Faith 'War' Rages in U.S., Judge Says

LA Times reports Just days after a bitterly divided Senate committee voted along party lines to approve her nomination as a federal appellate court judge, California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown told an audience Sunday that people of faith were embroiled in a "war" against secular humanists who threatened to divorce America from its religious roots, according to a newspaper account of the speech.

Brown's remarks come as a partisan battle over judges has evolved into a national debate over the proper mix of God and government and as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) ponders changing the chamber's rules to prevent Democrats from using procedural moves to block confirmation of conservative jurists such as Brown....

"There seems to have been no time since the Civil War that this country was so bitterly divided. It's not a shooting war, but it is a war," she said, according to a report published Monday in the Stamford Advocate.

"These are perilous times for people of faith," she said, "not in the sense that we are going to lose our lives, but in the sense that it will cost you something if you are a person of faith who stands up for what you believe in and say those things out loud."

Hugh Hewitt: blogged The Los Angeles Times tries to open another assault on California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rodgers Brown. So it is really "shocking" to Lynn that Justice Brown uses a term he himself regularly uses? Can the Los Angeles Times reporter really scribble this down with a straight face, or does Peter Wallsten really not know that Barry uses the phrase "culture war" on a daily basis? Does Wallsten not know how to use "Google?" The much better bet is that Wallsten knows that to report on Lynn's hypocrisy would interfere with Wallsten's agenda journalism, so he lets it pass and uses the Lynn quote to push the idea forward that Justice Brown said something "shocking" and significant. Today's story is just part of the MSM blocking for the Senate Democrat's tackling of the Bush nominees.

Captain Ed blogged Of course, the folks at PFAW and others already aligned against Brown will use this speech to claim that she is an extremist, one much too dangerous to put on a federal appellate bench. They might have a difficult time convincing the overwhelming majority of people who attend religious services on a regular basis that believing in God makes one an extremist, but they will do their best to do so nonetheless. When they do, they will go further in proving Brown's point than she dared to go herself.

In fact, Brown's speech serves as a perfect test for Ralph Neas and Nan Aron. Her implication that faith has become a litmus test for political appointments practically dares her opposition to use it against her politically over the next two weeks. If the Democrats start quoting from the speech in debating her confirmation, then the flimsy pretense of Chuck Schumer's "deeply held personal beliefs" will have been finally stripped away from their arguments. Brown has upped the ante by forcing the Democrats to attack her faith and her philosophical underpinnings.

The Democrats won't hesitate to use it, of course, and in doing so they will have demonstrated precisely what she argued -- that people of faith cannot hope to be treated equally with secular athiests by the political elite of the Left.

I think Justice Brown may have more political savvy than we realized. Not only has she proven herself an excellent jurist, but she has courage and wit. She will not remain silent while her enemies unfairly trash her reputation and her record. If our appellate courts do not have room for a Janice Rogers Brown, then it only reflects the unworthiness of the people entrusted to confirm her into that position. If the Republicans cannot muster the votes to defend her nomination, then we all should be ashamed of ourselves for putting them in those seats.

Orrin Judd blogged

Brown's remarks drew praise Monday from one of the nation's most prominent evangelical leaders, Gary Bauer, president of the socially conservative advocacy group American Values. "No wonder the radical left opposes her," Bauer wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "Janice Rogers Brown understands the great culture war raging in America. That is why the abortion crowd, the homosexual rights movement and the radical secularists are all demanding that Senate liberals block her confirmation."

Radical Left? It's the Democratic caucus.

The left refers to this as jihad, but that just shows how irreligious they are Jihad is Islam declaring war on Christians. This is war between religion and Secular Humanism.