Hillary's Christianity: more than right-wing pandering?

I just read quite an interesting article by K. Joyce and J. Sharlet in the Sept/Oct issue of Mother Jones about Hillary Clinton's faith. For some reason, even the (Christian) faith of the Democratic Presidential candidates has already garnered lots of attention this time around, Obama's and Clinton's in particular. Perhaps this is a result of their openness on the matter, which is at a level somewhat unusual for "liberals."

After all, the trend among liberals has been towards something like public agnosticism, a fierce adherence to the "separation of church and state" principal (Constitutional mandate, technically) from the campaign podium. This, of course, has also served nicely as another stark contrast with the increasingly fundamentalist bent of the Christian Right. Liberals certainly have worked hard to equate conservative Christianity with uncompromising self-righteousness that stands firm in the face of scientific and social realities.

Which makes this report about Hillary's involvement in a "secret" prayer cell -- "cellmates" include embarrassingly unabashed Creationist Sam Brownback (who is also one of the hangers-on among the Republican Presidential candidates) -- all the more intriguing. It turns out that Clinton has been a moral conservative all her life, even putting the "revised social gospel" of individual salvation before Christian social activism during the turbulent 1960s. She is publically a champion of women's and gay rights, but apparently these stances are two of only a handful on which she and her Republican prayer-group fellows truly differ. To be sure, the faith-based initiatives put forth by her husband and herself during the 90s Clinton tenure opened the door for Bush's more vigorous faith campaigns.

And "morality" and "values" have been the driving force behind certain of her political moves; the MJ article cites her support of the Defense of Marriage act, a Constitutional amendment banning flag-burning, and her Bush-esque "strings attached" support of an anti-human-trafficking law that did not give funding to anti-trafficking groups if they didn't define prostitution "in the proper terms." (The Bush Administration has notoriously denied funding to certain programs that don't fall in line with the Christian Right's idea of a virtuous Utopia, despite their potential to have dramatic positive effects in the real world; these include cutting off support for condom distribution in urban Brazilian red-light districts -- hey, if it ain't abstinence-only education, it ain't gettin' no American money.)

Another morality-fueled move has been Clinton's support of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, even after concerns were raised about, for example, high-minded pharmacists becoming consientious objectors to filling birth control prescriptions. (I know pharmacists who would do this if they could, which kills me -- these same people never stop complaining about the overabundance of public-aid recipients; just what do these guys think would happen if no one could get birth control??)

Anyway, check out the article, if you can pick up a print copy. Unfortunately the Sept-Oct issue isn't online yet, but I'll keep an eye out and provide a link here once they put it up. I'll also go back and insert appropriate links in short order...