The Daily Background

TeddySanFran over at Firedoglake posted the contact address for the committee considering the nomination of James Holsinger, Bush’s radical rightwing anti-gay nominee for Surgeon General. It’s help_comments@help.senate.gov. For some background on Holsinger, I refer you to pretty much all you need to know, via Minipundit:

– Holsinger founded Hope Springs Community Church, which “ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian.” Holsinger said that he sees homosexuality as “an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle.” [Lexington Herald-Leader, 6/1/07]
– In serving on the United Methodist Judicial Council — the “court” that resolves “disputes involving church doctrine and policies in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination” — Holsinger “opposed a decision to allow a practicing lesbian to be an associate pastor, and he supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church.” [Lexington Herald-Leader, 6/1/07]
– In the early 1990s, Holsinger resigned from the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality “because he believed the committee ‘would follow liberal lines.’” He also warned “that acceptance of homosexuality would drive away millions of churchgoers.” [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 5/26/07; Time, 6/24/91]

I encourage you to write a quick, polite note to help_comments@help.senate.gov urging the Senators to reject Holsinger’s nomination. Here’s the letter I sent:

Senators,

I was extremely dismayed to discover that President Bush’s Surgeon General nominee James Holsinger founded a church which preaches that homosexuality is a curable disease and has been involved in anti-gay activities in the past.

I strongly believe that Mr Holsinger is not an appropriate person to be overseeing public health statutes in the United States and serving as chief medical officer.

A confirmation of Mr Holsinger as Surgeon General would be an endorsement of his radical beliefs which, rejected by all modern medical professionals, would surely inject themselves into his ability to perform as the nation’s chief medical officer. There are many far more qualified and less radical professionals for the crucial job of Surgeon General and I urge you to reject Mr Holsinger’s nomination for this reason.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my concerns about this matter, and I hope you will consider them along with the similar sentiments of millions of other Americans when it comes time to vote on Mr Holsinger’s nomination.

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