Pull up the URL for the full article. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0115/harkavy.shtml # # Ashcroft to Christian Crowd: Use Government to Sell Jesus # # The Gospel According to the A.G. # # by Ward Harkavy # # In a speech that never surfaced during his confirmation hearing # but reveals much about his agenda as attorney general, John # Ashcroft clearly laid out his dream of government-sponsored social # programs helping convert people to Jesus. Behind the scenes, # his Justice Department is now helping make that possible. # # Government "gives only half a gift when it doesn't give the spirit # of Christ," Ashcroft, then a Missouri senator, told the dinner # crowd at the Washington Court Hotel on September 18, 1996, as # he received the Christian Statesman of the Year Award. "It doesn't # give the spirit of God, it doesn't give the spirit of forgiveness, # it doesn't give the regeneration of healing with its gift." # # Those sentiments, captured on tape and obtained by the Voice, # don't surprise Ashcroft's critics. "That is a statement saying # the government must evangelize," said Barry Lynn, the liberal # minister who's the head of Americans United for Separation of # Church and State. "He views the goal of a politician to be an # active agent of religious conversion." # # What threw Lynn and others was Ashcroft's insistence during the # Senate hearings last January that he could keep his well-known # religious beliefs from affecting his performance as the nation's # top law enforcement officer. "In the past, unlike during the # confirmation hearings, he couldn't separate the secular from # the religious," said Lynn. "He never even suggested that he could. # And I couldn't believe him when he told the Senate that he could." # # For good reason. # [snip]