Posted on 11/07/2005 5:53:47 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
America risks becoming a theocracy because of the religious right's sway over politics, former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart warned Thursday in a talk in Denver.
At a lunch at the Oxford Hotel sponsored by the Denver Forum, the Democrat touched on his faith journey, took a few jabs at the Bush administration's foreign policy and reassured the audience that it's all right to be a liberal.
Hart, the author of some 15 books, was touting a slim new volume, "God and Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politics."
"The language of politics in the last 10 years has more heavily gravitated toward faith and values," Hart said. "He who controls the definition controls the debate."
To illustrate the shift in religion's role in politics, Hart told of how conservative Protestants worried in the 1960s that President Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, would let the Vatican call the shots. In 2005, the Bush White House sought to reassure evangelicals that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was one of them.
Imagine, Hart said, the reaction if the Kennedy White House had sounded out the pope about a high-court nominee.
"Guess who would have gone up in orbit?" he said. "The religious right in America."
The country veers toward theocracy, Hart said, when religious interest groups hold so much influence.
"Once you get ... to that kind of insistence of veto power over the judiciary of America, you are in very, very dangerous grounds, and that's where we are," Hart said.
Hart was raised in the Church of the Nazarene, the same conservative evangelical denomination that claims Focus on the Family chairman James Dobson as a member. That is something Hart never would have shared on the campaign trail, he said.
"When I was in politics, I didn't like to talk about my religion," Hart said. "It wasn't because I was embarrassed by it. It was just private. Now, it's just the reverse."
Hart, who holds a Yale divinity degree, said he turned away from a rule-based Old Testament approach of "don't do that" in favor of the message of helping the poor and seeking peace that is embodied in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.
"I am still a liberal," Hart said. "I believe in social justice. We've done pretty well by the middle class, but one in five children are in poverty in this country. We have a long way to go."
Another idiot that uses big words he doesn't know the meaning of.
I thought America sent a clear message to Gary Hart when he ran for president.
What rock did he climb out from under?!
Mr. Hart, I am definitely an Old Testament, rules based approach kind of guy. And I'm telling you "don't do that".
Of course former Senator Hart would say these things. Pure religion to Liberals is a "Journey" which leaves evry bit of room they desire to disregard what they do not liek about their claimed faith and say that you are intolerant for embracing what they reject. Classic, and by the way...its what Satan did to Jesus when he tempted HIM in the desert. Used a little bit of truth to deceive.
What a fool.
How could the US possibly become a "theocracy" when there are so many competing religions? What a silly twit Gary Hart is.
Yeah, when he started holdin' Donna Rice's butt!
Religion has less influence than ever in our society and they are worried about a theocracy. Just amazing.
Democrats are consistantly anti-Christian, anti-military, anti-American, and anti-economic growth. It is truly a shame what the Democratic Party has become.
This guy is going to tell us about religion, sprituality and morality? Duh.
I don't believe that religious groups hve much influence. If they did, I would be very concerned.
I DO believe that people with religious beliefs have influence. I think this is a good thing. I would hate to find out that only the Godless heathens had any say about anything. At least with a religious person, you have some idea of what he stands for. You can agree or disagree, but at least he stands for something.
Another factor that the fear-mongers on the left don't want known is that the so-called religious right does not speak with a single voice. If they did, Kerry would have been running as a Republican.
Those were the good old days...
He's a vain, emotional, sissy, pacifist, secular, social-gospel Christian in the mold of Jimmy Carter.
It just cracks me up that anyone would want to hear anything from this doofus.I thought he was dead!
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