The Christian Communication Network reported on January 5 that a small band of Christian activists anointed with holy oil the door to Room 216 of the Hart Office Building, then scheduled to host Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearing. The group included the Reverend Bob Schenk, who, along with his twin brother Paul, heads the National Clergy Council; the Christian Defence Coalition’s Patrick Mahoney; and Grace Nwachukwu of Faith and Action, another Schenk-led organization. Nwachukwu is also associated with the Association of Female Clergy.

A Wall Street Journal story from the same day says the group also managed to slip inside the hearing room and anoint all the chairs as well.

Capitol Hill police barred them from entering the room to continue what they called a consecration service. But in a bit of one-upsmanship, the three announced that they had let themselves in a day earlier, touching holy oil to the seats where Judge Alito, the senators, witnesses, Senate staffers and the press will sit, and praying for each of the 13 committee members by name.

“We did adequately apply oil to all the seats,” said the Rev. Rob Schenck, who identified himself as an evangelical Christian and as president of the National Clergy Council in Washington.

Holy oil is consecrated cooking oil, sometimes mixed with balsam, and of course isn’t meant only for inanimate objects: former US attorney general John Ashcroft had himself anointed before taking each of his public offices. (He used Crisco as a substitute on the eve of his US senate swearing ceremony when no holy oil could be found.)

The Journal reports that the group said the ceremony was non-partisan and intended only to provide God with a pipeline into the hearing room.

The three ministers insisted they weren’t taking sides in the Alito debate. “This is not a pro-Alito prayer,” insisted the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. With abortion, public prayer, gay marriage and right-to-life issues among those topping public debate, however, “God…is interested in what goes on” in the nomination hearing, Rev. Schenck said.

The two men, along with Grace Nwachukwu, general manager of a group called Faith and Action, read three Psalms outside the committee room, knelt to say the Lord’s Prayer and marked a cross in oil on the committee door before leaving.

Rev. Schenck said he and Rev. Mahoney had blessed the same room before hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts last year. That hearing “went very well,” Rev. Schenck said.

The Journal notes that the room would have been swept for bombs and possibly for electronic eavesdropping devices, deity-related or otherwise, prior to the hearings, so perhaps the oil doubles as a communications device. Presumably the non-partisan Schenk will be satisfied with the Alito hearing no matter the outcome, so long as he’s sure God monitored the debate, such as it was.

Nonpartisanship aside, Schenk’s and Mulrooney’s organizations are fiercely anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-secular; both were instrumental in creating the Congressional circus surrounding Terri Schiavo, and both were passionate supporters of Judge Roy Moore’s graven idol imbroglio regarding the Ten Commandments boulder in Alabama.

We here at BTC News hope the anointment rituals will encourage religionists of all stripes to conduct their own ceremonies prior to hearings and votes on people and issues relevant to their respective faiths. Lukumí springs immediately to mind. And maybe there’s something to this holy oil business: it’s a miracle no one was hurt sliding off a chair.

On a slightly unrelated note: Ashcroft, who despite tough competition still ranks among the creepiest of Bush appointees, was in the habit of describing political setbacks as “crucifixions.” From the “Crisco” article on Ashcroft’s autibiography:

“My theory about elections is mirrored in what I hold about all of life: for every crucifixion a resurrection is waiting to follow — perhaps not immediately, but the possibility is there,” Ashcroft wrote.

He used the same analogy to describe his first defeat for Congress in 1972.

“My congressional election loss did not end at a crucifixion; it became a resurrection, and an open door to my lifelong vocation of public service. But other crucifixions lay ahead.”

Maybe crucifixion analogies are common among Christians, but doesn’t it seem a tad grandiose to compare losing an election to getting hung from a cross by the Roman equivalent of railroad spikes? No doubt losing stings for a while, but for the most part beatings, torture and death are still out of bounds as consequences for failure at the ballot box in this country.

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