005 9:50:14 GMT -5
Protestant groups urge Frist to drop out of 'faith' telecast
By David D. Kirkpatrick and Sheryl Gay Stolberg The New York Times
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2005
As the Senate battle over judicial confirmations has become increasingly entwined with religious themes, officials of several major Protestant denominations have accused the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, of violating the principles of his own Presbyterian church and have urged him to drop out of a Sunday telecast that depicts Democrats as "against people of faith."
<br>The growing storm over the role of religion in public life has begun to hamper Frist's efforts to bar Democrats from using the filibuster, a two-century-old parliamentary tactic, to block President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. A confrontation had been expected as early as next week, but now it appears the showdown may be delayed.
<br>On Friday, the National Council of Churches was to sponsor a conference call with journalists to denounce Frist's participation in the telecast, sponsored by Christian conservative organizations to build support for Frist's proposal.
<br>Among those speaking on the call will be Clifton Kirkpatrick, a top official of the Presbyterian Church USA. "One of the hallmarks of our denominations is that we are an ecumenical church," Kirkpatrick said in an interview Thursday. "Elected officials should not be portraying public policies as being for or against people of faith."
<br>But a spokesman for Frist defended the majority leader, saying his remarks, which are not yet available, would be consistent with previous statements about fair treatment for judicial nominees. "I would hope that he would read Frist's remarks," the spokesman, Bob Stevenson, said of Kirkpatrick. Stevenson added that the timing of the judicial confrontation would not be related to concerns raised about the telecast.
<br>Whatever the timing, the stage was set for the showdown on Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee, voting along party lines, approved two nominees, Janice Rodgers Brown and Priscilla Owen, whose nominations were filibustered during the last Congress. Yet even as Frist commended the panel, there were signs that he was planning to postpone the confrontation for at least another two weeks, after the Senate returns from a spring recess.
<br>Democrats have vowed to bring the Senate to a virtual halt if Republicans carry out the rule change, and Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, said Frist told him that he would like to take up a transportation measure next week, an indication that he does not expect a filibuster fight before the congressional recess.
<br>Polls, meanwhile, suggest a lack of public support for the rule change; a survey conducted for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal indicated that 50 percent of those who responded believe the Senate should retain judicial filibusters while 40 percent are against and 10 percent undecided.
<br>The theme of the telecast, which is called "Justice Sunday" and will be broadcast to churches and Christian radio and television networks, is "The Filibuster Against People of Faith." Its sponsors argue that Democrats who oppose judicial nominees who oppose abortion rights on religious and moral grounds are effectively discriminating against those nominees. Frist has agreed to provide a four-minute videotaped statement to the event; Democrats are calling his participation evidence of Republican extremism.
<br>"We're going to allow the majority leader to invoke faith to rewrite Senate rules, to put substandard extremist judges on the bench?" Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and the presidential nominee in the last election, said Thursday on the Senate floor. He added, "It's not up to us to tell any one of our colleagues what to believe as a matter of faith."
<br>Sponsors of the telecast accuse Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they oppose judicial nominees who share the church's opposition to abortion. On Thursday, Senator John Salazar, a Colorado Democrat and a Catholic, lashed back by accusing one of the telecast's speakers, Albert Mohler, of "anti-Catholicism." Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
<br>Salazar distributed a statement that quoted Mohler as saying "the Roman church is a false church, and it teaches a false gospel" and "the pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office." [Note: the Catholic Church, and its new Pope in particular, have said same about all other denominations, and religions]
<br>Mohler called the charges "absolutely ridiculous," saying it was hardly news that evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics differ. He said the two groups could still cooperate.[on a political agenda, because that's what they both are: arms of political fascists]
<br>The criticism of the telecast underscores the delicate task Frist, who is laying the groundwork for a possible presidential campaign in 2008, faces as he courts the evangelical Protestant groups and other religious traditionalists that formed the bedrock of President Bush's winning coalition. That courtship has become evident in recent weeks, as Frist took the lead in the debate over Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after a court order allowed her husband to have her feeding tube withdrawn.
<br>But with his patrician bearing and background in the relatively liberal Presbyterian Church, Frist, a Harvard-trained transplant surgeon, does not fit in as naturally with Christian conservatives as Bush.
<br>The church he attended in Nashville, for example, supports the ordination of gays and lesbians. Friends in Tennessee say his mother was a Democrat and his brother contributed to the political campaigns of Jim Sasser, the Democratic former senator whom Frist defeated in 1994.
<br>"Here is this buttoned-down corporate type trying to look like he's a Southern Baptist or an evangelical," said Charlie Cook, the editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
<br>
By David D. Kirkpatrick and Sheryl Gay Stolberg The New York Times
SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2005
As the Senate battle over judicial confirmations has become increasingly entwined with religious themes, officials of several major Protestant denominations have accused the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, of violating the principles of his own Presbyterian church and have urged him to drop out of a Sunday telecast that depicts Democrats as "against people of faith."
<br>The growing storm over the role of religion in public life has begun to hamper Frist's efforts to bar Democrats from using the filibuster, a two-century-old parliamentary tactic, to block President George W. Bush's judicial nominees. A confrontation had been expected as early as next week, but now it appears the showdown may be delayed.
<br>On Friday, the National Council of Churches was to sponsor a conference call with journalists to denounce Frist's participation in the telecast, sponsored by Christian conservative organizations to build support for Frist's proposal.
<br>Among those speaking on the call will be Clifton Kirkpatrick, a top official of the Presbyterian Church USA. "One of the hallmarks of our denominations is that we are an ecumenical church," Kirkpatrick said in an interview Thursday. "Elected officials should not be portraying public policies as being for or against people of faith."
<br>But a spokesman for Frist defended the majority leader, saying his remarks, which are not yet available, would be consistent with previous statements about fair treatment for judicial nominees. "I would hope that he would read Frist's remarks," the spokesman, Bob Stevenson, said of Kirkpatrick. Stevenson added that the timing of the judicial confrontation would not be related to concerns raised about the telecast.
<br>Whatever the timing, the stage was set for the showdown on Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee, voting along party lines, approved two nominees, Janice Rodgers Brown and Priscilla Owen, whose nominations were filibustered during the last Congress. Yet even as Frist commended the panel, there were signs that he was planning to postpone the confrontation for at least another two weeks, after the Senate returns from a spring recess.
<br>Democrats have vowed to bring the Senate to a virtual halt if Republicans carry out the rule change, and Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, said Frist told him that he would like to take up a transportation measure next week, an indication that he does not expect a filibuster fight before the congressional recess.
<br>Polls, meanwhile, suggest a lack of public support for the rule change; a survey conducted for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal indicated that 50 percent of those who responded believe the Senate should retain judicial filibusters while 40 percent are against and 10 percent undecided.
<br>The theme of the telecast, which is called "Justice Sunday" and will be broadcast to churches and Christian radio and television networks, is "The Filibuster Against People of Faith." Its sponsors argue that Democrats who oppose judicial nominees who oppose abortion rights on religious and moral grounds are effectively discriminating against those nominees. Frist has agreed to provide a four-minute videotaped statement to the event; Democrats are calling his participation evidence of Republican extremism.
<br>"We're going to allow the majority leader to invoke faith to rewrite Senate rules, to put substandard extremist judges on the bench?" Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and the presidential nominee in the last election, said Thursday on the Senate floor. He added, "It's not up to us to tell any one of our colleagues what to believe as a matter of faith."
<br>Sponsors of the telecast accuse Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they oppose judicial nominees who share the church's opposition to abortion. On Thursday, Senator John Salazar, a Colorado Democrat and a Catholic, lashed back by accusing one of the telecast's speakers, Albert Mohler, of "anti-Catholicism." Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
<br>Salazar distributed a statement that quoted Mohler as saying "the Roman church is a false church, and it teaches a false gospel" and "the pope himself holds a false and unbiblical office." [Note: the Catholic Church, and its new Pope in particular, have said same about all other denominations, and religions]
<br>Mohler called the charges "absolutely ridiculous," saying it was hardly news that evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics differ. He said the two groups could still cooperate.[on a political agenda, because that's what they both are: arms of political fascists]
<br>The criticism of the telecast underscores the delicate task Frist, who is laying the groundwork for a possible presidential campaign in 2008, faces as he courts the evangelical Protestant groups and other religious traditionalists that formed the bedrock of President Bush's winning coalition. That courtship has become evident in recent weeks, as Frist took the lead in the debate over Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after a court order allowed her husband to have her feeding tube withdrawn.
<br>But with his patrician bearing and background in the relatively liberal Presbyterian Church, Frist, a Harvard-trained transplant surgeon, does not fit in as naturally with Christian conservatives as Bush.
<br>The church he attended in Nashville, for example, supports the ordination of gays and lesbians. Friends in Tennessee say his mother was a Democrat and his brother contributed to the political campaigns of Jim Sasser, the Democratic former senator whom Frist defeated in 1994.
<br>"Here is this buttoned-down corporate type trying to look like he's a Southern Baptist or an evangelical," said Charlie Cook, the editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
<br>
