8.15.2005
Evangelicals Rally to 'Save the Court' (LATimes.com)
# Conservative Christian leaders urge support for Bush nominee John G. Roberts Jr.
By Steven Bodzin, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) joined conservative church leaders Sunday to encourage evangelicals to help advance the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court.
At a 90-minute Nashville service that featured religious and political leaders, DeLay said, "We're here to protect the court so it can keep protecting us."
Dubbed "Justice Sunday II: God Save the United States and This Honorable Court," the evening service filled the 2,300-seat Two Rivers Baptist Church and was viewed live on the Web, watched at Christian churches around the country and later broadcast on Sky Angel, a Christian satellite network.
Organizer Tony Perkins, president of the conservative advocacy group Family Research Council, told reporters Friday that the event was "not a Roberts rally." In fact, few of the speakers mentioned Roberts by name, and those who did were restrained in their remarks. James Dobson, founder of another advocacy group, Focus on the Family, said, "For now at least, he looks good."
The event's timing was intended to involve the evangelical movement in Roberts' confirmation, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up in early September.
Urging supporters to call in for a "Save the Court" kit, Perkins characterized the event as "the launch of an effort that will span 2 1/2 to 3 years" to encompass several Supreme Court nominations. "We need to be praying for the future of the court," he said.
(More ... Evangelicals Rally to 'Save the Court' - Los Angeles Times) ¶ 21:44
By Steven Bodzin, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) joined conservative church leaders Sunday to encourage evangelicals to help advance the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court.
At a 90-minute Nashville service that featured religious and political leaders, DeLay said, "We're here to protect the court so it can keep protecting us."
Dubbed "Justice Sunday II: God Save the United States and This Honorable Court," the evening service filled the 2,300-seat Two Rivers Baptist Church and was viewed live on the Web, watched at Christian churches around the country and later broadcast on Sky Angel, a Christian satellite network.
Organizer Tony Perkins, president of the conservative advocacy group Family Research Council, told reporters Friday that the event was "not a Roberts rally." In fact, few of the speakers mentioned Roberts by name, and those who did were restrained in their remarks. James Dobson, founder of another advocacy group, Focus on the Family, said, "For now at least, he looks good."
The event's timing was intended to involve the evangelical movement in Roberts' confirmation, which the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to take up in early September.
Urging supporters to call in for a "Save the Court" kit, Perkins characterized the event as "the launch of an effort that will span 2 1/2 to 3 years" to encompass several Supreme Court nominations. "We need to be praying for the future of the court," he said.
(More ... Evangelicals Rally to 'Save the Court' - Los Angeles Times) ¶ 21:44
