Clyburn (SC06) - Statement - Ashcroft Not Right for Attorney General

My hometown newspaper, Sumter’s The Item, often gets it right, but not in its January 17th editorial defending the nomination of John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General. Their defense of Ashcroft does not bother me, but I am bothered by their religious persecution argument we have heard so many times before. And in this instance, as in the others, it doesn’t hold water. The editorial argues that opposition to the former Senator’s nomination revolves around three things: 1. He’s a conservative, 2. He’s a devout Christian, and 3. He’s pro-life. If these were imposed litmus tests, nearly all of President Bush’s nominees would have been opposed. For example, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, who won confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services is conservative, Christian, and pro-life. And yet the Senate voted 100-0 to confirm his leadership of HHS. If those who espouse the persecution theory were right, then why did Secretary Thompson receive unanimous support?

Maybe the opposition does stem from this label of Ashcroft as a “devout” Christian. Devout is synonymous with piety. Pious can mean deeply religious, but often it means “solemnly hypocritical” as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary. A local pious individual that comes to mind is Maurice Bessinger, owner of Piggie Park barbeque, confederate flag enthusiast, and according to him a devout Christian. Mr. Bessinger’s religious beliefs don’t insult me; his use of the Bible to defend racism and justify slavery does.

In the same vein, I don’t doubt that Senator Ashcroft is sincere in his religious devotion, but his actions have often been a slap in the face of biblical teachings. He claims to be a fundamentalist Christian, and that is a subject I know a great deal about. Like Senator Ashcroft, my father was a fundamentalist minister. He made our home a place where the scriptures were honored and where the lessons of the Bible were part of our daily lives. We were taught the Golden Rule, “do unto others, as you would have them do unto you,” and the Ten Commandments, the ninth of which states “thou shalt not bear false witness.” I still believe them to be the cornerstones of Christianity.

The Golden Rule must have slipped Ashcroft’s mind during the years he served as Attorney General of Missouri. He used his position to vehemently fight the desegregation of that state’s public schools until a federal judge threatened to hold him in contempt. And yet he proudly ran for governor bragging about the threat and his adamant opposition to bussing.

Recently, as a Senator, Ashcroft ignored the ninth commandment “thou shalt not bear false witness” by deliberately misrepresenting Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White’s judicial record in order to successfully derail his nomination to the federal bench. He called the African-American judge “pro-criminal” even though he voted to uphold 70% of death penalty cases that came before him. Senator Ashcroft also claimed law enforcement officials in Missouri opposed White’s nomination. However, the 4500-member Missouri Fraternal Order of the Police wrote “Our nation has been deprived of an individual who surely would have proven to be an asset to the Federal Judiciary.” These examples would seem to indicate that the Christianity Senator Ashcroft practices is more in line with the piety and devoutness of Maurice Bessinger than those taught to me by the late Reverend E.L. Clyburn.

So I say to those who toss around religious persecution as a protective cloak -- cloaking ones self in religion does not exempt one from doing what is legally and morally right. Nor does calling yourself a Christian protect you from scrutiny. The Ku Klux Klan calls itself a Christian brotherhood. Too many times evil things have been done in the name of Christianity. Some may remember the song entitled, The Games People Play. Let me share one of its verses. “People walking up to ya, singing glory hallelujah, all the time socking it to ya, and doing it in the name of the Lord.” As we are warned in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”