Hillary and Faith

There has been a bit of talk lately in both the media and on both sides of the blogosphere regarding Hillary Clinton's recent addition of matters of faith into her speeches and stances. The "Religious Right" has scoffed at this and called it political positioning, while the left has generally praised it as a non-radical move to address some of the issues that came out of the 2004 elections.

Personally, I have little doubt that politics played a role in her decision to be more open about matters of faith. Hell, most decisions politicans make are for political reasons (the Bush Administration is nowhere near consistant on ideology; the are only consistant on seeking politcal advantage), which is why truly courageous moves are so highly noted, such as Gov. Ryan's moratorium on the death penalty in Illinois.

That aside, I don't think there is any reason to scoff at her willingness to speak on such matters. As the article linked above mentions, she has truly been a very private person in many respects (remember how she kept the Monica thing bundled inside?) but importantly she has been a religious person during her life. In other words, this is not an insincere move from being a non-churchgoer to getting religion all of a sudden for political reasons but rather deciding to be more open about her faith (side note: Bush is very open about faith, but the guy rarely attends church in DC. Just sayin'). IMO, both conservatives should praise such moves if they are are truly concerned with the idea of religion and promoting Christianity in the country. If religious talk is only for conservatives, then it seems to me that makes their religious stances just as political.

Anyway, all that aside, there were a few passages in the article I wanted to highlight:

"It is always intriguing to me that so many people have a very narrow definition of morality and then often try to peg their definition, in the case of Christianity, to the Scriptures," she said. "And no one can read the New Testament of our Bible without recognizing that Jesus had a lot more to say about how we treat the poor than most of the issues that were talked about in this election."

Damn skippy. I have said for a long time that, rhetoric aside, the Democrats hold more moral and Christian positions than the Republicans: acceptance of all members of society, concern for the poor, rejection of the death penalty. The right might have their anti-abortion stance, but they can't make much of a case for it when referring to the Bible.

Speaking of which:

Mrs. Clinton weighed in on the debate over abortion recently, telling a prominent abortion-rights group in New York that adversaries on the issue should come together on "common ground" to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.
The senator also praised religious organizations for promoting abstinence.

This is where I think the party should tack... outlawing abortion is a non-starter for our party, and for good reason, but that doesn't mean that we can't use it as an issue. Rather than giving up on it and letting the fundamentalists beat us over the head with it, we can push back. Sure we want it to remain legal, but we can work together to greatly reduce the number that are performed... note that abortions are on the rise under Bush and decreased under Clinton. Abstinence should also be promoted (DHP saved himself for his wife) but that also doesn't mean sex education should only consist of the words "Just say no." An inclusive approach of all methods, rather than a retarded one that expects all hormonal teenages to abstain, would bring people together and be beneficial for our society.

I like Hillary... I always have. There is some concern about whether or not she would be too polarizing to win, but I don't think the door is closed on that at all. It's going to be interesting to watch.