Sapphira

Fascinating piece last week in the St. Petersburg Times on Katherine Harris' faith-based approach to her Senate campaign, "Harris puts her faith in religion." (That headline seems both accurate and an intentional barb, her faith seems to be in religion itself.) Here's the Times' Adam C. Smith and Anita Kumar:

Harris has been aggressively campaigning for support among religious conservatives, hitting large churches and headlining a "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference in Broward County last weekend. She told hundreds of attendees she was "doing God's work" with her campaign.

Harris also hinted at her increased emphasis on her Christian faith when she talked to ABC's Nightline last week about spending $10-million of her own money to jump-start her Senate campaign.

"I am willing to take this widow's mite, this pearl of great price, and put everything on the line. No matter how much you have, are you willing to take what you have and sell it all for a great price," Harris said in the transcript provided by ABC News.

This is a confusing, and confused, clash of biblical allusions. The widow's mite is an apt image for what Harris seems to be trying to communicate. The reference is to a story from Chapter 12 of Mark's Gospel:

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything — all she had to live on."

Harris' millions don't really compare to the poor widow's last two lepta, of course, but let's give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that she didn't mean to suggest that she was giving "out of her poverty," but only that she intended "to put in everything — all she had to live on."

She said as much on Fox News:

Harris went on national TV to tell conservative commentator and Harris supporter Sean Hannity she was putting $10-million of her own money in. She invoked her father, who died in January, and sounded like she planned to invest her inheritance in the campaign:

"I'm going to put everything on the line. Everything. Not just my future and my reputation. My father's name. I'm going to take his legacy that he gave to me, everything that I have, and I'm going to put it in this race. I'm going to commit my legacy for my father, $10 million," she said.

That's an unambiguous, straightforward pledge. More on that in a moment, but first let's consider Harris' reference to the "pearl of great price." Harris refers to this as a synonym for the widow's mite, but that botches the meaning of the reference, which is from Matthew's Gospel (13:45-46):

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

This mini-parable is similar to the story of the widow's mite, in that both deal with giving up everything you have for something even better. But the "pearl of great price" is not the thing you give up, it's the thing you give up everything for. Harris' reference — "I am willing to take … this pearl of great price, and put everything on the line" — turns this parable on its head.

What Harris meant, I guess, is that a seat in the U.S. Senate is, for her, the "pearl of great price," the thing she is willing to sell all that she has in order to purchase. That's a fairly creepy declaration of ambition. It only gets creepier if you take Harris' statement at face value and accept that she is willing to trade the "pearl of great price" itself (i.e., the kingdom of God) for a Senate seat.

The former reading sounds like Lady Macbeth. The latter sounds like Milton's Satan. However you read it, though, what you have here is a candidate for the U.S. Senate openly declaring that she will trade anything and everything for power. Candidates usually aren't this candid.

As it turns out, though, Harris really isn't going to "put everything on the line." She won't be doing what she told Sean Hannity she would do — spending a $10 million inheritance from her father.

Campaign advisers understood Harris wanted to put the inheritance in the race, but now say she won't have access to that money until after her mother's death. On Tuesday, she clarified to the Times that the money would come from her current assets, including selling real estate.

"My dad didn't leave me that money. This is what I have," said Harris, who is married to a millionaire and ultimately is expected to receive a large inheritance.

She has said she does not plan to put the money in right away, and she is expected to report just a few hundred thousand dollars on hand when her campaign disclosure report comes due soon.

So Harris claims she's giving everything she has, but really she's not. In other words, she isn't the widow, and she isn't the pearl merchant. She's Sapphira.