Frist "Malpractice": Mixing Politics, Medicine, and God!

Senator Bill Frist has agreed to a major role in a national telecast with Christian conservatives.

This telecast, will originate from the Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Along with Frist, will be noted religious right activists: James Dobson, Chuck Colson, and Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council, the sponsor of the event.

Perkins explained the position being advanced on the Family Research Council website:

A day of decision is upon us. Whether it was the legalization of abortion, the banning of school prayer, the expulsion of the 10 Commandments from public spaces, or the starvation of Terri Schiavo, decisions by the courts have not only changed our nation's course, but even led to the taking of human lives. As the liberal, anti-Christian dogma of the left has been repudiated in almost every recent election, the courts have become the last great bastion for liberalism.

For years activist courts, aided by liberal interest groups like the ACLU, have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms. Federal judges have systematically grabbed power, usurping the constitutional authority that resides in the other two branches of government and, ultimately, in the American people.

"Anti-Christian?" "...to rob us of our Christian heritage?" What is this garbage? Senator Frist does not need to demean the United States Senate with such hostile and distorting rhetoric.

And the best that the Frist staff can come up with is 'Kerry did it too.' In fact, as explained by Bob Stevenson, the Communications Director to Senator Frist on his official government website:

“Last October, the Washington Post reported that Senator John Kerry `used a Baptist pulpit to speak of eternal life and denounce President Bush’ during a program at a Florida church sharply critical of the president’s policies.


“Senate Democrats said nothing in response.


“Now, as they prepare to continue their unprecedented filibuster against the president’s judicial nominations, they criticize the leader for agreeing to deliver a similar address pressing for fair treatment of the president’s judicial nominees.


“That’s a clear double standard.”

Yes. That is the entire explanation from Senator Frist. Since John Kerry spoke at a church, he is entitled to share the Church podium with religious right extremists that believe if the Democrats challenge a Bush appointee that they are somehow 'anti-Christ'. If somehow you don't go along with President Bush you are probably going to Hell.

And what did Senator Kerry actually say at that church? Did he call his opponents anti-Christian? Did he exploit the fears and prejudice and call upon Christians to defend themselves against Bush?

Reuters photo of Kerry speaking at Shiloh Baptist Church

He stated:

"We are taught to walk by faith, not by sight," he said, drawing shouted responses of "Amen!" and "Teach it!" Kerry went on to speak of "the great gap today in America," and to quote from the New Testament book of James that "faith without works is dead."

"When I look around me in this country, I see a whole bunch of people who talk about faith, I see a whole bunch of people who put it out there, but I see an awful lot of deeds undone, I see a lot of work to be done in this country," he said. Without specifically mentioning Bush, Kerry said he thinks of "these folks from Jeremiah who, we are reminded, they have eyes but they don't see and they have ears but they don't hear."

He spoke of work that needed to be done. About wrongs in society that needed to be righted. About Love. Not Hate. That's the difference!

As Kerry continued:

Kerry told of the teacher who asked Jesus "what do I have do to gain eternal life?"

"I can tell you, it's in Luke 10," Kerry said, referring to the commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Republicans like Frist are teaching about distrust of your neighbor. Kerry spoke of Love. That's the difference.

Meanwhile Frist is getting into his own hot water, when he was making pronouncements of a medical matter by viewing video tape, pointing out that Florida doctors had erred:

"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

According to Newsweek Magazine, this haphazard medical diagnosis by Frist in a political setting borders on malpractice:

In a private letter to Frist, NEWSWEEK has learned, 31 of the 165 members of his medical-school class accused him of using his medical degree improperly. Frist's office declined to comment; according to public records, at least 13 of the 31 had donated money to Democrats in the last five years. Still, Dr. Lewis Rose, an oncologist who said he voted for Bush last year, insisted Frist had overstepped. "He had no right to use the cloak of the Hippocratic oath, no matter who was right," Rose told NEWSWEEK. "He's got medical training and a medical perspective, but he is not a practicing physician and has no business using that in politics. Period. If he does, he won't get any of his classmates' votes who signed this."

America needs leadership that doesn't exploit religious differences for its own advantages. Senator Kerry has drawn upon his Christian heritage to speak of the need of works to better the world! Senator Kerry speaks of loving our neighbor. Senator Frist abuses his medical degree to advance his own political agenda and exploits our insecurities about our own religious faith to suppress Democrat Senate interests.

America deserves better!

Bob