LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A Louisville pastor is going to great lengths to distinguish his church from a nearby congregation with a similar name, which is hosting a national telecast aimed at thwarting a Senate filibuster on judicial nominees.
Joe Phelps, pastor of moderate Highland Baptist Church, will host other area pastors at an April 22 press conference challenging the “Justice Sunday” broadcast that will originate two days later at Highview Baptist Church, one of Kentucky's largest and most conservative congregations.
The show, which will feature Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and a host of Religious Right figures, is aimed at raising support for Frist's plan to end Democratic filibusters of a handful of President Bush's most conservative nominees for federal judgeships.
While the Senate has approved 205 of Bush's judicial nominees, Democrats are currently holding up 10 nominees to federal appeals courts for what they consider extremism on some issues. They have blocked votes on the nominees through use of a Senate rule — known as the filibuster — that requires 60 votes to cut off debate and proceed to a vote on an issue.
The Washington-based Family Research Council, which is sponsoring the telecast, has characterized the filibuster as a tactic used “against people of faith.” Democrats and moderate religious leaders — noting that many of Bush's nominees have already been approved without consideration of their faith — have sharply criticized the group for using such rhetoric, and Frist for appearing to endorse it via his participation.
“We have examined the FRC's literature promoting this rally, and find they offer no justification for their allegations,” Phelps said, in a statement prepared for the press conference. “Were the allegations true, we would stand beside them in opposition to a religious test for office, even if we disagreed with the political or religious positions of these nominees. But the FRC's strong allegation of religious persecution has not been substantiated.”
Phelps, who penned a guest editorial on the subject in the April 21 issue of Louisville's Courier-Journal, went on to say that he detects “the work of a political organization using Christian language to exploit Americans' desire to preserve religious values by framing their political strategy in terms of religious liberty. This is deceptive, manipulative and false.”
While he affirms Highview's right speak out on political issues, Phelps said, Scripture causes him to “believe truth must be spoken, and spoken in love. We do not believe Sunday's rally meets either test.”
Kevin Ezell, Highview's pastor, was dismissive of Phelps and his criticisms when asked for comment.
“I'm saddened that some of these pastors that really, evidently, don't have a lot to do spend time criticizing other churches,” Ezell told Associated Baptist Press. “I would encourage him to spend time reaching more people — his numbers would seem to indicate he needs it,” he continued, presumably referring to Highland Baptist's Sunday attendance figures.
He also took issue with Phelps describing Highland and Highview as “sister churches” in the Courier-Journal article. “I would think we're more like distant cousins,” Ezell said.
When asked why Highview agreed to host the “Justice Sunday” telecast, Ezell said he believes that the filibuster of judicial nominees needs to end. “I believe there is an overall bias against faith-based people,” he said.
However, Ezell declined to address criticisms about the truthfulness of the rhetoric surrounding the conference, referring a reporter's questions about it to the Family Research Council.
FRC representatives were unavailable for comment by press time for this story. But, in a statement posted on the organization's website, FRC President Tony Perkins said many of Bush's nominees are being blocked “not because they haven't paid their taxes or because they have used drugs or because they have criminal records or for any other reason that would disqualify them from public service; rather, they are being blocked because they are people of faith and moral conviction. These are people whose only offense is to say that abortion is wrong or that marriage should be between one man and one woman.”
An FRC-produced flier for the rally features a photo of a young man holding a gavel in one hand and a Bible in the other. A caption above it reads, “He should not have to choose.”
A spokesperson for Frist, consulted April 19, also would not directly address a reporter's question about the rhetoric surrounding the telecast. But he said Frist supports ending the filibuster because Bush has a right to see his judicial nominees approved by a simple majority vote, rather than a 60-vote “supermajority.”
“What we're talking about is an unprecedented act over 200 years — the Senate has always provided the president's judicial nominations with an up-or-down vote,” Nick Smith told Associated Baptist Press.
However, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has noted that Republicans — who were in control of the Senate in the 1990s — denied many of President Clinton's judicial nominees an up-or-down vote by stalling the nominations in committee.
The Senate's filibuster showdown may come soon. On April 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved two nominees to federal appeals courts — Texas judge Priscilla Owen and California judge Janice Rogers Brown — that Democrats had filibustered during Bush's first term. Their approval, by 10-8 party-line votes , clears the way for Frist to bring the nominations to the full Senate as early as April 25.