Protestant Leaders Criticize Sen. Frist for Justice Sunday
“The FRC has every right to hold an event with the message of their choosing. But the majority leader of the Senate should not lend credence to such an event''
The heads of several protestant denominations on Friday accused Senator Bill Frist of mixing politics and religion and urged him to drop out of a Sunday telecast sponsored by Christian conservatives that depict Democrats as being “against people of faith.”
The telecast, spearheaded by the Federal Research Council and Focus on the Family, is intended to rally support for Sen. Frist’s efforts to overcome the Democrats’ use of the filibuster – a 200-year-old tactic used by Congressional minorities to block a bill or nomination by “talking it to death” – against Bush-appointed Judicial nominees.
With tensions running high, Christian conservatives have joined Frist in his effort to pass block the filibusters and let each judicial nominee receive an up-or-down vote.
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In a Sunday telecast, dubbed “Justice Sunday,” the Christian conservatives will be calling on “values voters” to contact their officials and demand judicial confirmation “without inquiry, directly or indirectly into their religious beliefs.”
"Our goal is to reach as many people as possible and to engage values voters in the all-important issue of reining in our out-of-control courts and putting a halt to the use of filibusters against people of faith," said Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council.
Frist, who will be taking part in the event via pre-recorded videotape, agreed that action must be taken to halt the filibusters.
"If I must act to bring fairness back to the judicial nomination process," Frist said in a statement Tuesday, "I will not act in any way to impact the rights of colleagues when it comes to legislation."
Although Frist never agreed with Perkin’s description of those using filibusters as being “against people of faith,” several Protestant officials decried the senator’s participation in the event as a mark of endorsement.
During a teleconference held with reporters Friday morning, Bishop Mark S. Hanson, president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, called Senator Frist’s planned participation “divisive, dangerous and divisive of all those Americans of great faith who disagree with him.”
“The FRC has every right to hold an event with the message of their choosing,” said Hanson. “But the majority leader of the Senate should not lend credence to such an event.
“There is a difference between rights and responsibilities,” Hanson said. “Senator Frist’s participation is inappropriate and ill advised."
Rev. Robert Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, also criticized Frist’s participation and called it a hindrance to religious freedom.
“Truly none of us can miss the irony. Even as we fight for religious liberty around the world, the anti-democratic mentality is rising up here [in the US], Edgar said during the teleconference. “No longer are we allowed to freely express our views in opposition to a majority political party without being accused of being anti-Christian and anti-American.
Others at the teleconference included: Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); the Bishop Vashti McKenzie of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church; and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Meanwhile, Perkins, when asked by the NY Times about those who were offended by Justice Sunday, said they did not have to watch the program.
"There are millions of other Americans who see a connection between the filibuster and judicial activism," Mr. Perkins said. "And when we talk about judicial activism, we are talking about issues that people faith care about deeply."
