[MI Gov] Granholm(D)- Plays the Faith Card

The Daily Oakland Press ^ | 1/2/2004 | TIM SKUBICK

[visagoth]

She's a reader in the church.

Cussin' is verboten in her office, and if that "certain" word slips out, she delivers an icy stare and the question, "Was that the (blank) word I just heard?" If need be, she is not bashful about displaying her beliefs in public.

During one of the Democratic primary debates in 2002, she and fellow candidate David Bonior traded Bible verses with one another.

Now, in the wake of a tumultuous budget battle, there is yet another manifestation of her beliefs. She is for the first time questioning the religious convictions of some conservative Republicans who wanted to cut more services rather than delay a tax rollback.

Her remarks came out in the context of what she learned from residents last year. She found them to be very unselfish and therefore willing to forgo that tax break in favor of keeping the twine in the social safety net. She juxtaposes that public sentiment against the rhetoric of some GOPers who argued that taxpayers wanted that money back - and also wanted less government spending.

Did she find it interesting that some of those advocates are Christians, she was asked.

Without flinching she answered in a soft voice, "Yeah. I do." She acknowledges that everyone in the Legislature "wants to do what is best for the state," but then she adds this: "Often those who clothed themselves in a cape of religiosity happen to be some who are the biggest cutters."

Oh. Oh.

Then she quotes Bible chapter and verse about the way helping the unfortunate is really helping the Lord. "That's when I question whether somebody is really living out the faith that they profess," she said on "Off the Record."

Mixing religion and politics is an explosive endeavor. Maybe the governor never heard that one? But some conservatives may not forgive her. They may view it as a "holier than thou" attitude.

Can you say "religious war"?

Unruffled by such potential flak, the governor suggests: "I think that we do have to keep those (religious) values in mind even through the budget process."

During the heated debate last month, the governor blasted some in the GOP for allegedly not doing that. She claimed that some wanted to shut off state aid to "orphans and widows." It's a charge her opponents strongly denied and didn't like.

Now, she adds fuel to the fire, this time questioning whether some Christian lawmakers practice what they preach.

She didn't utter the word "hypocrisy," but some might have inferred that.

The governor took some heat last February when she waded into the issue of legislative salary increases. She hinted that lawmakers ought to put their pay-checks on a diet. The howls of protest could be heard all the way to the executive residence.

Now she makes remarks suggesting that some in Lansing need to do a faith check. It's always dicey for one believer to question another, but that did not stop this governor.

As for any fallout, suffice it to say that if and when the unnamed lawmakers get wind of this, it may get the New Year off to a less than harmonious beginning ... just what this governor is not praying for.

(Tim Skubick has covered Michigan politics and the state Legislature since 1969. He anchors the weekly public TV series "Off the Record" and is capitol correspondent for WWJ-AM (950). His column appears Fridays in The Daily Oakland Press.)

[lady lawyer]

Charity with your own money is a righteous thing. "Charity" with someone else's money is another thing entirely. Particularly when government has completely lost sight of the concept of the "deserving poor," and now gives handouts to anyone asking for it, citizen or not, irresponsible or not.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Then she quotes Bible chapter and verse about the way helping the unfortunate is really helping the Lord.

Great. Hope she does it...and doesn't expect the state to become the Great Provider for the masses who expect her to provide all their needs--from education to child care to food to a job to medicine to housing.

[NYCVirago]

Where's the ACLU when you really need them?

[Arthur McGowan]

A "Catholic" abortion enthusiast like Granholm who dares to question the religious sincerity of Christian Republicans over BUDGET CUTS is playing with gasoline and lighted matches. At least, she should be. But with her bishop, and her obviously corrupt pastor who allows her to be a lector in church, she probably isn't.

[visagoth]

Granholm, who is a Catholic, probably has not read anything by the Pope... If she had she would find things her Pope said in expressing deep reservations about the welfare or "social assistance" state.

In his latest social encyclical, promulgated last May, John Paul II made an astounding observation that has left American religious defenders of the welfare state bewildered. The pope said,

"Malfunctions and defects in the Social Assistance State are the result of an inadequate understanding of the tasks proper to the State. Here again the principle of subsidiarity must be respected: a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good.

By intervening directly and depriving society of its responsibility, the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies, which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients, and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending. In fact, it would appear that needs are best understood and satisfied by people who are closest to them and who act as neighbors to those in need. It should be added that certain kinds of demands often call for a response which is not simple material but which is capable of perceiving the deeper human need."

Before she says any more on the subject, she should pick and read a copy of Centesimus Annus.

[Roughneck]

Why is a democrat Delegating Religion and how it is practiced? I thought socialists sought separation of Church and State. . .

[jtminton]

One of my favorite verses when talking to libs about whether or not it's Christian to fund social programs is:

'For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always'. Mat 26:11

Jesus himself says that no matter how much money you throw at them, you will always have the poor to deal with.

[MHGinTN]

"During one of the Democratic primary debates in 2002, she and fellow candidate David Bonior traded Bible verses with one another." And both are cinos, IMHO, since both believe it is enlightened to hire a serial killer to rid oneself of an unwanted child. God is most definitely prolife, not pro-serial killing.

[cyncooper]

How dare she.

(I know. She's a dem)

[MHGinTN]

"That's when I question whether somebody is really living out the faith that they profess," she said on "Off the Record."

[Desdemona]

This cino is pulling the Faith Card?

When she campaigns pro-life, maybe she will have some credibility on that front.

[cyncooper]

And if taxpayer money actually feeds a huge beaurocracy and the taxpayer finds the results wanting so protests pouring more ill-used funds into the bloated and corrupt agency, why it's the taxpayer who is selfish.

Take no account of what that taxpayer is doing personally with their own money and time. No, if it isn't done via the government, then Granholm evidently does not recognize it and labels the sacrificing schlub as "selfish".

[Alouette]

Then she quotes Bible chapter and verse about the way helping the unfortunate is really helping the Lord. "That's when I question whether somebody is really living out the faith that they profess," she said

The righteous Governatrix likes to pick and choose which scripture to quote and which to ignore.

[cyncooper]

Hope she does it...and doesn't expect the state to become the Great Provider for the masses who expect her to provide all their needs

Too late. Evidently from her quotes that's exactly what she expects, or YOU are the selfish one.

[cyncooper]

Why is a democrat Delegating Religion and how it is practiced? I thought socialists sought separation of Church and State. . .

The dems have a clause that whatever can be used to bash conervatives is fair game.

[madprof98]

She's a reader in the church.

Perhaps she can get her obviously very compliant pastor to invite Howard Dean to deliver a guest homily.

[MHGinTN]

The spirit of anti-christ is alive and thriving with the dnc.

[sergeantdave]

So, our soviet socialist guv got off her broom and is quoting Bible verse. I'm surprised she didn't melt.

[Kuksool]

{Where's the ACLU when you really need them?}

To the ACLU, mixing faith with politics is permitted as long as RATS benefit.