{"id":23489,"date":"2013-05-31T06:57:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-31T10:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=23489"},"modified":"2016-09-30T16:51:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T20:51:29","slug":"meet-a-pro-life-democrat-patheos-rebecca-hamilton-profiled-by-cns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/05\/meet-a-pro-life-democrat-patheos-rebecca-hamilton-profiled-by-cns\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet a Pro-Life Democrat: Patheos’ Rebecca Hamilton Profiled by CNS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Behold:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oklahoma State Rep. Rebecca Hamilton\u00a0<\/a>sees no conflict between her pro-life views as a Catholic and being a stalwart Democrat who has served 18 years in the state Legislature.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Hamilton, who represents South Oklahoma City, told Catholic News Service during a break this morning in the\u00a02013 National Religious Freedom Conference<\/a>\u00a0in Washington that her pro-life stance evolved over time after a \u201cpowerful religious experience\u201d in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

It helped, she said, that she became Catholic in 2002.<\/p>\n

Hamilton has cemented her pro-life credentials\u00a0in the Legislature in recent years\u00a0despite vocal objections from fellow Democrats and other supporters of Democratic politics. She said one labor official told her to keep her beliefs in church and out of the state Legislature when she shepherded one pro-life measure to passage.<\/p>\n

All this after Hamilton worked for a stint for the National Abortion Rights Action League in Oklahoma. Back then, she said, she was hardly religious.<\/p>\n

These days, in addition to looking out for her district, Hamilton\u2019s focus is on threats to religious freedom that she sees emerging nationwide. She said it will take the Catholic community \u2014 a small minority in Oklahoma \u2014 working side by side with people of all faiths to be vigilant about legislative attempts to marginalize religious practice and educate the wider community that any threat to religion poses a threat to all.<\/p>\n

One of her priorities: helping form\u00a0a religious freedom caucus with other like-minded legislators to\u00a0stop incursions on religious practice.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was one of four panelists who discussed challenges to religious freedom during a conference session. She told the 150 people in attendance that her fear is that opponents of religion are becoming bolder in their attacks \u2014 verbal, through the courts and in state legislatures.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou dehumanize a group enough, you marginalize a group enough, it becomes easy to do anything to them,\u201d she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meantime, you can read Rebecca\u2019s blog, Public Catholic<\/a><\/strong>, for more on her life and work.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Behold:\u00a0 Oklahoma State Rep. Rebecca Hamilton\u00a0sees no conflict between her pro-life views as a Catholic and being a stalwart Democrat who has served 18 years in the state Legislature. Hamilton, who represents South Oklahoma City, told Catholic News Service during a break this morning in the\u00a02013 National Religious Freedom Conference\u00a0in Washington that her pro-life stance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet a Pro-Life Democrat: Patheos' Rebecca Hamilton Profiled by CNS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Behold:\u00a0 Oklahoma State Rep. 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