Bush transition office releases Ashcroft's remarks at Bob Jones University

January 12, 2001
Web posted at: 10:19 p.m. EST (0319 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In remarks at Bob Jones University in 1999, John Ashcroft, now attorney general-designee, told a commencement audience that "America is different. We have no king but Jesus."

John Ashcroft

"When you have no king but Jesus, you release the eternal, you release the highest and best, you release virtue, you release potential," continued Ashcroft, who was a U.S. Senator from Missouri at the time.

Ashcroft, speaking after receiving an honorary degree, said, "Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal."

Bob Jones University, in Greenville, South Carolina, is a college known for its strict religious academic and social programs. Activists opposed to Ashcroft's nomination are using the former senator's speech there as proof that he would not uphold certain civil rights and abortion laws.

	VIDEO
Listen to Ashcroft's address at Bob Jones University's commencement, May 1999 Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

President-elect George W. Bush came under fire when he made an appearance at the school during last year's presidential primary season, and later said he was wrong not to denounce the institution's policies banning inter-racial dating.

The transcript of the speech was released by the Bush-Cheney transition office late Friday. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, had asked the transition team for the transcript in a letter to Vice President-elect Cheney on Thursday.

Documents from Ashcroft's early political career in Missouri, where he served as attorney general and governor, were sent to Leahy's office mid-day Friday.

The transition office also released a partial transcript of a 1998 speech to the Detroit Economic Club in which Ashcroft spoke of his faith in a different way. Ashcroft told that group, "We must embrace the power of faith, but we must never confuse politics and piety. For me, may I say that it is against my religion to impose my religion."