Steven J. Allen and Richard Viguerie: Attacks on Ashcroft are grounded in bigotry [2001]
The dishonest, bigoted attack on John Ashcroft shows the true face of modern American liberalism.
Make no mistake: Former Senator Ashcroft is under attack more for his religious beliefs than for his positions on matters of public policy.
Ashcroft's views on the issues are well known, and have been examined through numerous statewide campaigns. Although he is a conservative, he is so respected by people across the political spectrum that, as state attorney general, he headed the National Association of Attorneys General, and, as governor, he headed the National Governors Association.
And, in any event, his political philosophy is shared by the president-elect, George W. Bush. If Ashcroft's nomination for attorney general were defeated, presumably his replacement would likewise share Bush's conservative views.
Liberals claim that they are justified in examining Ashcroft's religious views because those views might prevent him from enforcing the law. Yet Ashcroft's record shows that he is fully capable of separating his religious views from his views on public policy, when such separation is appropriate.
For example, when he was governor of Missouri, he was obliged to implement the state lottery and the law providing for horse racing, even though he strongly opposes gambling. On this, and all other matters that came before him as attorney general and governor, he followed the law, period.
"We must embrace the power of faith," Ashcroft said in a 1998 speech to the Detroit Economic Forum, "but we must never confuse politics with piety. For me, it is against my religion to impose my religion."
Yet the campaign against Ashcroft depicts him as a backwoods Bible-thumper, as a religious zealot so deranged that he would look the other way if an abortion clinic were bombed. "Many who have such extreme pro-life views as Senator Ashcroft does," said Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York), believe that the law against violence at abortion clinics "should not be enforced and clinics would be shut down."
In days gone by, bigots skillfully manipulated stereotypes to suggest that Felix Frankfurter, a Jew, was unfit for the Supreme Court, and that John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was unfit for the presidency. After all, wouldn't a Jew impose his religious views from the bench, and wouldn't a Catholic take orders from the Pope?
As recently as last year, some on the Left suggested that Joseph Lieberman, as an Orthodox Jew, was not fit to be vice president. The head of the Dallas NAACP questioned Lieberman's nomination because "Jews are just interested in money." The Amsterdam News, a famous African-American newspaper in New York, suggested that Al Gore picked Lieberman as his running mate in order to get money from Jews. And Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan questioned whether Lieberman would be "more faithful to the Constitution . . . than to the ties that any Jewish person would have to the state of Israel." Now the Bigot Brigade is attacking John Ashcroft, the most successful officeholder to emerge from the world's fastest-growing religious group, the Pentecostals. Although in the U.S. there are 24 million Pentecostals, Ashcroft was the first Pentecostal elected to the U.S. Senate or to a governorship.
* Ashcroft, we are told by columnists in The New York Times and The Boston Globe, is a "zealot" -- a term that originally referred to a group of Jewish revolutionaries against Rome, but that has become an insult directed at any religious person.
* Throughout the media, Ashcroft is attacked as a member of the "religious right" -- an insulting term applied originally to certain Muslims who hate America and the West. Today the term is applied to any religious group that either (a) commits atrocities such as keeping women in slavery, or (b) votes predominantly Republican. How convenient to have a single term that applies to both (a) and (b)!
* Ashcroft is described in People magazine and by the Associated Press as a "fundamentalist." He is not. In fact, Pentecostals and fundamentalists have been at odds for nearly a century, with some fundamentalist leaders using terms like "vomit of Satan" to describe Pentecostals. Like the terms "zealot" and "religious right," the term "fundamentalist" has come to be applied to any religious person whom the media do not like (even a Marxist mass-murderer like the Rev. Jim Jones).
* Throwing the spotlight on Ashcroft's religion, Newsweek magazine's cover headline proclaims that the fight over Ashcroft's confirmation is a "Holy War."
* Ashcroft is criticized in the media for his acceptance of an honorary degree from Bob Jones University, a religious institution that, we are constantly reminded, has opposed interracial dating and has sharply criticized Catholics and Mormons. "Just going there," said Senator Barbara Boxer (D- California), "in and of itself, it shows a certain intolerance." But BJU has sharply criticized not just Catholics and Mormons but also the Pentecostal movement, in which Ashcroft's father and grandfather were ministers! Are we to believe Ashcroft is anti-Pentecostal?
* "Crossfire" commentator Bill Press allowed that "I don't think anybody's going to hold John Ashcroft's religion against him," but "when you do make the statement in the United States what makes us different is we have no king but Jesus, that does lead one to question whether or not he recognizes that this is not a Christian nation."
The "no king but Jesus" reference was to a line in Ashcroft's Bob Jones speech -- a speech that was, in essence, a sermon. Speaking to a religious audience about his religious views, Ashcroft quoted the defiant slogan of America's revolution against George III: "We have no king but Jesus." All patriotic Americans reject the notion of an earthly king; Christians believe Christ is the "king of kings"; thus, any patriotic American Christian believes that he or she has "no king but Jesus."
The irony is that, among all denominations, the Pentecostals are among those that have made the most serious efforts to reach across lines of race and class. Indeed, the movement was founded by an African-American who preached to blacks, whites, Mexican- and Filipino-Americans. Although it split into white and African-American factions, in recent years it has taken up once again the banner of the unity of mankind, of a single, human race. That's one reason it is spreading rapidly in Third World countries.
As Ashcroft noted in his autobiography, when he was a young teenager, his father urged him to read Black Boy by Richard Wright because "my father thought it was the best way for me to begin to understand the plight of young black men." Africans whom Ashcroft's father had met on his religious travels stayed at the Ashcroft home when visiting the U.S. And Ashcroft helped organize a Pentecostal congregation near the U.S. Capitol that includes many Asian-Americans and African-Americans. Compounding the irony in liberals' attacks is the fact that Pentecostals have often been criticized by other religious groups for including women in leadership roles.
Not that the facts matter to the Ashcroft-haters. They simply disregard the facts, and use Ashcroft's religion to portray him as anti-African-American and anti-women.
Fred Barnes of Fox News and The Weekly Standard said this week, "There have been stories in The New York Times that are downright anti-Christian in their bigotry, really treating what are normal, standard Christian beliefs as exotic and weird, Christian practices as strange, and somehow his faith is one that -- even some senators have raised this -- that might make him unqualified to be Attorney General. . . . This bigotry is out there, in full flower."
"What arouses the ire of Jesse Jackson and others is that Ashcroft is a conservative, Bible-believing evangelical Christian," Charles Colson wrote. "This is just what happened to Stockwell Day, a Pentecostal running for prime minister in Canada. He was vilified daily in the media because of his religious beliefs. Have we sunk to that point in this country?"
Asked on "Fox News Sunday" whether "Senator Ashcroft's religious faith -- he's a devout Pentecostal Christian -- should be of any concern to the Senate," Senator Harry Reid (D-Nevada) said, "I don't think that we should focus on any one thing" but added that "I think that we have a right to look at John Ashcroft's religion."
John Ashcroft is a lay minister, a gospel singer/songwriter, and a frequent speaker at Christian gatherings. He is so religious that he does not drink or smoke or dance, though he understands well the world around him: When he traveled to China, he appointed "designated drinkers" among his staff so that his hosts would not be offended by his abstinence.
The Constitution (Article VI) bans religious tests for public office. Thomas Jefferson argued that a person's religious views are never the legitimate concern of politics and politicians: "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
By targeting John Ashcroft for his religion, the Left is violating the spirit of Article VI, violating Thomas Jefferson's vision of religious freedom, and violating the very principles of pluralism and tolerance that the Left claims to revere. What a bunch of hypocrites!
Dr. Allen's dissertation, on President Nixon's decision to shut down the
U.S. biological weapons program, is posted
here.
His e-mail "Why science policy should not be made by scientists" is
posted here.
His article "Raising color-blind kids in a country with a
color-obsessed government" is posted here. Dr. Allen's articles written with
Richard Viguerie include
Sliming conservatives: A short history (The American Thinker);
Politicians earned the distrust of the American people
(The Washington Times); and
Whose side are you on -- the populists or the elitists? (The
Washington Examiner). Dr. Allen is available for
weddings, birthdays, and Bar Mitzvahs. In other words, he's
looking for work. His resume is
here.