Ministers urge cancellation of 'Justice Sunday'
Group says event mixes faith, politics
The Rev. Joe Phelps called it part of an effort to link church and state.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050423/NEWS01/504230400/1008
A group of ministers representing about 17 Baptist churches in the
Louisville area and a national Baptist committee that supports
separation of church and state yesterday called on a Louisville church
to cancel its planned "Justice Sunday" tomorrow.
"We see 'Justice Sunday' as part of a larger effort to link church and
state in ways not seen in America since the Puritans were hanging
Quakers on Boston Commons and exiling Baptists to Rhode Island," the
Rev. Joe Phelps, pastor of Highland Baptist Church, said during a news
conference yesterday.
But there are no plans to cancel the event, said the Rev. Kevin Ezell,
senior pastor of Highview Baptist Church, where the national Christian
telecast will be based.
"I don't know Joe Phelps," Ezell said in a telephone interview. "He's
never called me. The biggest story here is that he wants to be on TV, he
wants to be in the paper. He needs to spend more time reaching people
than criticizing other churches."
Phelps said during his news conference that he'd welcome a future
"honest, Christian dialogue" with Highview leaders.
The sometimes heated rhetoric between the two ministers came two days
before a planned telecast from Highview in which conservative Christian
leaders say they will depict Senate Democrats as being "against people
of faith" for blocking 10 of President Bush's judicial nominations.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., will not be in town but will
contribute a four-minute videotaped speech to the telecast, which will
be simulcast to more than 500 radio stations and 130 churches. More than
2,000 individuals also have signed up to watch the broadcast over the
Internet, according to the church, which says all tickets for the event
have been distributed.
"Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith" is being
organized by the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council to rally
support for dropping a Senate rule that has let Democrats block Bush's
nominees.
Ezell said tomorrow's telecast was not meant to be a political event,
and he blamed "the national media" for turning it into one.
At the same time, Ezell said, "It's America. We shouldn't be expected to
check our citizenship in at the church door. And we are doing nothing
illegal here."
The leaders of such Baptist churches as Lyndon, Deer Park, Crescent
Hill, Buechel Park and Broadway who attended yesterday's news conference
at Highland had a different view.
"What's happening alienates people … and keeps us from our purpose and
mission," said Derik Hamby, pastor at Ridgewood Baptist Church.
Phelps, describing Highview Baptist as a "sister church," read a
statement that said the ministers "stand together with Highview Baptist
Church and Christian churches in holding up Jesus Christ as the way, the
truth and the life. … But as people who take Scripture seriously, we
believe truth must be spoken, and spoken in love. We do not believe
Sunday's rally meets either test."
He went on to say, "Churches are for the worship of God and the
proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Convention halls are for
political rallies and party wrangling. To confuse the two is to violate
the First Amendment that 18th-century Baptists fought to include in our
nation's Constitution."
Phelps said there's no support for the premise that judicial nominees
are being "persecuted" for their Christian faith, and that the ministers
want the public to know the event does not represent "all Baptists in
this city, or people of faith everywhere."
The Rev. Reba Cobb, a board member of the Baptist Joint Committee for
Religious Liberty and former executive director of the Kentuckiana
Interfaith Community, said: "No one faith or political party holds a
monopoly on morality in this country. … Characterizations of public
policy issues as the faithful versus the faithless are divisive,
misleading and, perhaps worst of all, exploit religion for political
purposes."
Ezell said the goal of the event is to "educate our people about the
issues, and what we believe; our faith affects every area of our lives.
Does that affect political issues? Of course it affects political issues."
All people have a right to express their views, he said, adding that the
church will accommodate protesters tomorrow by offering them beverages
and a place to meet.
He also denied that Highview is a "sister church," saying they were more
like "very, very distant cousins," with different beliefs, different
congregations, and in different branches of the Baptist faith.
"Nobody who goes to his (Phelps') church would ever go to mine," he said.
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