Is this the sort of thing you had in mind?:
Yes, that's the sort of thing. I recall that in connection with Lieberman. There were a lot of comments made on the subject at about that time in the context of Lieberman's feather-ruffling. I checked my clip files and the only thing I saved was from Lieberman.
<<Lieberman Pulls Back on Religion
By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 10, 2000; Page A12
To hear Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman tell it, no one should think he is trying to inject religion into the campaign, and no big business should fear hostility from a Gore-Lieberman administration.
But in an interview Friday afternoon aboard his chartered jet between appearances in Texas and Florida, the Connecticut senator acknowledged he had heard enough concerns expressed on both subjects to give him pause.
"It was not my intention" to suggest that bringing religion more prominently into public life is the only way to overcome "the widespread public concern over declining moral values" in this nation, Lieberman said. "To me, faith can be a source--but certainly not the only source--of sound values."
As for the populist rhetoric Vice President Gore has unleashed on oil and drug companies, health maintenance organizations and insurance firms, Lieberman said, "I don't think it should have" made business apprehensive, "but I've heard some [business] people say it, so I try to assure them that a Gore administration would be pro-growth and pro-business."
The senator, who has enjoyed strong financial and political backing from insurance and defense firms in his home-state campaigns, said, "I feel very positively" about the pharmaceutical industry and its contributions to the nation's health and "see nothing inherently wrong with a big business as long as it is treating customers and workers fairly. If not, government has a right to act to protect the public interest."
Lieberman, the first Jew ever nominated on a major-party ticket, created some controversy when he offered a prayer at his first joint appearance with Gore and then delivered a pair of speeches to church groups arguing that the First Amendment "does not mean freedom from religion but freedom for religion." He was criticized by some liberal spokesmen, including the head of the Anti-Defamation League, who said he had crossed the line between church and state.
In the interview, Lieberman vigorously denied that his comments were part of a campaign strategy to blunt the "moral issue" Republicans were using in the wake of the Clinton scandals. "I said what I have been saying for 20 years," the senator said. "There was nothing in these statements that was either encouraged or cleared by what we refer to as Nashville," the site of Gore's campaign headquarters.
In fact, Lieberman said, "some people [in the campaign] were uneasy" about the comments, "but when Al and I got together on the West Coast, he was very supportive."
As for criticisms of his message, the candidate said, "I felt I was misinterpreted. It was certainly not my intention" to suggest that religion was the only strong source of values, "but I can understand how people felt that way."
Lieberman said that the line he quoted from George Washington--"never to indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion"--may have created a wrong impression but that he thought his own words showed he understood "we must be respectful of others' beliefs, be inclusive and above all, be mindful of the First Amendment. . . . The greatness of this country is that we don't impose our beliefs on others.">>
and merely talks about the culture- forming character of religion.......
Sure doesn't look that way from my vantage point--outside the church.
Karen |
