This didn’t get much attention when it happened yesterday, but it’s worth noting for both the questioner (a Catholic) and the answer.
From The New York Times:
On Monday, at a town-hall-style event in a school gymnasium here, Jessica Manning, 36, a high school guidance counselor from Pella, Iowa, told Mrs. Clinton that as a Catholic and a Democrat, she felt conflicted. She explained that she had called into a Catholic radio show to discuss whom to support in the presidential race, and the host advised that she back a candidate based on faith, rather than blindly supporting any one political party.
“I would say I am a Democrat because of my Christian values, but many of my friends would say they are Republicans because of their Christian values,” Mrs. Manning said. “So in these next few months as I am supporting you and defending you to my Republican friends,” she continued, “I am just curious, how you would say your beliefs align with the Ten Commandments and is that something that’s important to you?”
Part of Mrs. Clinton’s response:
“I am a Christian. I am a Methodist. I have been raised Methodist. I feel very grateful for the instructions and support I received starting in my family but through my church, and I think that any of us who are Christian have a constantly, constant, conversation in our own heads about what we are called to do and how we are asked to do it, and I think it is absolutely appropriate for people to have very strong convictions and also, though, to discuss those with other people of faith…
The idea you heard on the radio of looking at individuals, I think, is absolutely fair. My study of the Bible, my many conversations with people of faith, has led me to believe the most important commandment is to love the Lord with all your might and to love your neighbor as yourself, and that is what I think we are commanded by Christ to do, and there is so much more in the Bible about taking care of the poor, visiting the prisoners, taking in the stranger, creating opportunities for others to be lifted up, to find faith themselves that I think there are many different ways of exercising your faith. But I do believe that in many areas judgment should be left to God, that being more open, tolerant and respectful is part of what makes me humble about my faith, and I am in awe of people who truly turn the other cheek all the time, who can go that extra mile that we are called to go, who keep finding ways to forgive and move on…
Photo: Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images
And today we celebrate...