[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 148 (Wednesday, November 30, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 30, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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LOVE OF NEIGHBOR FALLS BY THE WAYSIDE--PUBLIC LIFE DOMINATED BY A MEAN-
                          SPIRITED SELFISHNESS

 Mr. SIMON. Mr. President, all of us in the Senate recognize we 
are suffering a loss when our colleague, Senator John Danforth, 
retires.
  Sometimes we differ with him on issues, but we always respect him.
  Recently, he gave a farewell sermon at the St. Albans Episcopal 
Church in Washington, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch condensed that 
sermon and published it on its editorial page.
  Because it speaks to people of goodwill of every religious persuasion 
and talks about the need to move away from a mean-spirited selfishness, 
it is a message that needs to be heard today.
  I do not recall personally an election which has been as negative as 
the one we have just passed through. And unless many of us speak out, 
it will become worse.
  Self-restraint is essential for a democracy to function.
  That applies to those of us in public office, those who seek public 
office, to the media, and to the public-at-large.
  I ask that the Danforth statement be printed in the Record at this 
point.
  The statement follows:

            [From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 6, 1994]

Love of Neighbor Falls by the Wayside--Public Life Dominated By a Mean-
                          Spirited Selfishness

        (Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.--Mark, 12:31)

                         (By John C. Danforth)

       Because an election is only days away, I want to talk this 
     morning about politics. And because the Gospel included the 
     love commandment, I want to talk about the love commandment 
     and the connection, if there is any, between politics and the 
     love commandment.
       But especially, I want to talk about you, because so often 
     people have said to me, ``what is the connection between your 
     religion and your politics?'' And I want to turn that around 
     and ask it of those of you who are not in politics as a daily 
     routine, people who don't hold any office. I want to ask, 
     ``What is the relationship between politics and religion to 
     you, in connection especially with the love commandment?''
       And the reason it's appropriate to ask the question of you 
     is that whether you want to be or not, you are very much a 
     part of the political scene in our country. A lot of people 
     say that, ``Well, politicians are out of touch. They just 
     don't know what is going on. They're distant, they're inside 
     the Beltway, they don't understand.''
       That is not true.
       Politicians have never been as in touch as they are today. 
     It is a technological possibility to be totally in touch with 
     constituents. Not just because travel and mass communication 
     make contact very easy, but also because the business of 
     politics has become a science. It's possible to test what it 
     is that makes people really mad and then use those words. It 
     is possible to take public opinion polls within a margin of 
     error of about 3 percentage points and know exactly what is 
     on people's minds.
       So what is done in politics is done because it's been 
     tested with the public. It's been tried out.
       And what the professionals are hearing from the people is 
     something quite different from the love commandment. What 
     politicans are hearing from the public is not ``love your 
     neighbor.'' Why do you think in the state of California the 
     issue of immigration is the biggest campaign issue? It is not 
     because the politicans of California are hearing from the 
     constituents, ``Love your neighbor.''
       How about the nature of political campaigns themselves? It 
     is believed by a lot of people that political campaigns are 
     dirtier than ever. Every two years we say it can't get any 
     worse. And then we find out, yes, it can. And it is. The 
     nature of political campaigns has changed dramatically in the 
     last 25 years. They are more vicious than ever. Why is that, 
     do you thnk? The answer is, negative campaigns work. If you 
     want to run a positive campaign, you will almost never win.
       We are not hearing from the public, ``Love your neighbor.'' 
     We are hearing, ``Hey, this is kind of neat.'' We are 
     hearing, ``I love myself.''
       People in politics listen to the public. And what people in 
     politics hear, and what people in politics try to respond to 
     is ``Gimme, gimme.'' And so we have organized ourselves into 
     interest groups trying to grab what we can for ourselves. And 
     when we can't get it, or to justify the grabbing, we like to 
     believe, we want to believe, that we're victims. ``I'm not 
     being treated fairly. I'm not getting my just deserts.'' 
     What's happened to the love commandment in politics?
       And I think on the other side of the coin there is a 
     tendency to believe that, yes, there is a requirement placed 
     on us to love our neighbors, but it is a requirement that 
     doesn't really involve us individually; it's something that 
     can be discharged through a political program. A clergy 
     friend of mine told me a long time ago every time he goes to 
     any kind of clergy meeting dealing with some social problem, 
     the meeting always concludes by everybody resolving to go 
     home and write their congressman a letter. That's it. Well, 
     we've got a problem; well, let's write our congressman.
       And, of course, one of the problems with this is that it is 
     a way to discharge your own sense of responsibility. But in 
     addition to that, to the extent that your religious 
     commitment is embodied in a political agenda, to the extent 
     that a political agenda can be identified with a religious 
     commitment, then the political position is infused with all 
     kinds of religious meaning. And this is happening now.
       What can you do about politics consistent with the 
     requirement upon you to love your neighbor as yourself? I 
     think the first thing you can do, and I can do, and all of us 
     can do is to be a counter voice to all the meanness that is 
     going on now. I think that you and I can speak out against 
     political campaigns as they exist today. I think that when 
     you and I see a human being have a perfectly fine life turned 
     to ashes, we can say that's wrong.
       When we hear a talk show host destroy a human being, we can 
     pick up the phone and we can say that's wrong. We can show up 
     at town meetings where politicians are, and we can say that 
     we resent that, that's wrong. This person is a human being 
     and whether we agree with this individual or not, this is a 
     child of God who should not be destroyed. This is a person 
     with a family, with children. And it's not right. And we can 
     do that.
       Another thing we can do: We can be people who look beyond 
     our own interests. That is not to say that we are not going 
     to be interested in ourselves; that's human nature. We can be 
     something other than just members of interest groups. We can 
     be the leaven in the lump of politics.
       Christians are called to look beyond themselves. We can be 
     people who, in the political world, look beyond ourselves to 
     our neighbors to the larger world and the larger country 
     beyond ourselves. We can call our country and call our 
     politicians to do more than simply pander to our own narrow 
     economic or personal interests. We can do that.
       And finally, we can understand as Christians that there is 
     and will always be a vast difference between the requirements 
     of the love commandment and any political agenda that can 
     ever be developed.
       The love commandment is absolute. No political program is 
     an absolute. All of it is compromise. The legislative process 
     by its nature is compromise. The American system of 
     government is compromise, not by accident, but by design.
       Any time you have something built on compromise, the 
     political programs are going to be more or less good or more 
     or less bad and probably a mix between the two. And when 
     they're implemented, the implementation is going to be a far 
     cry from whatever it was ever designed to be in the first 
     place.
       And we can say to people who try to infuse a political 
     agenda with religion that God's ways are not our ways. And we 
     will never create a political agenda which is the equivalent 
     of the will of God or a political agenda which is capable of 
     discharging the requirement that is placed on each of us to 
     love our neighbors.
       When Jesus was asked, who is your neighbor, his response 
     was to tell the story of the good Samaritan. The point of the 
     story is to talk about who is a neighbor to that poor soul 
     who is beside the road.
       But a question I have is, well, what was wrong with the 
     priest, what was wrong with the Levite? Were they just mean 
     people? Were they insensitive people who didn't care? They 
     were probably perfectly sensitive people. But they probably 
     thought that somebody else was coming along. ``I can afford 
     to pass the other way because somebody else will come along 
     or maybe after I pass the other way I can write a letter to 
     my congressman and my congressman will pass a law and 
     something will be done about this poor devil.''
       I don't think we can delegate responsibility like that. I 
     don't think we can delegate responsibility to any political 
     program. I don't think we can count on anyone to do for us 
     what we are commanded to do. It's our responsibility to apply 
     the love commandment. And we should try to do it in politics 
     and we should try to do it with respect to all the nastiness 
     that's out there today. And we should try to do it by getting 
     some sort of rein on our own self-interests, and looking 
     beyond ourselves. And we should try to do it by recognizing 
     the difference between the love commandment and our own 
     political agenda.
       But in the end, the responsibility is really on us, the 
     people, you, me, to do the work of loving our neighbors as 
     ourselves.

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