Posted on 10/31/2006 8:50:34 AM PST by SmithL
The rocky marriage of religion and politics was tested again last weekend when Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. criticized the GOP's approach to faith.
During a stop Saturday in Paris, Tenn., Ford said one of the hallmarks of the Democratic Party is that members don't "use the Bible to judge people."
He then quoted from the Bible about "the spirit of fear," and living in the spirit of love, and he paraphrased U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn.
"My friend Lincoln Davis, who chairs this campaign, says there is one big difference between us and ... Republicans when it comes to our faith," Ford said. "He said 'Republicans fear the Lord. Democrats fear and love the Lord.'"
After Saturday night's debate in Nashville, Ford told reporters that the comment wasn't directed at Corker.
"I just made the point ... people who go around and try to judge other people are to be real careful," Ford said.
However, Republican opponent Bob Corker's campaign and supporters said the comments crossed the line.
"If Harold Ford believes what he said about our relationship with God is true, then it's incredibly disturbing," Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a prepared statement. "It's outrageous for Harold Ford to say that someone's love for the Lord depends on their political views -- and it is offensive to all Tennesseans who want their next senator to bring people together, not divide them."
Religious rehetoric has "been used fairly effectively by Ford to insulate himself against personal attacks," said Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University. "Clearly the turning point of this was the ad in the church."
Ford's ad, filmed inside Mt. Moriah East Baptist Church in Orange Mound, was widely hailed by pundits as successful and criticized by some civil liberty and interfaith groups as questionable.
"The recent rush of candidates-political parties -- and their often aggressive tactics -- to reach out to 'people of faith' lures religious organizations and religious leaders into dangerous legal territory," C. Welton Gaddy, president of the 185,000-member Interfaith Alliance, wrote in a letter last month to the national chairmen of the Republican and Democratic parties.
"We didn't mix religion and politics," Ford told an interfaith gathering at a prayer breakfast in Chattanooga earlier this month after quoting from Ephesians. "I am who I am. I can't step out of who I am when I go to work."
The National Republican Senatorial Committee released a commercial that borrowed heavily from Ford's church ad and questioned his God-focused image in light of his attendance at a Playboy-sponsored party last year.
Behind the back-and-forth is a battle over religious voters, a demographic that in previous election years has helped turn out the Republican vote. This month, a Gallup poll found white religious voters "equally as likely to say they will vote Democratic as Republican," a dramatic shift from their strong Republican leanings expressed in surveys conducted earlier in the year.
"One of the things the Republicans have done very well over the last 20 years or so is make religion one of their cornerstones," said John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University. "The Democrats don't want to give that ground up. Religion isn't Democratic or Republican."
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Tight race draws national names
Prominent political figures will stump for the candidates in Tennessee this week.
Details
First lady Laura Bush will campaign for Republican Bob Corker today in Kingsport and Franklin.
Former president Bill Clinton will headline a rally for Democrat Harold Ford Jr. at 11 am. Wednesday at the Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ in Memphis.
Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander, will join Ford for a 2:30 p.m rally Wednesday in Clarksville.
Popeye? :)
I'd say that when one decides on whom to vote for, that is a judgment call, is it not, Mr. Ford?
"If you don't work, you don't eat." (Yay! No more social programs)
"Man shall not lie with man as with woman. It is an abomination." (No more homo parades)
"Thou shall not worship the earth."( No more land grabs)
"Obey thy mother and father." (parental consent for everything taught in the schools)
"Thou shall not murder." (Yay! Abortion will be outlawed for good)
This wonderful list goes on and on and on.
By the democrats fruits ye will know them.
Hebrews 4:12
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
I still want to know if Ford talked about the Lord at all before his senate run...
It's pronounced "I yam what I yam"
LOL. Hillary, the she devil herself, is wearing a cross. I'm surprised it hasn't burned a huge hole through her chest. It must be made out of braided condoms.
Amen, with or without the Sign of the Cross.
Popeye: " I yam what I yam".
Welcome to Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show!!!
Foxnews tried to spin his remarks as different than it was.. He said, "Republicans FEAR GOD. but dims FEAR and LOVE GOD. Burn in hell Edsel!
According to the article, He was quoting his friend and he wasn't saying this himself....................
In all fairness to Ford, I don't really think he was comparing himself to the Almighty.
Liberals simply cannot win if they run on what they really stand for. To win they have to masquerade as something they are not. Sometimes this hypocrisy is quite humorous. This is almost as funny [and aweful] as listening to John Kerry try to misquote the bible.
Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 7:14-19
Sure he did.
He was preaching the Gospel at the playboy party at the superbowl.
"Praise the Lord and repent!!! Now where the white women at?"
Hillary must think we're all such simpletons that we'll all be dazzled by her wearing a cross and that's all we'll need to finally decide we like her. That's how these people view average middle America Americans. We're all such dopes that all it will take to make us forget what a far left wing looney she is is for her to just simply put a cross around her fat neck. The fact is, a Marxist with a cross around their neck is nothing more than a Marxist with a cross around their neck.
Sounds something like satan.
Corker wins in TN.
Steele wins in MD.
Kean wins in NJ.
Allen holds in VA.
So - even if Burns, Santorum, and DeWine lose, we hold the majority with a net loss of 1.
Optimistic? Perhaps.
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