I just discovered that one of my heroes, former Oregon senator Mark Hatfield, an evangelical politician and liberal Republican died August 7 at the age of 89.
Hatfield was a formative influence on my emergence from knee jerk conservatism and fundamentalism. He was a devout evangelical Christian who spoke and wrote publicly about his faith and how he integrated it with his political life (and about the tensions that created).
He was a man of compassion for the poor who hated war without being a pacifist. He would scoff at “compassionate conservatism” as not. Yet, he was far from a typical liberal. He was pro-life without being reactionary or extreme. He didn’t fit anybody’s ideological box. His motive for being in politics was not power but care for the common good. His integrity was beyond question or reproach even though, toward the end of his career, some tried to accuse him of mismanagement of campaign funds. (As some tried to accuse Billy Graham of misuse of contributions.) He was a man of faith and dignity who genuinely cared about the people.
I wish we had more like Mark Hatfield today.
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