Posted on 08/25/2006 7:47:48 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
ORLANDO, Fla. _Rep. Katherine Harris said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws" and that a failure to elect Christians to political office will allow lawmaking bodies to "legislate sin."
The remarks, published in the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, unleashed a torrent of criticism from political and religious officials.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she was "disgusted" by the comments "and deeply disappointed in Rep. Harris personally."
Harris, Wasserman Schultz said, "clearly shows that she does not deserve to be a Representative . . ."
State Rep. Irv Slosberg, D-Boca Raton, demanded an apology, saying the statements were "outrageous, even by her standards.
"What is going through this woman's mind?" said Slosberg. "We do not live in a theocracy."
The criticism was not limited to Democrats.
Ruby Brooks, a veteran Tampa Bay Republican activist, said Harris' remarks "were offensive to me as a Christian and a Republican."
"To me, it's the height of hubris," said Brooks, a former Largo Republican Club president and former member of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee.
And Jillian Hasner, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said: "I don't think it's representative of the Republican Party at all. Our party is much bigger and better than Katherine Harris is trying to make it."
The fallout follows an interview published in the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention. Witness editors interviewed candidates for office asking them to describe their faith and positions on certain issues.
Harris said her religious beliefs "animate" everything she does, including her votes in Congress.
She then warned voters that if they do not send Christians to office, they risk creating a government that is doomed to fail.
"If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," she told interviewers, citing abortion and gay marriage as two examples of that sin.
"Whenever we legislate sin," she said, "and we say abortion is permissible and we say gay unions are permissible, then average citizens who are not Christians, because they don't know better, we are leading them astray and it's wrong . . ."
Harris also said the separation of church and state is a "lie we have been told" to keep religious people out of politics.
In reality, she said, "we have to have the faithful in government" because that is God's will. Separating religion and politics is "so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers," she said.
"And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women," then "we're going to have a nation of secular laws. That's not what our founding fathers intended and that's (sic) certainly isn't what God intended."
Harris campaign spokesman Jennifer Marks would not say what alternative to "a nation of secular laws" Harris would support. She would not answer questions about the Harris interview and, instead, released a two-sentence statement.
"Congresswoman Harris encourages Americans from all walks of life and faith to participate in our government," it stated. "She continues to be an unwavering advocate of religious rights and freedoms."
The notion that non-Christians "don't know better," or are less suited to govern disturbed Rabbi Rick Sherwin, president of the Greater Orlando Board of Rabbis.
"Anybody who claims to have a monopoly on God," he said, "doesn't understand the strength of America."
Sherwin and others also said Harris appeared to be voicing support for a religious state when she said God and the founding fathers did not intend the United States to be a "nation of secular laws."
The alternative, they said, would be a nation of religious laws.
"She's talking about a theocracy," said Sherwin. "And that's exactly opposite of what this country is based on." A clause in the First Amendment prohibits the establishment of a state religion.
Ahmed Bedier, the Central Florida Director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said he was "appalled that a person who's been in politics this long would hold such extreme views."
Bedier said most Christians would find such comments "shameful."
Harris has always professed a deep Christian faith and long been popular with Christian conservative voters.
In the Senate primary race, she has heavily courted that voting bloc, counting on them to put her into the general election against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.
But publicly, she rarely expresses such a fervent evangelical perspective.
University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said the comments will appeal to Christian fundamentalists who typically turn out for Republican primaries.
But he said the strong evangelical tone could alienate non-Christians and more moderate Republicans who had been thinking of supporting Harris.
"It's insane," he said. "But it's not out of character for Katherine Harris."
Harris, a Republican from Longboat Key, is running against Orlando attorney Will McBride, retired Adm. LeRoy Collins and developer Peter Monroe in the GOP Senate primary.
McBride and Collins also did interviews with Florida Baptist Witness. Both said faith is an important part of their lives, but Harris' responses most directly tie her role as a policy maker to her religious beliefs.
Ruby Brooks, the Tampa area GOP activist, said such religious "arrogance" only damages the party.
"This notion that you've been chosen or anointed, it's offensive," said Brooks. "We hurt our cause with that more than we help it."
Well if she just "wasn't thinking straight" and would like to retract or clarify her comments and explain she supports the election of moral, ethical Reaganites who are "non-Christians", then I will welcome her comments.
I personally know a "non-Christian" Republican (he is of the Sikh faith) who ran in the GOP primary against Barack Obama. Sikhs are an Indian-based faith that is very devout, pro-life, conservative ethic that believes in a monothetist idea of one true God like Christians and Jews.
I would have welcomed the election of a "non-Christian" like him over the alledgedly "Christian" Barack Obama.
The problem is your gal Kathy didn't say we need to elect more "Reaganites" or "moral people" or even more "religious" people to office, she said we have to elect Christians and if we DON'T elect "Christians" then we're legislating sin. The reason why we don't' support your gal Kathy is she's bound to lose to Nelson in a landslide if she keeps "phrasing" her comments that way.
I think her campaign is running a chimp.
More Harris observations about the doings in the public square.
That's okay, perhaps I was a bit touchy! :-)
I'm a bit tired as I am posting tonight, so I am sure my posts are not as clear as they could be either.
And if we are the ones not actively involved in electing those godly men and women," then "we're going to have a nation of secular laws. That's not what our founding fathers intended and that's (sic) certainly isn't what God intended."
Speaking as a non-religious conservative, bite me Katherine Harris. Have fun losing by 40 points in November.
Harris just doesn't handle this issue as well as I do, does she? :) LOL.
GIven how profoundly stupid and dishonest her campaign has been, I tend to believe that this is true, and I'm not sure I'd believe it if they tried to deny the statement.
Time to get her out of the race. There's still time to salvage this. Florida is too red to fall because we couldn't be bothered to field a candidate qualified for office.
I guess the Harris supporters wouldn't mind that, as long as Jeb Bush would "Get behind" Harris so she'd get to face Nelson without having to struggle against a bunch of "unknowns" in the primary. If she's such a great Republican official and all her primary opponents are "last minute jokes who filed", you have to wonder why the Harris crowd is so hellbent on demanding the party play favorites.
True, but Kathy I'm sure would support the Sikh over non-Christian-Christian Barak Obama too, It's just that she mean the election of more Bible-Believing true Christians would make this country great(er). I am sure that you would not question that either.. I am sure that you would support the election of Christian-Reaganites like Pat Toomey over supposed Christians like Spector also.. would you not..?
Among others, including those not blessed with a leap of faith, of which I am one. I don't think Harris thinks things through very well, or frankly has much knowledge about any of this. In short, yes, I will say it, she is an "air brain." I don't think she means much harm really. She just pounds the keyboard as it were, but via her mouth.
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssst.....she didn't say that the person had to be a GOOD Christian; just a "Christian".
I am sure that Harris in that event, didn't say what she "meant."
[I agree, because I'm Catholic and evangelicals do not like us.]
I'm evangelical and I like Catholics. I'm expecting to meet Mother Teresa and Mel Gibson in the hereafter, among many others. It's whats in your heart, not the name of your particular denomination.
Strangely, I ended up with italics and lost the first sentence in my post on last attempt to post this...how odd!
Toomey should have won that primary, but Specter isn't a Christian, supposed or no. He's Jewish.
It certainly can't be because she's nuts, that'd be too simple.
Must be a conspiracy. Yeah.
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