WASHINGTON – Senator Frist told religious conservatives yesterday to respect the independence of the judiciary, while demanding that senators end Democrats’ ability to filibuster and block confirmation of the president’s judicial appointees.

Judges deserve “respect, not retaliation, no matter how they rule,” the Senate Republican leader said in taped remarks to a Christian conference in Louisville, Ky. The event, “Justice Sunday,” was simulcast to churches and radio stations across the county.

Senator Schumer and other Democrats had criticized Mr. Frist for participating in the event co-sponsored by conservative groups, including the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family. Critics took offense at the event’s core message, that Democrats have used the filibuster to target nominees with strong religious faith.

While Mr. Frist called on supporters to take a civil tone in what has been an increasingly heated debate, other speakers at the rally turned up the rhetorical heat.

The founder and chairman of the conservative group Focus on the Family, James Dobson, told viewers that “the future of democracy … depends on the outcome of this struggle,” and that “the values that are important to us are now threatened by the court system, and especially the United States Supreme Court.”

Supreme Court justices are “imperious and determined to redesign the culture according to their own biases” and are “out of control” and “need to be reined in,” he said.

They are also the architects of the “biggest holocaust in world history,” Mr. Dobson said, referring to the protection of abortion rights, and have “an agenda” that is hostile to religion. “For 43 years, the Supreme Court has been on a campaign to limit religious freedom and religious liberty,” he said.

Organizers claimed the program reached 61 million households in 44 states. More than a dozen Baptist preachers held a press conference protesting the decision of Louisville’s Highview Baptist Church to host the event, saying the church was not an appropriate place for a partisan rally.

But the organizers said politicians had turned the focus onto religion. The president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, said Senate Democrats had indicated that “if you are a person who has deeply held beliefs based on faith, then you are not a candidate to serve on the judiciary. That is simply not right,” he told Fox News yesterday.

On ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, Senator Biden, a Democrat of Delaware, said Democrats should compromise “and say to them that…we’ll let a number” of the seven judges “go through, the two most extreme not to go through, and put off this vote and compromise.”

Democrats have said they opposed the judges not on account of religion or abortion views, but because of their records on civil rights, consumer and environmental protections, and financial links to corporations.

One target of the filibuster, Mississippi Judge Charles Pickering, said in the telecast that Democratic senators attempted to portray him as a racist to camouflage their opposition to his anti-abortion views.

“They tried to bring these other issues in to muddy the issue,” he said.

Democrats filibustered 10 of the president’s judicial nominees last term. Seven have been renominated.

The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Albert Mohler, accused Democratic senators of engaging in a “pattern of discrimination against people who hold deep convictions about human life and the sanctity of marriage.”

And the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, Bill Donohue, told the rally that people of different religions are “fed up.” Mr. Donohue cited Mr. Schumer and Senator Kennedy, a Democrat of Massachusetts, as people who have “made it impossible for us to get on the bench.”

Mr. Donohue called for a constitutional amendment that would prevent any act of Congress from being overturned by the Supreme Court unless the decision had a unanimous vote.

He denounced same-sex marriage as “the most insane idea I’ve ever heard in my life” and a notion that belongs “in the asylum.”

Compared to other speakers, Mr. Frist, who is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, presented a more conciliatory tone – if not message.

“Our judiciary must be independent, impartial, and fair,” Mr. Frist said.

“When we think judicial decisions are outside mainstream American values, we will say so. But we must also be clear that the balance of power among all three branches requires respect – not retaliation. I won’t go along with that,” he said.

The anti-filibuster campaign is aimed at allowing senators to confirm nominees by a simple majority vote, rather than the 60-vote majority required to end a filibuster.

Mr. Frist said Republican senators should not be concerned that they could rob themselves of the filibuster if the partisan tables are turned.

“If what Democrats are doing is wrong today, it won’t be right for Republicans to do it tomorrow,” he said.

The senator appeared to distance himself from the majority leader in the House, Rep. Tom DeLay, who said the judges who refused to keep alive a brain-damaged Florida woman, Theresa Schiavo, would have to “answer for” their actions. Mr. DeLay later apologized and called his remarks “inartful.”

Yesterday, Mr. Dobson said he “appreciated” Mr. DeLay’s comments about judges and praised him for having “the courage to put his neck out.”

Displaying the kind of organizational skill that has made religious groups a potent force in Republican politics, Mr. Perkins repeatedly urged viewers to call their senators first thing this morning, while their telephone numbers scrolled along the screen. At one point, he persuaded hundreds of audience members to program the telephone number to the Senate switchboard directly into their cell phones.