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."
This guy has his head sooo far up his arse.
"a Yale divinity degree"
Was Yale once a religious institution?
This moron is still around?! Who's next, McGovern?
he means all "that don't commit adutery stuff." Somehow it is easier to make speeches and vote for taxes in behalf of the poor than to keep one's wedding vows.
Uh-huh.
Where was this fool when a significant number of Faith groups and members withheld support for Miers, or actively protested against the nomination? Seems to disprove the idea we're interested in a Theocracy which is why this reality was ignored.
Most Christians simply wish to not feel they are not under attack, hence, why more activism in the political process to protect the freedoms asserted in our Constitution. perfectly legitimate exercise of free citizens. This is why assurances someone is an evangelical meant squat to at least half of the Christian community. Believer or not, meaningless as compared to whether they will interpret rather than make law.
A downward slope if there ever was one.
Deceived only us, not Jesus.
According to the Bible, Jesus knew that the 'devil' tempted him, in the desert. Yet few understand the truth of this story.
Jesus knew it was a step in the wrong direction.
Many, including politicians, to find relief from the desert, give over to temptation from the 'devil' every day.
That the Democratic politicians have given every member Cliff notes to use to try and beat those who do not take shortcuts to life, shows where the 'devil' is at work.
President Bush had to contend with just this issue back when he was Governor of Texas. A female inmate scheduled for execution had 'gotten religion' after being in prison.
The 'devil' tempted Governor Bush. Offered him widespread acceptance. Re-election. Support from the media. All the power over what he could see.
When you can answer why they turned it down, then you understand the truth of the story in the Bible.
Here's an old joke I remember from the 1988 election.
It just so happens to still be timely:
What's the difference between Republican women and Democrat women?
Republican women give their heart to Bush and Democrat women give their bush to Hart.
I meant that to be supportive, not argumentative of your post. You do understand.
"The language of religion was considerably more prevalent in the previous 200 years than today, even the left 75 years ago didn't hesitate to invoke God and religious imagery to bless their cause; the secular obsession is new."
You took the words right out of my mouth. Of course, I wouldn't have stated it so well. ;)
So Hart has drunk the moveon.org Kool-Aid? This is what those folks have been going on about ever since John Ashcroft was named Attorney General way back when.
Peter Boyles
Now there's a really first class clown act.
Hart needs to fish or cut bait. He's got good ideas about Homeland Security but he's out to lunch otherwise. According to this rant, he'd have called George Washington a mullah!
Well, if the choice is between a Christian "theocracy" and Islamic sharia, I know what I would rather choose...
But sadly, the government schools have done their damage. Very few people know that.
I am so sick and tired of Dems using this trope. Damn, look at what is happening in France - are those 'youths' just ducking out of the Baptist convention? Gary Hart - go find some bimbos who will be impressed with your ex-Senatorship and failed presidential bid and have a nice cup of STFU!
ok
This pseudo-intellectual has written 15 books? Gee, I guess they were all bestsellers too - how could I have missed his authorship? His Hartness is a an expert on tail and tail alone.
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