January 22, 2001
SBC agency defunded by BGCT
campaigns for Ashcroft's approval
___WASHINGTON--For the first time, a Southern Baptist Convention agency has endorsed a particular candidate for political appointment.
___The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, an SBC agency recently defunded by the Baptist General Convention of Texas because of its perceived partisanship, endorsed John Ashcroft's nomination as United States attorney general.
___"On behalf of the vast majority of over 16 million Southern Baptists nationwide, I urgeyou to support the confirmation of Sen. John Ashcroft," ERLC President Richard Land told senators in a letter publicized through Baptist Press.
RICHARD LAND
___Land said the ERLC's endorsement was necessary to counter the influence of liberal groups such as People for the American Way and the National Organization of Women.
___"John Ashcroft is being opposed in the main because he is strongly pro-life and he is an open and avowed evangelical Christian," Land said. "Many of his opponents are evidently attempting to construct a defacto, anti-evangelical test for office, which would at the very least require that people of evangelical faith declare that they would not allow their faith to impact their performance in office."
___Land suggested his endorsement of Ashcroft differs from the endorsement of candidates for elected office, which is illegal for tax-exempt organizations.
___Individual Southern Baptists have opportunities to vote their conscience on candidates for elected office, he said. "However, they do not have that same opportunity when it comes to nominees for cabinet positions or for the judiciary.
___"So when there are issues of vital concern to Southern Baptists at stake and where Southern Baptists have made those concerns abundantly clear, either in their confessional statement or convention resolutions, we feel it is incumbent upon us to make certain that the people's elected representatives are aware of those convictions and values," Land said. "The vast majority of Southern Baptists would be upset with the ERLC if we were not expressing support for this man of sterling integrity and bedrock Christian faith."
___Land's line of reasoning and endorsement of Ashcroft were called into question by Phil Strickland, director of the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.
___"It seems incredible to me that anyone would claim to represent a majority of 16 million Baptists on any issue, much less the appointment of John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General," Strickland said. "I am saddened that the head of the Southern Baptist ethics agency has claimed to speak with an authority that no Baptist should claim.
___"Count me out of those whom he claims to represent. My enthusiasm for Sen. Ashcroft as attorney general is greatly diminished by his support for radical cuts in welfare assistance to needy people, his consistent opposition to church-state separation and his obvious embrace of the political Religious Right.
___"Those are my concerns, but they are only my concerns. For anyone to claim to speak for all Baptists--or even for the vast majority of Baptists when it comes to endorsements of individuals--is out of bounds."
___Both Strickland and Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, said their agencies do not endorse or oppose candidates for elected or appointed office.
___Land, meanwhile, has repeatedly denied suggestions that he and the ERLC are partisan. Land has been one of the SBC's harshest and most vocal critics of President Clinton, frequently using his agency's status as a bureau of Baptist Press to comment on the president's perceived shortcomings.
___In the days leading up to Sen. Ashcroft's confirmation hearings, the ELRC and Baptist Press teamed up to produce almost daily coverage of Ashcroft, including feature stories on his church-going and religious devotion.
___While both Strickland and Walker said they have concerns about Ashcroft's record on church-state issues, neither the Texas CLC or the Joint Committee has taken the kind of public stand Land and the ERLC have mounted.
___James Dunn, past executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee, was scheduled to testify in opposition to Ashcroft's nomination before a Senate Judiciary Committee panel. Dunn, now a visiting professor of Christianity and public policy at Wake Forest Divinity School, said he would testify as an individual, not as a representative of the Baptist Joint Committee.
___National religious leaders have spoken on both sides of the Ashcroft nomination issue, with the most conservative representatives urging his confirmation. Other groups speaking on behalf of Ashcroft have included Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice and James Dobson's Focus on the Family.
___By Mark Wingfield, with reporting by Ken Camp of Texas Baptist Communications, Baptist Press and Associated Baptist Press
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
