Mother Jones - Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics

[FrenchieCat]

I have noticed that Hillary Clinton says "God Bless You" in each speech I have heard her give thus far. Why does she feel compeled to have "God Bless us"?

Transcript of her 8% behind 3rd place finish in Iowa for proof.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/us/politics/03clinton-transcript.html?pagewanted=2

Transcript of her last speech after her 2.5% victory in New Hampshire for further proof.
http://polstate.com/?p=5185

Long Article on Hillary's faith

Hillary's Prayer: Hillary Clinton's Religion and Politics
For 15 years, Hillary Clinton has been part of a secretive religious group that seeks to bring Jesus back to Capitol Hill. Is she triangulating—or living her faith?

September 01 , 2007

Through all of her years in Washington, Clinton has been an active participant in conservative Bible study and prayer circles that are part of a secretive Capitol Hill group known as the Fellowship. Her collaborations with right-wingers such as Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and former Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) grow in part from that connection. "A lot of evangelicals would see that as just cynical exploitation," says the Reverend Rob Schenck, a former leader of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue who now ministers to decision makers in Washington. "I don't....there is a real good that is infected in people when they are around Jesus talk, and open Bibles, and prayer."
<>
These days, Clinton has graduated from the political wives' group into what may be Coe's most elite cell, the weekly Senate Prayer Breakfast. Though weighted Republican, the breakfast—regularly attended by about 40 members—is a bipartisan opportunity for politicians to burnish their reputations, giving Clinton the chance to profess her faith with men such as Brownback as well as the twin terrors of Oklahoma, James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, and, until recently, former Senator George Allen (R-Va.). Democrats in the group include Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor, who told us that the separation of church and state has gone too far; Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is also a regular.

Unlikely partnerships have become a Clinton trademark. Some are symbolic, such as support for a ban on flag burning with Senator Bob Bennett (R-Utah) funding for research on the dangers of video games with Brownback and Santorum. But Clinton has also joined the gop on legislation that redefines social justice issues in terms of conservative morality, such as an anti-human-trafficking law that withheld funding from groups working on the sex trade if they didn't condemn prostitution in the proper terms. With Santorum, Clinton co-sponsored the Workplace Religious Freedom Act; she didn't back off even after Republican senators such as Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter pulled their names from the bill citing concerns that the measure would protect those refusing to perform key aspects of their jobs—say, pharmacists who won't fill birth control prescriptions, or police officers who won't guard abortion clinics.

Clinton has championed federal funding of faith-based social services, which she embraced years before George W. Bush did; Marci Hamilton, author of God vs. the Gavel, says that the Clintons' approach to faith-based initiatives "set the stage for Bush." Clinton has also long supported the Defense of Marriage Act, a measure that has become a purity test for any candidate wishing to avoid war with the Christian right.

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/09/hillarys-prayer.html

[LeftCoast]

1. Oferfuxsake

:eyes:

[FrenchieCat]

2. Mother Jone isn't RW, is it?

[NMMNG]

14. Mother Jones....RW?

:rofl:

Mother Jones is an independent, nonprofit magazine rooted in what it terms progressive political values and known for its investigative reporting. In general United States standards it is a magazine of Left-wing political orientation. The winner of a 2001 National Magazine Award in General Excellence, Mother Jones has been nominated for National Magazine Awards twelve times and has won four times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones_(magazine)



http://www.motherjones.com/

[FrenchieCat]

20. Well, I knew that....but poster was acting like it was

proposporous for me to post excerpt from this 7 page article in Mother Jones.

I'm gonna do a search at DU to see if this has been already discussed and learm more about it.

[NMMNG]

28. I see

MJ is decidedly LW. However they are also independent and have no qualms about calling out LW people when they feel the need. They kowtow to nobody.

[LostinVA]

38. Ditto -- she's a Methodist

They tend to be pretty normal.

[FrenchieCat]

3. No one wants to know about Hillary's faith.....

Only Obamas? Jeeze...wonder how come? :shrug:

Her's sounds sinister.

Obama's sounds like a Social Justice Liberal Church.

[durrrty libby]

21. Hillary has already been in the WH for 8 years with her faith

So no...no one gives a crap about it.

Thanks for your "concern":eyes:

Edit to add. I am pretty sure that Hillary has never said she wants

to "create a kingdom on earth" as BO has stated. Now that is truly:scared:

[lapfog_1]

4. The Fellowship is one of the scariest groups to ever infest

the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.

If this is true... I can't understand why any progressive person (a goodly number of us are atheist / agnostic and almost everyone wants church OUT OF state policies) would continue to support her. Is there another source to this? I trust Mother Jones more than most, but for a story like this one, I want confirmation (possibly video of Hillary extolling the virtues of the Fellowship).

[FrenchieCat]

5. I've just started the research....

Here's the Atlantic as a source. That's a good one!

And another long article:

Take Two

Most of the prayer groups are informally affiliated with a secretive Christian organization called the Fellowship, established in the 1930s by a Methodist evangelist named Abraham Vereide, whose great hope was to preach the word of Jesus to political and business leaders throughout the world. Vereide believed that the best way to change the powerful was through discreet personal ministry, and over his lifetime he succeeded to a remarkable degree. The first Senate prayer group met over breakfast in 1943; a decade later one of its members, Senator Frank Carlson, persuaded Dwight Eisenhower to host a Presidential Prayer Breakfast, which has become a tradition.
<>
Hillary Clinton’s proficiency in this innermost sanctum has unnerved some of the capital’s most exalted religious conservatives. “You’re not talking about some tree-hugging, Jesus-is-my-Buddha sort of stuff,” says David Kuo, a former Bush official in the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who worked with Clinton to promote joint legislation and who, like Brownback, has apologized to her for past misdeeds. “These are powerful evangelicals she’s meeting with.” Like many conservatives, they are caught between warring dictates of their faith: the religious one, which requires them to embrace a fellow Christian, and the political one, more powerful in some, which causes them to instinctively distrust the motives of a Clinton. Everyone in Washington experiences their dilemma at one time or another—the lack of an Archimedean point from which to judge Hillary Clinton.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/green-hillary

[FrenchieCat]

6. Hotline also has info on this. This is certainly documented, just that no one has bothered to look.

Hotline-- Sept 2006

Hillary Clinton: The Faith Angle

Hillary Clinton’s hiring of “faith guru” Burns Strider as an adviser to her presumptive presidential campaign, reported two days ago in the Hotline, draws some rare attention to Clinton’s religiosity, as yet unexamined in the same way that ’08 heavyweights like Mitt Romney and, through his high-profile meeting with Pastor Rick Warren, Barack Obama have been.

In Clinton’s case, there’s plenty to examine: religion seems to be the only part of her life that hasn’t undergone rigorous scrutiny.

Though Strider, as a onetime staff member for Nancy Pelosi, is squarely in the liberal camp, Clinton is part of not one, but two, prayers groups with distinctly conservative bents: an exclusive Senate prayer group that meets on Wednesday mornings, and a women’s prayer group that she’s been a part of since her early White House days. The women’s group is run by Holly Leachman, a layperson at the McLean Bible Church in Virginia, itself magnet for prominent conservatives, including former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, Republican senators John Thune and James Inhofe, as well as several Bush staffers and their families.

Leach's prayer group includes many prominent Republican wives, among them Susan Baker, wife of Iraq Study Group co-chairman James Baker, who along with Leachman ministered to Hillary Clinton in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. (Leachman, mentioned briefly in Clinton’s memoir, Living History, is the wife of Washington Redskins chaplain Jerry Leachman).
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/12/hillary_clinton_4.html

[FrenchieCat]

7. More on this from credible sources......the leftcoaster....

what may startle people, including her supporters, is that the group she has associated herself with since 1993 which sponsors these groups as well as the National Prayer Breakfast is very conservative and exclusive. Known now as the Fellowship, it is a group that reporter Sharlet knows very well given his past investigative pieces in Harper's Magazine several years ago, and a Rolling Stone piece about Sam Brownback in 2006. Digby has written about this group as well. Even though Mother Jones will not post the piece online until Tuesday, I have been given permission to post segments of the piece in the extended entry. I encourage all of you to buy the current issue and read the piece for yourselves, because Hillary’s association with the Fellowship may lead some to question her judgment and true beliefs, given what the group stands for.
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/010937.php

[cali]

8. This is a piece that has been

posted ad nauseum and just becauase it's in MJ doesn't make it anything but a hit piece full of innuendo.

[FrenchieCat]

9. actually, I'm finding information in a lot of places.....

How is it Innuendo?

I just found 2 articles from 2006 that Corroborate this...so, it's not just Mother Jones. It's The Atlantic, Leftcoaster, and there are others out there.

Have you actually read the article?

And why can't it be discussed? or has it, and I'm not able to ask about it anymore?

If the answer is easy in reference to what I just read; a 7 page article on Hillary's faith....it appears that she belongs to a very Right Wing Prayer group that really doesn't include any progressives. Can you explain what the article is about, and why it is to be poo-pooed?

This is something that Progressives should be talking about, especially after the long threads about Obama's church.

And someone else doing some kind of "Obama is a Neocon"...

Then it's Obama get Lobbyist money.

But, for whatever reason, I find 5 Credible sources and nothing matters? :wtf:

I realized that I didn't know anything about Hillary's faith....and in googling this is what I found.

I don't find the Innuendo. Can you debunk this...cause so far, I don't see an out? This is sinister....

What I find is that Hillary's membership in the prayer group, the Fellowship. Other Fellowship members like Rick Santorum, Bob Bennett, Mark Pryor, George Allen, John Ashcroft. Her Fellowship guru is evangelist Doug Coe. http://www.nndb.com/lists/449/000094167/

http://edschultz.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=31385&mode=threaded

[LeftCoast]

10. ¥eah, yeah. And Ken Starr was just asking questions too.

[FrenchieCat]

11. come again?

Could you rephrase that so that I can understand what I just read myself better?

[LeftCoast]

12. "Why can't it be discussed? or has it, and I'm not able to ask about it anymore?"

[FrenchieCat]

13. So it means that we cannot ask questions about Hillary, because

of Ken Starr?

You mean, it's ok cause she's Hillary, and she's been through the wringer?

You are telling me that I come on this message board, and this one is Taboo?

So when's the coronation?

[LeftCoast]

15. I'm saying you and Ken Starr can both ask as many questions as your little hearts desire

and I'll view them with the same opinion.

[musicblind]

16. God Bless You

Obama has said "God Bless You" at the end of speeches he has made before. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. imo.

[FrenchieCat]

18. Actually, I don't either.....

But others might...and so I pointed it out.

and since folks are soooo concerned about Obama's church, I figured I checked out why. He came out clean.

Hillary is quite shaky actually on this issue. It's good if you are a Republican, i.e., there won't be any problems with the GE in reference to her Conservative religiosity, but shouldn't progressives talk about this. Or is only the new Guy in town's church up to scrutiny?

[musicblind]

23. Obama and church

I left a couple of posts defending Obama's church in the church thread. It doesn't bother me, even if I like Hillary or Edwards. I don't see why people are making any fuss at all over Obama's church. :shrug:

I think the demonizing of Obama should def stop, he seems like a really nice guy. I think the demonizing of Hillary, Edwards, and all candidates isn't needed. They all love our country enough to run.

But yeah, I don't understand what the deal with Obama's church is, I don't think he's the kind of person to let religion play a HUGE factor in his policy making. Do you?

[FrenchieCat]

30. He's not.....

But folks like to slice and dice.

So, I can too....just to highlight the hypocrisis.

[cali]

17. Yes. I've read it.

She is not a member of the Fellowship. She attends a prayer meeting they hold. It's more political than anything else. It clearly has not effected her vote on social issues.

I love you FC, you know that, but I hate this shit, no matter which candidate it's about.

And this has been talked about here over and over and over again.

Oh, and prove there are no progressives are liberals attending.

[FrenchieCat]

19. So she is not a member, you say....but

Where does it say that?

What I read says that she is.

What's your source?

Thanks.

[cali]

22. The prayer group is sponsored by the Fellowship

not a part of it. Attending them doesn't make someone a member of the Fellowship. Please note the first sentence of the second paragraph.

"f the many realms of power on Capitol Hill, the least understood may be the lawmakers’ prayer group. The tradition of private worship in small, informal gatherings is one that stretches back for generations, as does a genuine tendency within them to transcend partisanship, though as with so much that is religiously oriented in Washington, the chief adherents are the more conservative Republicans.

Most of the prayer groups are informally affiliated with a secretive Christian organization called the Fellowship, established in the 1930s by a Methodist evangelist named Abraham Vereide, whose great hope was to preach the word of Jesus to political and business leaders throughout the world."

<snip>
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200611/green-hillary

[FrenchieCat]

25. And....Hillary is affiliated of praying with these folks?

Well that's quite acceptable!

[michaz]

24. Who cares?! This crap is getting real sickening!!

[jasmine621]

26. How stupid! WTF is wrong with that? Obama says it too.

This shit is just getting old. Should she say "God curse you?" If God is no big deal to you, why worry about it? You don't have to accept anyone's blessing...just cross your eyes or your fingers.

[goldcanyonaz]

27. Nice to have you around here, Jasmine!

:hug:

[FrenchieCat]

29. Why is this shit getting old....

Seem like attacks on anything Obama does relating to religion is up for grabs?

What's the difference, exactly?

[paulk]

31. dragging out the Mother Jones nonsense again?

when you finally decide to back a candidate you go straight for the shitpile, don't you?

[FrenchieCat]

32. why not....

what's good for Obama is good for Hillary.

Nonsense has its price.
see... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4057282&mesg_id=4057282

[paulk]

36. that thread got locked...

maybe, if we're lucky, this one will be too.

[FrenchieCat]

39. I use bonafide sources,

and leave any unfounded speculations out.....

Why lock progressive press accounts on this? They don't appear to be false. :shrug:

[paulk]

40. c'mon - Mother Jones gives the the word "progressive" a bad

name with this tripe. It's all innuendo and guilt by association. Hardly legitimate "press".

[AtomicKitten]

33. Amen!

:popcorn:

[FrenchieCat]

34. But, but, but....

It's sooo old! Ancient history! :shrug:

[AtomicKitten]

35. turnaround is fair play

[Barack_America]

37. Santorum? Yuck. I'm starting to see why Bush supposed likes Hillary...

...and thinks that she will protect his legacy.

Blech.