Oh ... no! We can't have that. Not on the Supreme Court.
Posted on 10/05/2005 5:18:51 AM PDT by Brilliant
WASHINGTON - Late Sunday night, shortly after President Bush asked her to be his nominee to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers called her longtime Dallas minister and his wife and - without revealing why - asked for their prayers to give her "grace under pressure."
That call to the Rev. Ron and Kaycia Key illustrates the depth of Miers' spirituality and years of devoted worship at a conservative nondenominational Christian church that preaches against abortions and gay marriages.
Though Miers is reticent to reveal her views, her two-decade-long membership in the Valley View Christian Church suggests how she might stand on hot-button social issues regarded as top priorities to social conservatives who form a cornerstone of Bush's support.
"She hasn't said a lot, but you don't go to a church for 25 years if you're not comfortable with what they think," said Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht of Austin, Texas, a church member who says he's shared a "semi-romantic" friendship with Miers for more than 30 years. "I'm sure she's consistent with the church's position."
Bush's nomination of his 60-year-old White House counsel, who's been part of the former Texas governor's inner circle since the mid-1990s, has ignited a vigorous nationwide examination for insights into her legal and social views. Conservatives initially expressed doubts - if not outright hostility - about her commitment to bedrock conservative principles, but many appeared more reflective a day after the nomination.
At a news conference Tuesday, the president reaffirmed his support of Miers, describing her as "an extraordinary woman" who shares his judicial philosophy.
Asked if he and Miers had discussed abortion over the years, Bush responded: "There is no litmus test. What matters to me is her judicial philosophy."
Snippets from Miers' background have given only a partial and inconclusive glimpse into her possible views on priorities embraced by the Christian right. She donated $150 to the anti-abortion Texans for Life Coalition in 1989. In a questionnaire during a 1989 Dallas city council race, she expressed support for civil rights for gays and lesbians, but Hecht says she shares the church's view opposing gay and lesbian marriages.
Friends and family say there's no ambiguity about Mier's Christian faith.
"It's certainly a strong force in her daily life," said Dallas state appeals Judge Elizabeth Lang-Miers, who's married to Miers' brother, Jeb, a Dallas physician.
As one of five children, Miers attended Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches while growing up but began attending Valley View in the early 1980s after becoming a lawyer in the blue-chip Dallas law firm now known as Locke Liddell & Sapp. Hecht, whom she helped bring into the law firm, was an organist at the church and took her to her first service, Ron Key recalled.
The North Dallas church is one of about 1,100 churches attached to the North American Christian Convention.
The church has suffered a split in recent months, with Key leading a breakaway congregation of about 200 members who now meet at a Doubletree Hotel in suburban Dallas. Other members have remained at the original church under the Rev. Barry McCarty.
McCarty couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. Key said Miers has remained a staunch member of the church throughout her five years in Washington and attended a service at the hotel several weeks ago. During a recent return trip to Dallas to visit her mother, she cradled a cell phone in the church parking lot, later explaining that she'd been on the phone with John G. Roberts Jr., now the U.S. Supreme Court's chief justice.
Key said Miers has served as the church's legal counsel. While serving on the city council, she urged the congregation to play an active role in helping impoverished residents in predominantly black South Dallas. She also was an adult sponsor of the Space Cubs, a youth ministry for first-, second- and third-graders.
"Her faith just grew and blossomed," Key said. "One of the things I admire about Harriet is she walks her faith in everyday life."
Kaycia Key said Miers called their house about 9:30 p.m. (Central time) Sunday. That was after Bush had invited Miers to a White House dinner and offered her the Supreme Court nomination, the Keys learned the following day.
"She just asked us to pray for her," Kaycia Key said. When the preacher's wife tried to find out why, she said, Miers responded: "You know I can't tell you that."
Montgomery reports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
But ... but ... but ... I thought Miers was all for promoting the gay agenda! Could it be that Joe Farah has led me astray? I couldn't deal with that! What's next, someone is going to tell me that Debka is suspect? My world is ending!
OH NO! NOT DEBKA! PLEASE DON'T TELL ME THAT!........
I wouldn't put much credence in a politician's or a lawyer's past religious history when money or power is dangling there before them. Harry Reid is a Mormon, much to my chagrin. I don't fault him for being a Dem, but for his blatant dishonesty and his liberal political views which directly contradict his religious view on abortion, homosexuality, etc.
A person's past religious activities are not a measure of their current loyalty to God and the tenets of their faith.
ROTFLM*O!!! So that why the MSM and the members of Sheep Republic are demanding she go and Bush take a hike--the RickWarren/SaddlebackChurch/JoelOsteenLakewoodChurch Juggernaut keeps rollin'...rollin'...rollin' along.
Over the liberals and psuedo-Christians YEA!!!
I think Meirs is a 'throw-away'. She has been set up to take a 'non-approval' hit. Then W will submit someone else. I think it is a battle plan. Let the dems knock her our, then submit another...daring the dems to go nuclear on the second choice.
If so, they don't post on this forum.
These are her current religious activities. And my point was, Joe Farah is running around and shrieking that Miers promotes the gay agenda, when her active faith says otherwise.
How does the author know this? Does the author attended worship at the church regularly? I resent the jump that a conservative leaning church as a matter of course "preaches" against abortion and gay marriage, but that is the media template apparently.
Oh ... no! We can't have that. Not on the Supreme Court.
I would like to know the reason for the split in her church. In my experience, it's usually over conservative/liberal lines.
This may be one of those cases where the nominee is defeated because she's viewed as liberal by the rightwingers, and as conservative by the leftwingers.
Talk about irrational paranoia...
As I stated on another post yesterday ... I was laughing outloud this afternoon as I listened to Rush dance all around the EIB microphone trying to get an understanding of how he felt about Harriet Miers. Ann Coulter must be speechless.
Can't wait for Ginsberg to follow the yellow brick road so GWB can give us another. ;)
I was very sceptical at first, and now I am convinced that Miers is of the same cloth as Justice Thomas and Scalia. We need Harriet Miers on the SC!
Too bad the Prez didn't nominate Ann Coulter for the position! She wouldn't have been confirmed, but the hearings would have been awesome! Can you imagine giving her a microphone in a room with Ted Kennedy, Schumer, Biden, et. al. with the cameras running?
GW
LOL Talk about a Philly Buster!
I can see the TV stations running a constant ...
"We will return to our regularly scheduled programming as soon as these hearing are over".
... for about 30 or 40 days. ;)
<< I would like to know the reason for the split in her church. In my experience, it's usually over conservative/liberal lines. >>
You've probably already read this by now, but just in case you haven't:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/10/miers.church.ap/
For years, Miers has been a member of Valley View Christian Church, but she and about 150 of its 1,200 active members have formed the separate congregation after a disagreement about worship styles.
Valley View has adopted a more contemporary flavor in its worship services, among other changes, as it tries to attract young families in the neighborhood where the church moved five years ago. The breakaway group favors a more traditional approach.
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