Dunn testifies against Ashcroft
nomination; Land accuses critics
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--Longtime Baptist agency head James Dunn opposed former Sen. John Ashcroft's confirmation as attorney general in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 19, claiming the appointment would pose a threat to religious freedom.
___"I have concluded, and I know you don't all agree with this, that Sen. Ashcroft has an extremist philosophy regarding the First Amendment," Dunn told senators.
___Dunn, who since retiring as executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee works as professor of Christianity and public policy at Wake Forest University and does fund-raising for the BJC, opposed the nomination because of Ashcroft's record on the separation of church and state.
___He made clear he was speaking as a private citizen, not as a representative of the Baptist Joint Committee. The same week, Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, sent a letter to all senators giving the SBC's official endorsement of the Ashcroft nomination.
___Dunn countered that endorsement and other affirmations of Ashcroft, saying Ashcroft's record demonstrates he is "unqualified and unreliable" to serve as attorney general and has "amply demonstrated that he does not understand the first freedom."
___"Either he has a blind spot, a lapse, or he's one of those who would intentionally destroy the separation of church and state as we have known it in this country," Dunn said.
___He also criticized Ashcroft's successful effort in Missouri to exempt church-based day care centers from fire, safety and health standards. "Dog pounds in that state have more regulation than church-run day cares," Dunn said.
___Meanwhile, Land issued a statement through Baptist Press accusing those who oppose the Ashcroft nomination of engaging in "religious profiling."
___Opposition to Ashcroft's nomination is being fueled by "an anti-evangelical bigotry" comparable to the racial profiling practiced against blacks, Land said.
The Baptist Standard
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