Bush Compensates, Wants Preacher Surgeon General

George Bush’s nominee for Surgeon General has drawn a lot of heat for among other things, his crack-pot anti-gay views as a leader in the United Methodist affiliate of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. But a new report may finally sink his already controversial nomination in a sea of conflicts of interest that have marked his career.Dr. James Holsinger has also been a longtime leader of the Confessing Movement in the United Methodist Church. The Confessing Movement is a rightwing “renewal group” affiliated with the Washington, DC-based Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), whose purpose for a generation has been to divide and disrupt the historic churchs of mainline protestantism in the interests of advancing neoconservatism and the religious right. Holsinger was elected to the highest court in the Methodist Church a time when the IRD-affiliated church “renewal” groups had launched efforts to use church judicial systems to enforce their notions of orthodoxy, particularly on matters related to homosexuality.Now, an investigation Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D. and Lawrence H. McGaughey, Esq., and published at Media Transparency, shows that Holsinger used the sale of a United Methodist Church-owned hospital in Kentucky, as a cash cow for his personal ambitions. It took years of litigation by the church to find out what had happened to its money, only to learn that Holsinger had diverted millions to endow professorships at the Chandler Medical Center at the University of Kentucky where he served as Chancellor and fundraiser-in-chief.

5 Responses to “Bush Compensates, Wants Preacher Surgeon General”

  1.  666 says:

    And this SOB is being paid for with your taxes.

    Tax religion. It taxes me to no end!

  2.  Celebrant Prince says:

    Where DOES Bush come up with these guys? Doesn’t Da’Prez vet his nominees at all? Is there no “conflict-of-interest” disqualification sufficient to arouse Dubya’s suspicion that his nominee may face an insurmountable hurdle re: Senate confirmation? Why, in the name of wonder, does Bush consistently pick whacko after whacko out of the hat?

    Is BushWorld really so detached from reality? Given Holsinger, it would seem so.

  3.  reason says:

    dr.holsinger has simply been upholding traditional methodist church teaching.unless he is proven to have broken civil or church law these are just allegations by liberals.

  4.  chrisvancil says:

    It’s traditional methodist teaching to steal money? Oh, wait, it is.

  5.  jshanewhit says:

    I think it is very clear that he did break the law. That alone excludes him. He even stole money from those that support his backwards views. Bush must know every wacko with criminal intent. He finds them under every rock he looks under. Even without the criminal action of this person, the fact that he wishes to use government to change history(and make his cult more valid) is just as criminal.