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.
Interesting quote. Anyone know the original source?
"I am who I am and that's all I am" - Popeye the Sailor Man (Saturday cartoons).
God (Moses flaming Bush) said :
I Am THAT I Am.
Ford is claiming he is the same as Popeye or God himself . Chose thou.
If you expect others to follow one quote from the Bible, you'd better be prepared to face them all.
THIS GUY IS FREAKIN' NUTS!!!
Stick a fork in Mr. Ford...he's done...
"Judge not, lest ye be judged." The single most misinterpreted line in all of God's Word, used frequently as an attempt to avoid public chastisement for the most heinous of action.
"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."
You'd think that Ford would be a sure vote in Memphis. Wonder why Clinton is holding a rally for him there?
Listen, Democreeps...Republicans don't use the Bible to judge anybody. A lot of us do use the Bible to judge the rightness or wrongess of people's actions. So I can say, "Bill Clinton is adulterous lying creep" and judge his rotten fruit as a person. I can't judge his relative worth before God...that's God's job. Bill will have to answer for the state of his spirit, just as we all will. But I can't imagine that in either a Dem or a Republican, making a big show of carrying a huge "toting Bible" in church on Easter Sunday while planning a tryst that afternoon with your interm mistress is going to score a lot of points with The High One. And what's more, apparently having no remorse for your sin ten years later is a certain sign of rotten fruit.
"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."
John Jay, the first Chief Justice, said that Americans should prefer Christians to be their elected officals. Pardon me if I value the opinions of the Founders over those of a hypocritical Democrat.
Well, it wasn't Popeye the Sailor Man.
I saw the film clip and he said it without any disclaimer what-so-ever!
LLS
That's right. You "Evil, rich, bigoted, anti-woman, earth hating, greedy, corrupt, child oppressing, unimpassioned, homophobic" Republicans!
It pains me to disclose that this took place in Paris...the town I grew up in...and more famously known as the home of the World's Biggest Fish Fry....and county seat of Henry County which has voted Democratic in every national election since the Civil War....which goes a long way toward explaining why Jr thought he could get away with that drivel
What in heck is wrong with this guy. He is overdoing the religion stuff. Is this the Dems game plan to win over Christians. It is going to backfire. Christians are not dumb and do not go around shaking the Bible despite what liberals believe. Now a liberal shaking the Communist Manifesto that is another thing.
It never fails that the ones spouting "Judge not" are ALWAYS the ones guilty of some major sin...In Clinton fashion, they point a finger while hiding behind a misuse of scripture....Yes, the verses say JUDGE NOT..a warning not to find fault with others IF YOU ARE GUILTY OF THE SAME OR WORSE.....
The Bible does not say that Christians are to ignore gross sin in those who claim to be Christians, but to use scripture for "reprove and correction" of Christians who are living or acting in a fashion at odds with the teachings of Christianity.
"...Harold Ford Jr is insane...."
Amen, bro. Truer words were never spoken.
LOL
OK...is it "judgemental" of this horse's backside to make the judgement that I do not love the Lord?
One of the reasons I love the Lord is that He is just, and because of this two things will happen: Perfect justice will ensure that sin is punished, and perfect mercy will ensure that those who accept Christ (and through Him, the authority of God to decide right and wrong) will be spared punishment for the sins that they honestly regret. I love God for this. And Mr. "we're better Christains than you" Ford should consider this before being so judgemental.
Where's the ACLU? What happened to the democrats propaganda of church and state?
"...Ford is claiming he is the same as Popeye or God himself . Chose thou..."
Let's throw him some spinach and find out.
So he says that Republicans don't love the Lord and Democrats do, and he tells Republicans not to "judge" people?
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