New York, NY, January 12, 2001… As the organization that started a national conversation on religion in politics during the 2000 Presidential campaign, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today raised questions about how the religious beliefs of John Ashcroft would impact on his carrying out his duties as Attorney General, if confirmed. ADL spoke out today after reviewing a transcript of Mr. Ashcroft’s speech at Bob Jones University, May 8, 1999, which it found very troubling. ADL had called on then-candidates George W. Bush, Al Gore, Joseph Lieberman and others to refrain from bringing overt expression of religious values and beliefs into the political arena.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

We are troubled after having read Sen. John Ashcroft’s speech at Bob Jones University, in which he characterized America as a country as being different in the sense that "we have no king but Jesus." We question whether his religious views will have an impact on his role as Attorney General. While religion played a role in the founding of our Republic, and continues to have a significant place in it, we take great exception to his statement that "if America is to be great in the future, it will be if we understand that our source is not civic and temporal, but our source is godly and eternal."

Indeed, America is great, and will continue to be great because it includes the secular and the religious, the civic and the godly. Recognizing that America is the most religious country in the world and the most religiously diverse, and because we respect and revere religious freedom, we call on Sen. Ashcroft to assure the American people that his personal religious beliefs will not dictate how he will carry out his duties as Attorney General, if confirmed.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.