Dean Now Willing to Discuss His Faith [WP]

[truthisfreedom]

nice how this is breaking late saturday night for sunday morning news.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52646-2004Jan3.html

Dean Now Willing to Discuss His Faith
Campaign Changed Him, Candidate Says


By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 4, 2004; Page A01


STORM LAKE, Iowa, Jan. 3 -- Howard Dean, after practicing a quiet Christianity throughout his political career, said he is talking more about his faith because the presidential race has awakened him to the importance of religious expression, especially to southerners.
<snip>

"The campaign has changed the way I am willing to talk about religion. It has not changed my religious beliefs," Dean reiterated Saturday.
<snip>
"I am still learning a lot about faith and the South and how important it is," said Dean, a Congregationalist. The Congregationalist Church is a Christian denomination that preaches a personal relationship with God without a strong hierarchal structure guiding it. Dean was reared an Episcopalian, but left the church 25 years ago in a dispute with a local Vermont church over efforts to build a bike path. Dean's wife is Jewish, as are their two children.

<snip>
At a breakfast here Saturday, Dean had an opportunity to discuss his faith when an Iowan asked what sustains the front-runner when his rivals are relentlessly criticizing him. Instead, Dean shared a secular belief in the power of people to change government.
A few minutes later, when discussing corporate greed, Dean promised if elected president to call business leaders from around the country into the White House to stress ethics and responsibility. "Moral tone is a huge deal in the presidency," he told the audience.

[shance]

1. I would think doctors face faith and spiritual issues more than most

because they are confronted with it often.

I appreciate Governor Dean for not declaring his views in a dogmatic way, but being sensitive to an issue that can unfortunately become such a divisive one. Ultimately, I think it is a personal and pretty independent quest for all of us.

I dont think one has a career as a doctor without doing a lot of questioning and soul searching, certainly more than the average politician**.

My father was a doctor, and I dont believe there is an escape from the questions that surround life, death and what, if anything, happens next for us.

It certainly confronts physicians more often than it does most of us, which makes me believe they probably have more of a grasp, or atleast more of an opportunity to observe the overall cycle of life and death and how it applies to all of us as human beings.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Dr. Howard Dean has avoided this issue for so long and....

only now is discussing it. It does look somewhat suspect.
I hope he is not trying to pander to the Bible Thumpers just to curb the attacks from the reich wing!

[shance]

3. I find it more suspect when individuals use religion to hide behind it

instead of dealing with tangible subjects that affect our daily lives.

[Upfront]

4. Dean

Won't hide behind religion but should discuss it if he wants to be President.

[shance]

5. Which is what he is doing. However, it means little to me what

religious talk someone gives, versus what they say and DO, about situations that will directly affect the nation and the world.

I think Religion is a great 'escape' from dealing with the real problematic issues at hand.

[yellowdog]

6. Why in the hell is this even an issue?

My religion or lack of it is none of Howard Dean's business and vice versa. I start getting very nervous whenever anyone discusses religion and politics in the same speech. This is one of the problems I had with Leiberman in the 2000 campaign. He is Jewish, fine, practices his religion, fine, but what the hell does that have to do with anything?

[Solly Mack]

7. I'm from the south and I don't give a rat's patootie

about any politicians religion......well, as long as they aren't shoving it in my face...then I growl.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. This fixation with a President's faith is absolutely

FUCKED UP!

Has there been a President since Ford who has not felt the need to declare himself "born again"? Even God damned - and I mean that most sincerely - George HW Bush!

It's not indicative of a healthy democracy.

[w4rma]

9. Americans are fixated on *every* aspect of a President. (n/t)

[CalProf]

10. It's called pandering....

and it gets worse when he pretends to know the Bible "quite well" and then moves the Book of Job to the New Testament. Folks who take their religion seriously are going to know snake oil when they see it, and that's what Dean is selling.