April (Web-only) 2005

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Yesterday's Justice Sunday event had a potential audience of 61 million households in 44 states, and has been called "a watershed moment in an increasingly emotional conflict that is as much about the mixing of God and government as it is about who can serve on the federal bench."

The event, broadcasted from 6,000-member Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, featured Senator Bill Frist, James Dobson, Charles Colson, Al Mohler, and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, which organized the event.

The simulcast was shown in hundreds of churches, and it encouraged listeners to contact U.S. senators in order to stop filibusters aimed at blocking votes against President Bush's judicial nominees. "Tell [senators] to do what's right. Tell them to do what's fair. Tell them to do their job, give judicial nominees the up-or-down votes they deserve,'' Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a prerecorded address, according to The New York Times.

It's not "radical," Frist said, to vote on judicial nominees, responding to an accusation from minority leader Harry Reid.

"Only in the United States Senate could it be considered a devastating option to allow a vote. Most places call that democracy," Frist said, according to David D. Kirkpatrick, in one of the best of many stories on the event.

Of course, opponents say (as they did during the 2004 Presidential campaign) that it is a wrongful mixing of religion and politics to use churches to host such events while organizers accuse Democrats' tactics of being "against people of faith."

Frist "seems to be going out of his way to pander to the radical religious right leaders," said Ralph Neas, president of People for the American Way. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ...