UNIVERSALIST, NOT ISOLATIONIST:

The Wilberforce Republican: Sam Brownback is redefining the Christian right (Lexington, Mar 9th 2006, The Economist)

[T]he more you study Mr Brownback the more surprising he becomes. He may represent a landlocked state in the Midwest, but his biggest interest lies in foreign policy—and in particular in fusing diplomacy and humanitarianism. He is second-to-none in Congress in campaigning against the horrors that have been unfolding in Darfur in western Sudan, and in pleading the case for addressing HIV and malaria; he has been a relentless critic of the North Korean regime (“if hell is the absence of God,” he once said, “I think you can see North Korea is the closest place to that on earth”); and he has sponsored legislation against sex trafficking. And these sermons are based on experience: he is a frequent visitor to some of the world's most troubled places, urging people to take their holidays (or “impact trips”, as he calls them) in Rwanda rather than Europe.

Which is not to say that his compassion begins at the ocean's edge. Mr Brownback is a leading campaigner for reforming America's prisons, particularly the rehabilitation of ex-cons (he notes that faith-based programmes are much better at keeping prisoners on the straight and narrow because they are better at providing them with a support network when they leave). He helped sponsor a new museum of African-American history: now he wants an apology for Native Americans. Even some of his most “hard right” positions, such as his support for marriage, have a soft component: he produces reams of social science research about how marriage is “a leading poverty reducer”.

Mr Brownback's politics is rooted in his religious faith. He was raised an evangelical Protestant, a son of Osawatomie, a longstanding hotbed of Kansas evangelism (and a centre of the abolitionist movement before the civil war). But a few years ago a brush with cancer changed his life, persuading him to put religion at the forefront of his political persona. He was particularly moved by reading a biography of William Wilberforce, a British anti-slavery agitator. He also became a Roman Catholic. He now attends two services every Sunday—mass and also one with his family, who remain evangelical Protestants.

Mr Brownback's enthusiasm for mixing God and politics has left him with lots of strange bedfellows. He co-sponsored legislation against sex trafficking with the late (and near socialist) Paul Wellstone and co-sponsored the North Korea Refugee Act with Ted Kennedy. He frequently rubs shoulders with feminists and black activists. Indeed, he is arguably today's champion of liberal internationalism, the baton having been passed from the Clintonites (who are now out of power) and from human-rights groups (who are divided over things like sex trafficking).

Mr Brownback is not the only “Wilberforce Republican”. A growing number of people on the Christian right think that America's role in the world is to go out and slay dragons, whether they be in the form of religious persecution or prostitution. Plenty of young conservatives have turned their attention away from the domestic culture wars that their parents obsess about to more global issues like the environment and poverty.

Of course, to be surprised by Senator Brownback you have to have not paid any attention to the presidency of George W. Bush--this is just the GOP mainstream today, thanks to the party's Christian conservatism at the grass roots.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2006 9:25 AM