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{"id":833,"date":"2001-01-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2001-01-17T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2001\/01\/17\/boil-ashcroft-in-holy-oil\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T15:02:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:02:31","slug":"boil-ashcroft-in-holy-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2001\/01\/boil-ashcroft-in-holy-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Boil Ashcroft in holy oil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Hours before taking his U.S. Senate oath, John Ashcroft knelt before his elderly father. <\/p>\n\n

The Rev. J. Robert Ashcroft sat on a deep couch, while others stood to lay hands on his son\u2019s head in an ancient dedication rite. The frail Pentecostal<\/a> patriarch \u2014 whose journey included studies at New York University and the presidency of a liberal arts college in the Ozarks \u2014 began swinging his arms, trying to get up. Ashcroft later wrote that he urged his father to stay seated. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cJohn,\u201d he replied, \u201cI\u2019m not struggling to stand, I\u2019m struggling to kneel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Evoking another biblical symbol, the father anointed his son\u2019s forehead with oil. In place of the traditional olive oil, someone provided vegetable oil. <\/p>\n\n

The father gave his son a final blessing and then died the next day. <\/p>\n\n

Media gossips offered a twisted take on this scene last week. Here\u2019s the Washington Post\u2019s spin on one of the holiest moments in the senator\u2019s life. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cClinton White House wags have dubbed controversial attorney general nominee John Ashcroft \u2018The Crisco Kid\u2019,\u201d said the \u201cReliable Sources\u201d column. \u201cWe phoned the folks at Proctor & Gamble \u2026 to ask their reaction to Ashcroft\u2019s unorthodox use of the product.\u201d A spokesperson said, \u201cCrisco is a great moisturizer for dry skin, and people have used it as a lubricant. \u2026 (We) prefer that people cook with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Cue the laugh track. Obviously, Ashcroft\u2019s supporters have not been amused as his faith has been dissected and ridiculed in the public square. But they should not have been surprised, said theologian Gabriel Fackre, of the liberal United Church of Christ. <\/p>\n\n

Cruel things happen when the poetry of faith gets jammed into political headlines. Some of Ashcroft\u2019s enemies would rather talk about holy oil, speaking in tongues<\/a> and Bob Jones than about his work in the U.S. Senate, the National Governors\u2019 Association, the National Association of Attorneys General or at Yale and the University of Chicago. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cAshcroft\u2019s critics didn\u2019t like it when he told people at Bob Jones University that here in America we can say, \u2018We have no king but Jesus,\u2019 \u201d said Fackre. \u201cOf course, when he said that, he was echoing the words of the early Christians who declared that \u2018Jesus is Lord\u2019 and refused to say that \u2018Caesar is Lord.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n

\u201cSo far, so good. But the problem is that when someone like John Ashcroft says that, he also feeds ammunition to all his critics who say that he wants to wed that Christian confession to his own political agenda.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Truth is, two different conversations need to take place about legal and religious issues in public life. The first is rooted in the public\u2019s right to expect officials to follow what Fackre called \u201cuniversally discernible norms\u201d of law and moral conduct. It\u2019s one thing to say the president is sinning. It\u2019s something else to say he is lying, stealing or cheating. <\/p>\n\n

But Christians may \u201cconduct a second conversation with a president who professes to be a believer,\u201d said Fackre, writing in Christianity Today. \u201cThis conversation draws upon biblical teachings to which both parties give allegiance, such as matters of repentance and forgiveness, the grace of God, Christian vocation and its responsibilities, the temptations that come with power, and the like.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

Americans may be confused about all this, since these \u201ctwo conversations\u201d overlapped so often during the Clinton era that they created a bitter cacophony. <\/p>\n\n

Some conservatives unintentionally aided Clinton by acting as if he could be impeached for bad theology. Clinton\u2019s team then accused his critics of neopuritanism, noted Fackre, even if their calls for his resignation were clearly part of a doctrinal debate between an evangelical president and other born-again believers. And through it all, Clinton used emotional religious language to respond to waves of legal accusations, skillfully suggesting that repentance and pastoral counseling equaled public accountability and justice. <\/p>\n\n

It was a mess. Now, the war of words over Ashcroft is blurring these lines again. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cI do not know his soul,\u201d said Fackre. \u201cBut John Ashcroft must realize that the religious words he speaks to other Christians will sound totally different when his critics turn around and use them against him. This may not be fair, but that\u2019s the reality of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"