Though divisions remain, a growing number of influential evangelical Christian leaders seem willing to give President Bush the benefit of the doubt in his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and take a chance on a woman who lacks a judicial track record on culture-war issues but shares their faith.
The president’s choice has received the harshest reviews from inside-the-Beltway intellectual conservatives who question Miers’ credentials and believe Bush lost a chance to tip the court with a known commodity.
The reaction from evangelical influence-brokers has been less harsh, but the varied reaction dispels the myth that the movement marches in lockstep, experts say.
James Dobson, founder of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, was quick to support Miers, though he later went on the radio to say he felt a tremendous burden and reached the decision with “fear and trepidation” he might be wrong.
Dobson’s anguish reflects evangelicals’ ambivalence about Bush’s choice and the enormous stakes involved, said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio who studies evangelicals and politics.
“The most important thing to know about Harriet Miers is that nobody knows anything about her,” Green said. “I think the White House assumed social conservatives would trust Bush or that Bush would bring them around, and that’s been difficult because there is this enormous reservoir of mistrust conservatives have, especially around the appointment of judges.”
The name that embodies that mistrust among conservatives is David Souter, who was hailed as a conservative appointment in 1990 but now rests in the liberal wing of the court. But this nomination is different, Miers’ supporters say.
Dobson and others say their support is not just a matter of trusting the president but is based on Bush’s impeccable record of appointing federal judges who do not write social policy from the bench.
“I’m supporting her because I know this president,” said Dr. Richard Land, who heads the public-policy division of the Southern Baptist Convention. “There is no issue he is more committed to than turning around the role of judges in this culture and his commitment to strict-constructionist, original- intent jurists. There is no promise he has kept more faithfully.”
The Rev. Ted Haggard, a Colorado Springs pastor whose growing national prominence has earned him a place on the White House phone tree, was not concerned about the early divisions among social conservatives over the nomination.
“Everybody’s fine,” said Haggard, pastor of New Life Church and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, an umbrella group of churches and denominations representing more than 30 million people. “This is just part of the process. It’s actually good positioning because it confuses the liberals.”
Haggard said he, like Dobson, received a phone call from the White House before Miers’ nomination. Like Dobson, Haggard isn’t talking about the conversation.
While Haggard said he would not pass judgment on Miers until after the nomination hearings, he gave a strong indication of his thinking: “If the president and Dr. Dobson say she’s a good woman for the position,” Haggard said, “odds are she is.”
A more detailed portrait of Miers’ own faith background has come into view in recent days, and it could both build evangelical support and provide ammunition to critics: She was raised nominally Catholic and became a born-again Christian in the mid-1980s. She taught Sunday school and volunteered for youth ministry at the massive Valley View Christian Church, a Dallas-area congregation with strong conservative credentials.
“We must not underestimate how much evangelicals put into the ability for a person’s religious conversion to qualify them for anything,” said Michael Cromartie of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Institute and an authority on evangelical Christian politics. “There is always this residue of hopefulness when evangelicals hear a person’s journey and narrative that covers a multitude of sins and qualifications.”
In talking with contacts in Texas, Cromartie said he was told that Miers is an abortion foe who is thoughtful and deliberate, not an “ideologue or rough-edge right-winger.”
Cromartie said given the momentum in Miers’ favor, “a lot of the troops will say by the end of the weekend, ‘We’re on board with her,’ but I think they’ll wait to see how she does, how she performs in the questions and answers (in the nomination hearings).”
Bush adviser and World Magazine editor Marvin Olasky, another early endorser of Miers, said Bush’s selection of a confidante with no bench experience is another “heart over mind” choice that should resonate with evangelicals much the same way a scene from the 2000 campaign trail did: Bush the candidate said Jesus Christ was the political philosopher who most influenced him because his heart was changed.
“I am really coming to a sense about Bush that when you’re dealing with Supreme Court nominees that have a lifetime appointment, even a paper trail doesn’t necessarily indicate where a person is going,” Olasky said. “You have to look at whether he or she has an internal moral compass and, if so, where that compass is pointed.”
Haggard, however, said he does not think Miers’ faith is an issue because as a judge, it would be her role to interpret law, not let her beliefs guide her.
“If she were a liberal, it would be a factor,” Haggard said. “Liberals believe the Constitution is a living institution, and conservatives say it should be read as it’s written.”
On his nationwide radio program this week, Dobson said he was strongly influenced by Miers’ faith story as well as Bush’s track record. He insisted he was not a shill for the president. He urged listeners to “stay cool” and “keep your powder dry.”
While he called Miers “an outstanding selection,” he also left the door open to change his mind if something were to arise.
“If I make a mistake here and others make a mistake, what we’re talking about are babies,” Dobson said. “We’re talking about millions of babies. If this nominee is the wrong person, for 20 or 30 years it will reverberate and will change this nation forever.”
Staff writer Eric Gorski can be reached at 303-820-1698 or egorski@denverpost.com.
