What does faith have to do with being surgeon general? According to Soulforce, a whole lot.
Last week, President Bush nominated Dr. James W. Holsinger to be surgeon general. Now Soulforce, a national gay activist group, says Holsinger needs to check his religion at the hospital doors, the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader reported.
Holsinger, 68, is a University of Kentucky professor and sits on the United Methodist Judicial Council. That highest "court" rules on disputes involving church doctrine and policies in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination.
In his role on the nine-member council, Holsinger has opposed a decision to allow a lesbian to be an associate pastor, and he supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church.
Soulforce claims that makes him unfit to be "America's doctor."
"Dr. James Holsinger has demonstrated in the past that he harbors religious-based prejudice towards homosexuals," Jamie McDaniel, coordinator of Soulforce Lexington, told the Herald-Leader.
Bob Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, said there should never be a religious test for public office.
"Any religiously based moral determination would make anyone unfit," he said. "If you start that, you basically are establishing a religious test for public office. Basically, you are overthrowing over two centuries of religious toleration.
"That is utterly unacceptable."
A date has not been announced for confirmation hearings for Holsinger's appointment. He will go before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
