By Chip Brownlee
Alabama Political Reporter
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones’ campaign is hitting Republican Roy Moore on an academic textbook Moore co-authored in 2011 that decried women in public office.
Moore’s name was not attributed to the portion of the study that advocates against women in leadership position but Jones’ campaign criticized him for co-authoring the textbook and its accompanying studyguide. He authored another lesson in the course that primarily focused on the Constitution and the courts.
“Roy Moore’s inappropriate sexual behavior with teenagers is part of a larger and disturbing pattern against women – he’s repeatedly ruled against women victims in sexual assault cases, and now Alabamians are learning he doesn’t even think women should run for office,” said Jones spokesman Sebastian Kitchen. “Every day brings more examples of how Roy Moore’s extreme and divisive agenda would make Washington worse, and why he should not represent Alabama in the Senate.”
Moore’s campaign has said Moore does not believe that women shouldn’t hold elected office.
The textbook, “Law and Government: An Introductory Study Course,” authored by Moore, Doug Phillips, Dr. Joseph Morecraft and Dr. Paul Jehle, includes a lecture from Immanuel Free Reformed Church elder William Einwechter entitled, “What the Bible Says About Female Magistrates.”
“She’s not a judge. She’s a woman. Created by God, Glorious in her place and in her conduct and in her role,” Einwechter said, according to the Wednesday Think Progess report. “Nothing is said in scripture that supports the notion that she is qualified or called to be a civil magistrate.”
The curriculum was a product of a now-defunct Texas evangelical organization headed by Phillips. The organization taught “Biblical patriarchy,” which supports strict, unequal gender roles. The organization’s website also attacks feminism as a “false ideology that has bred false doctrine in the church.” Moore served as part of the Vision Forum’s “Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy” faculty.
The Witherspoon School was actually four-day crash courses that taught only men about the relationship between the Bible, law and liberty.
Einwechter goes on to say that feminism is a “radical agenda” and women shouldn’t hold public office and Christians have a moral obligation not to vote for a woman, regardless of her political ideology.
This comes as Moore continues to struggle with women voters, according to recent polls. According to the most recent JMC Analytics poll, Jones has a 6-point lead among women even as Moore leads likely voters at 48 percent to Jones’ 43 percent.
The previous JMC Analytics poll gave Jones a 4-point 46-42 lead.
Moore’s campaign says the former Alabama chief justice is not against women holding public office and that Moore has supported “constitutional conservatives – both men and women – for decades and will continue to do so.”
“Judge Moore believes that men and women are created equal by God and has never suggested or believed that women are unqualified for public office,” the statement issued to WBRC said.
