January 13, 2003
DEVOUT?
Lieberman Says Jewish Faith Not a Campaign Issue (John Whitesides, January 13, 2003, Reuters)Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, whose devout Jewish faith was considered an asset on the campaign trail in 2000, said on Monday he would not hesitate to talk about God and values in his White House run.Lieberman, a strict orthodox Jew who does not campaign on the Sabbath, became the most prominent Jewish presidential candidate in history when he leaped into the Democratic race.
"I'm not running on my faith, but the fact is that my faith is at the center of who I am and I'm not going to conceal that," Lieberman said after his announcement in his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut.
"I'll not hesitate to talk about faith when it's relevant, or to invoke God's name when it comes naturally out of me, because I think that's what America is about," he said of his campaign to become the nation's first Jewish president. [...]
But analysts said the public never seemed to mind comments from Lieberman -- such as his statement that a prescription drug benefit was in line with the biblical command to "honor thy father and thy mother" -- that might have drawn a different reaction coming from a conservative Christian leader.
In Stamford on Monday, Lieberman cited the Declaration of Independence and its protection of rights and liberties endowed by "the Creator," adding: "If the spirit moves me occasionally to say a word or two of faith, I think it's a very American thing to do."
He said Democrats have allowed Republicans to act as if they have a monopoly on values "when we as Democrats -- and our positions on education, environmental protection, civil rights, human rights, civil liberties -- are embracing values, a sense of right and wrong."
It's awfully hard to reconcile his pro-abortion position with these professions of faith and how it informs his values. How can "honour they father and they mother" require prescription drugs and hallowing the Sabbath require him not to campaign on Saturdays yet "Thou shalt not kill" allow for abortions? Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2003 7:31 PM
This Reuters journalist hasn't kept up with the evolution of Lieberman's faith -- when rabbis pointed out that he wasn't "strictly orthodox", he started calling himself an "observant Jew."
Posted by: pj at January 13, 2003 8:18 PMNo one can ever be President who would be open to charges of hypocracy for lighting the national Christmas tree.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 13, 2003 9:15 PMActually, there's an easy answer to that question, and it's the same one Ted Kennedy's been offering for years: Commandment 1.A states, "I, political ascendancy, am the LORD your God; you'd better have no gods before me if you want to even glimpse me."
Yes, I just lumped Kennedy and Lieberman together.
The most perplexing of all was Mario Cuomo who was pro-abortion and anti-death penalty. Spare the guilty and kill the innocent? What's that, Satanism?
Posted by: oj at January 14, 2003 8:30 AMOJ -
I think P. J. O'Rourke commented that a devout Christian would sanction neither the death penalty nor abortion, but it takes years of psychotherapy to arrive at the modern, liberal condition that both are acceptable.
It looks like an abdication of personal responsibility to me - the prisoner is not responsible enough to die for his crimes, and the mother is not responsible enough to grind through the effort of rearing a child.
OJ: It ain't Catholicism, whatever it is. (I laughed at the "Satanism" bit, though now I'm thinking you're on to something.)
Posted by: Christopher Badeaux at January 14, 2003 12:09 PMi think it has to do with personal responsibilities and freedoms. or perhaps the infringements of those freedoms by the government. not believing in a communal conscience as it were, but in a personal conscience, responsibility.
Posted by: s.g. at January 15, 2003 12:33 AM