COUP WATCH: COUP WATCH: John Ashcroft's speech\r\nat Bob Jones University -- From Red Rock Eater News Service\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n
COUP WATCH: John Ashcroft's speech\r\nat Bob Jones University -- From Red Rock Eater News Service<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
By Phil Agre<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Fri, 12 Jan 2001 16:41:13\r\n-0800<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
[When the Constitution\r\nwas written, religious conservatives opposed it because, as everyone perfectly\r\nwell understood, it did not create a Christian nation. Their arguments\r\nsound more or less identical to the arguments that their descendants make\r\ntoday, as for example in John Ashcroft's speech at Bob Jones University,\r\nenclosed. (On the depth of religious conservative opposition to the\r\nConstitution, see Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore, The Godless Constitution:\r\nThe Case Against Religious Correctness, Norton, 1996.) Having lost\r\nthat fight, the opponents of the Constitution now take a different approach:\r\nthey claim to have invented it. The evidence being so overwhelmingly\r\nagainst them, they use bits and pieces of quotations to dance around the\r\nConstitution's straightforward assertion that Congress shall make no law\r\nrespecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise\r\nthereof. It's okay for them to hold these opinions. That's\r\nwhat we're here for. What's not okay is for them to be placed in\r\ncharge of enforcing the laws. Lately they have taken to accusing\r\nJohn Ashcroft's opponents of opposing him because he believes in God. \r\nThis is going to get worse before it gets better.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
And let's Let's remember\r\nwhat \"personal destruction\" really means. It means circulating a videotape\r\naccusing a candidate of numerous felonies including murder. It means\r\nbankrupting innocent people with bogus indictments and endless abusive\r\ninvestigations. It means spreading dozens of factually false attacks\r\non their character. That's what \"personal destruction\" means. Telling\r\nthe truth about a person's record is not personal destruction -- particularly\r\nwhen, as in the case of John Ashcroft, that person is a hardened practitioner\r\nof the arts of personal destruction himself.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
AP article on Ashcroft's\r\nspeech<\/b>\r\n
http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/aponline\/politics\/AP-Bush-Ashcroft.html<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
The Proper Standard for\r\nAshcroft's Confirmation Fight<\/b>\r\n
http:\/\/writ.news.findlaw.com\/lazarus\/20010109.html<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Conservatives Flex Muscles\r\nover Ashcroft<\/b>\r\n
http:\/\/www.salon.com\/politics\/feature\/2001\/01\/11\/conservatives\/<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Conservatives Rally Around\r\nAshcroft<\/b>\r\n
http:\/\/washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A49968-2001Jan11.html<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Thanks to everyone who\r\ncontributed.]<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
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Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001\r\n18:27:16 -0500<\/b>\r\n
From: rachael.sunbarger@bushcheney.gov<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Bob Jones University<\/b>\r\n
May 8, 1999<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Transcript of John Ashcroft's\r\nRemarks<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Thank you very much, Dr.\r\nBob. I want to thank each of you for investing yourselves in the\r\nmission of Christ -- in redemption and forgiveness, and for preparing yourselves\r\nin the way that you have.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
A slogan of the American\r\nrevolution which was so distressing to the emissaries of the king that\r\nit was found in correspondence sent back to England, was the line, \"We\r\nhave no king but Jesus\". Tax collectors came, asking for that which\r\nbelonged to the king, and colonists frequently said, \"We have no king but\r\nJesus\". It found its way into the fundamental documents of this great\r\ncountry. You could quote the Declaration with me, \"We hold these\r\ntruths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, and are endowed\r\nby their Creator with certain inalienable rights\". Unique among the\r\nnations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly\r\nand eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood\r\nthat our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no\r\nking but Jesus.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
My mind thinking about\r\nthat once raced back a couple of thousand years when Pilate stepped before\r\nthe people in Jerusalem and said, \"Whom would ye that I release unto you? \r\nBarabas? Or Jesus, which is called the Christ?\" And when they\r\nsaid \"Barabas,\" he said, \"But what about Jesus? King of the Jews?\" \r\nAnd the outcry was, \"We have no king but Caesar\".<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
There's a difference between\r\na culture that has no king but Caesar, no standard but the civil authority,\r\nand a culture that has no king but Jesus, no standard but the eternal authority. \r\nWhen you have no king but Caesar, you release Barabas -- criminality, destruction,\r\nthievery, the lowest and least. When you have no king but Jesus,\r\nyou release the eternal, you release the highest and best, you release\r\nvirtue, you release potential.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
It is not accidental that\r\nAmerica has been the home of the brave and the land of the free, the place\r\nwhere mankind has had the greatest of all opportunities, to approach the\r\npotential that God has placed within us. It has been because we knew\r\nthat we were endowed not by the king, but by the Creator, with certain\r\nunalienable rights. If America is to be great in the future, it will be\r\nif we understand that our source is not civic and temporal, but our source\r\nis godly and eternal. Endowed by the Creator with rights of life,\r\nliberty and the pursuit of happiness. I thank God for this institution\r\nand for you, who recognize and commit yourselves to the proposition that\r\nwe were so created, and that to live with respect to the Creator promises\r\nus the greatest potential as a nation and as individuals. And for\r\nsuch we must reacquaint ourselves daily with His call upon our lives.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Thank you. God bless\r\nyou, and thank you for honoring me by allowing me to stand with Asa [Hutchinson],\r\nLindsey [Graham] and a great Governor.<\/b>\r\n<\/p>
(Applause)<\/b>\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/dlis.gseis.ucla.edu\/people\/pagre\/rre.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"When the Constitution was written, religious conservatives opposed it because, as everyone \r\nperfectly well understood, it did not create a Christian nation. Their arguments sound more or \r\nless identical to the arguments that their descendants make today, as for example in John \r\nAshcroft's speech at Bob Jones University, enclosed.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/01\/rre_2.htm","filesize":"8.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/01\/5098.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}