Some religious leaders speak against Justice Sunday rally

“Those in public office must never make religion the lens,” through which constitutional matters are decided, said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance.

The upcoming “Justice Sunday II” rally in Nashville, Tenn., is second in a series of televised church demonstrations organized by the Family Research Council to pressure legislators into following evangelical positions on the judiciary. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is scheduled to speak.

The comments came during a Thursday conference call with journalists.

“It is entirely inappropriate to assume that a person’s ideology is a barometer of their personal faith,” said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of the Churches USA and a former Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania.

An FRC spokeswoman said last week that one of the rally’s primary purposes is to encourage confirmation of John Roberts, President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Roberts has since come under some criticism from evangelicals, including FRC President Tony Perkins, following news that he had done pro bono work as a lawyer on behalf of gay rights activists in a 1996 Supreme Court case.

But the opposition speakers assumed support for Roberts would remain the primary focus of Sunday’s rally, Rabbi David Saperstein said after the conference call. Saperstein is director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in North America.

The FRC’s decision to have House Majority Leader Tom DeLay speak at the event also drew fire from the speakers.

“Tom DeLay is under investigation for … a number of ethical issues. It’s interesting that he becomes the person that they select,” Saperstein said.

Thursday, the Federal Election Commission found that a political committee founded by the majority leader may have improperly spent $203,000 in unregulated soft money and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in the investigations involving DeLay, was indicted on federal fraud charges.

But the Texas Republican still intends to address the rally.

“Mr. DeLay will be appearing in Nashville on the 14th,” said Kevin Madden, a DeLay spokesman.

The speakers would not yet take a position on Roberts’ nomination. Gaddy suggested the Senate Judiciary Committee ask the nominee, “If there is a conflict, will you follow an oath to place the constitution above your personal religious beliefs?”

Realizing the irony of drawing more attention to a rally they oppose, the leaders waited to see if the evangelicals’ event would receive media coverage before going ahead with the conference call, Saperstein said.

The call also included speakers from the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Unitarian Universalist Association. None of the leaders will be in Nashville during the event, Saperstein said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist spoke by video to the first “Justice Sunday” evangelical rally in Louisville, Ky., in April, but he wasn’t invited to address “Justice Sunday II,” even though it’s in his hometown. Since the first rally, Frist has angered the events’ organizers by stating his support for expanded human embryonic stem cell research.