WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - Congressional Democrats took advantage of Republican squabbling over a presidential candidates appearance at a South Carolina university last month, calling on Tuesday for official condemnation of the Christian school's views.

    Republican congressional leaders said the proposal was an attempt to further embarrass Texas Gov. George W. Bush who has been criticized by opponent Arizona Sen. John McCain for speaking on February 2 at Bob Jones University, whose founders called the Catholic Church a satanic cult. "We're not going to vote on that. We're not going to get into this process of playing games with each other in what's going on in the (presidential) primaries," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, told reporters.

    Bush apologized to Catholics this week in a letter to New York's Cardinal John O'Connor for failing to more clearly speak out against anti-Catholic bias, but said he refused any attempt at "guilt by association."

    House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, called the resolution "sheer partisan demagoguery, and I don't entertain myself with that."

    Some Christian leaders claim the attacks on BJU are motivated by animosity toward traditional Christian teachings and threaten First Amendment rights to freedom of religion. Two decades ago, the US government revoked the university's tax-exempt status in an attempt to force the school to change its policies, but the school instead decided to go without the exemption.

    "One need not agree with BJU on its view of Roman Catholicism and interracial dating to agree that the feds are tyrants, and BJU is the object of discrimination by a politically correct regime," said P. Andrew Sandlin of the Chalcedon Foundation, in a commentary for WorldNetDaily.com.