Kentucky Baptist Steelworker didn't say 'amen' to 'Justice Sunday' telecast

By Berry Craig

KEA-NEA/AFT-Kentucky
[4-27-05]

PADUCAH, Ky. – Jeff Wiggins is a Southern Baptist, a Democrat and a Steelworker.

He has a message for Christian conservatives who say Democrats are "against people of faith." "The Bible says, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged," warned Wiggins, president of the Paducah-based Western Kentucky Area Council, AFL-CIO.

The Good Book advises against false prophets, too, says Wiggins, a member of Steelworkers Local 9447-5. "The Bible tells us to trust in the Lord, not man. These ultra-conservative religious people are preaching a political message -- a message of man -- but claiming the message is godly."

Wiggins, who is also on the Kentucky State AFL-CIO Executive Board, calls himself a "yellow dog Democrat." But he doesn’t say Republicans are "against people of faith."

"We are all God’s children," Wiggins said. "God loves us all."

Wiggins, who lives in a Paducah suburb, says he has heard more than a few Bluegrass State Republicans hint – or say flat-out – "that you can’t be a Christian and a Democrat. Sometimes they say unions are un-Christian. But you don’t hear that just in Kentucky."

Religious right organizations often make common cause with anti-union groups, such as the National Right-to-Work Committee. "Unions are one of the organizations leading the world to wickedness," said Tim LaHaye, the Republican-friendly reverend whose apocalyptic Left Behind novels are popular in Bible Belt Kentucky.

Wiggins welcomes Republican religious rightists to his house of labor. "Let them come and see for themselves how we conduct our Area Council meetings. We start every meeting with everybody standing for a prayer.

"Then we face the flag, put our hands over our hearts and say the Pledge of Allegiance. It has ‘one nation under God’ in it."

Wiggins did not "amen" the recent "Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith" telecast from a Louisville Baptist Church. The event, sponsored by Family Research Council, a religious right group, was supposed to fire up Christian conservatives against Senate Democrats who have filibustered 10 of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees.

"The message from the church was wrong -- likely deliberately so -- in its central theme that many of President Bush's judicial nominees are being defeated because they are conservative Christians. This deceit is bolstered by an erroneous implication that the federal courts are packed with liberal judges."

The editorial also argued that the Democrats filibustered the 10 Bush nominations because they were "the most extreme" of the president's picks and didn't block them "on religious grounds." The editorial added that 205 Bush appointees for the federal bench have been approved. "Moreover, Republican-appointed judges significantly outnumber selections of Democratic presidents."

The editorial also took Frist to task, claiming his "videotaped message...was wrong -- and, again, probably by design. Sen. Frist implied that Democratic senators are failing to meet their constitutional responsibilities, by unfairly denying the controversial nominees an up-or-down vote. If that were the case, and it's not, it is a practice Republicans know well. Senate Republicans have filibustered potential judges, too."

Wiggins says he prays for religious rightists who demonize Democrats. "Christ preached love," he said. "These ultra-conservatives are preaching hate. Just because I vote differently from them and interpret the Bible differently doesn’t make me any less a Christian."

-- Berry Craig is a professor of history at the West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah. He and his wife, Melinda, belong to the Witherspoon Society.