"Justice Sunday III" — it sounds vaguely like it could be a professional wrestling event or a pay-per-view heavyweight title fight.
But it isn't.
Instead, it's the name of a gathering of top evangelical leaders slated for this weekend—a public summit, if you will—where judicial activism and its impact on our country will be explored, Family Research Council spokeswoman Wendy Christian told Family News in Focus.
Coming one day before the Senate Judiciary Committee begins confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito—President Bush's nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court—Justice Sunday III will be simulcast in churches around the country.
"We will provide an opportunity for churches all across America to tune in to the simulcast so that they can be aware of how important some of the judicial decisions that are made," Christian said, "and how important it is that we be involved in the entire process."
The event, subtitled "Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land," is the third such broadcast to be carried on satellite and Webcast on Christian radio and television.
Sunday's speakers at Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia include Focus on the Family Action Chairman Dr. James Dobson; Family Research Council President Tony Perkins; Dr. Jerry Falwell, founder and chancellor of Liberty University; the Rev. Dr. Alveda King, niece of the slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a longtime family advocate; Bishop Wellington Boone and the Rev. Herbert Lusk.
Focus on the Family Action Judicial Analyst Bruce Hausknecht said the event highlights the continuing battle over the proper role of the courts.
"Liberals still want the judiciary to write laws from the bench that could never be achieved through legislation," Hausknecht told CitizenLink. "They must employ sympathetic judges in their quest to reshape America, simply because a majority of Americans continue to be opposed to the liberal agenda."
In effect, liberals follow what he called a "tyranny of the minority" approach to advancing unpopular social ideas by hiding their judicial activism behind terms like "civil rights" and "separation of church and state."
Hausknecht said he is confident that, as more Americans become educated on the role of the courts through events like Justice Sunday III and Judge Alito's confirmation hearings, they will understand, and hopefully reject, what he called "the anti-majority, anti-family and anti-religion agenda of the left."
"If you don't believe that liberals won't scratch and claw to keep their judicial oligarchy alive, just watch the hysteria from the left that Justice Sunday creates," he added. "Special-interest groups have already denounced Justice Sunday before the fact. It shows the desperation and hatred that drive the need to keep judicially sanctioned abortion and religion-bashing alive."
TAKE ACTION/ FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information—or to sign your church up for Justice Sunday III's simulcast or satellite feed -- please call the Family Research Council at 202-393-2100 or see the event's Web site.
