This past Sunday, in Louisville, Kentucky, a big rally called “Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith” was held by fundamentalist Christian media figures James Dobson and Tony Perkins. The Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, wired himself in to the big screen at the Highview Baptist Church to lend his support for their cause.
Across town, another rally was held at Central Presbyterian Church, consisting of clergy and lay people from many faith traditions, protesting the injustice of “Justice Sunday”. This group decried Sen. Frist’s participation in an event that claimed to speak for “people of faith”, but left out the perspectives of millions of faithful people who support an independent judiciary, the balance of powers enshrined in the Constitution, and the ability of the minority to express itself through the time-honored use of the filibuster. (And by the way, Perkins’ “Family Research Council”, host of "Justice Sunday", said publicly that the filibuster was a good thing back in 1998 when conservatives opposed the nomination of a gay man to an ambassadorship.) The rally at Central Presbyterian raised the voices of people whose deeply-held faith leads them to oppose the nomination of judges who would be “activists” from the bench for far-right causes, riding roughshod over the Constitution and accumulated case law.
Unlike the leaders of the Highland Baptist rally, the folks at Central Presbyterian did not pretend to speak for “people of faith” as if they were one solid voting bloc, of one mind on social or moral questions. The folks at Central Presbyterian were rallying for pluralism and for freedom. They were rallying against the “works of the flesh” listed by St. Paul in Galatians chapter 5: “selfishness”, “dissention”, and “party spirit”.
Sen. Frist’s speech at Highland Baptist bodes ill for our country and for all people of faith, including Baptists. There’s another church in Louisville, with a similar name: Highview Baptist. Its minister, Joseph Phelps, objected vigorously to Frist's speech. He said, “We see ‘Justice Sunday’ as part of a larger effort to link church and state in ways not seen in America since the Puritans were hanging Quakers on Boston Commons and exiling Baptists to Rhode Island.” Wise words of warning from Highview to Highland, from one Baptist to others, and to us all.
I am very uncomfortable with judicial nominees who oppose a woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion and want to deny a person the choice to die with dignity. I’m very uncomfortable with judges who aim to dismantle our civilization by drastically weakening the legal structures of social services, environmental and consumer protections, civil rights, and access to health care. But these issues pale in comparison to the even higher stakes of upcoming court appointments. Senator Frist has identified himself with a sect that demands a narrowly-defined theocratic legal system. It’s painfully ironic that we have soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan today, to rid that country of Islamic “sharia” rule, and at the same time we have the Senate Majority Leader speaking on a giant TV screen in a church, in support of a crowd that demands a fundamentalist Christian judiciary. We’re dropping bombs on the Muslim Taliban while the Christian equivalent takes over our own country.
My exercise of faith depends completely on the full freedom of people of other faiths to practice their own in a public atmosphere that does not favor one religion over another. Your ability to practice your faith depends on real religious and cultural pluralism in America. Only in this atmosphere can there be a full flowering of the “fruits of the spirit” that St. Paul also listed in Galatians chapter 5: “patience”, “gentleness” and “self-control”.
But the “Christian Taliban” demands nothing short of “Christian dominion” in this country. They aim to create a nation structured by a fundamentalist interpretation of just one religion. They believe that they will get much closer to “Christian dominion” through ensuring the appointment of their favorite judges.
This extremist movement must be stopped. Not because they won't get abortions or wouldn’t allow their feeding tubes be removed if they were in a vegetative state, not because they read the Bible literally, not because they like the Ten Commandments more than the Sermon on the Mount. Not because they refuse to have gay or lesbian sex. They are and ought to be allowed to think and believe and live this way. It's already a free country where their fundamentalism has flourished. But that’s not good enough for the folks who gathered at Highland Baptist last Sunday. They feel compelled to force everyone else to live that way, too.
And that’s why their movement is so dangerous. Their “dominion” would be a house with only a few “mansions”, or rooms, unlike the spacious heavenly home Jesus promised us. There’s no room even for Baptists who aren’t “right” enough for them, or Republicans who aren't their kind of Christians. Much less progressive Christians like myself. Much less non-Christians, homosexual people, and women who choose to have abortions.
This can’t be allowed to happen. It’s going to take all kinds of people of faith, conservative and liberal, traditional and progressive, to rise up and say “Enough!”, and demand the rejection of the most radical of the upcoming judicial nominees. This country won’t be recognizable as the United States of America when James Dobson, Tony Perkins, and their radical friends get their way.... which they will do, unless we stop them. Now is the time for us to tell the President, the Senate, and the Congress what kind of country we want America to be, and how our faith informs our intentions.