Posted on 10/03/2005 8:52:39 AM PDT by DallasMike
Marvin Olasky talks to Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht on Harriert Miers on the World Magazine website. For those who don't know, Olasky is an evangelical Christian intellectual in the mold of Chuck Colson. Nathan Hecht is ardently pro-life.
This begins a series of seven posts on Harriet Miers, based on interviews with those who know her. Some background for the first five: I spoke yesterday with Nathan Hecht, the Texas Supreme Court justice who is a prolife hero for strongly supporting parental notification laws five years ago when a SCOTEX majority was scuttling them. Hecht, 55 and never married, and Harriet Miers, 60 and never married, have known each other for 30 years and are -- to quote Hecht -- "very close friends. We dated some. The relationship has been close: Platonic... We go to dinner, I go to Washington for special things."
Miers has been a member of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas for 25 years, where Hecht has been an elder. He calls it a "conservative evangelical church... in the vernacular, fundamentalist, but the media have used that word to tar us." He says she was on the missions committee for ten years, taught children in Sunday School, made coffee, brought donuts: "Nothing she's asked to do in church is beneath her." On abortion, choosing his words carefully for an on-the-record statement, he says "her personal views are consistent with that of evangelical Christians... You can tell a lot about her from her decade of service in a conservative church."
Hecht says about Miers' judicial philosophy: "She's an orginalist -- that's the way she takes the Bible," and that's her approach to the Constitution as well -- "Originalist -- it means what it says." He notes that her legal practice involved writing contracts rather than tort law, so she was always looking at the plain meaning of the words: "Originalist." He also says she's not a social butterfly who will be swayed by Washington dinner table conversation: "She goes to the dinners she's supposed to go to. She's not on the social circuit."
I know Valley View Christian Church through my pro-life work. I can't say whether any individual member is pro-life, but I would be surprised if someone who is not pro-life occupied a leadership position.
I think I need more info regarding her views on this matter.
A student told his professor he was going to "Palestine" to "fight for freedom, peace and justice,"Orwellian leftist code words that mean "murder Jews."
I hope you're right. Because it would be better to be wrong on this one case than to have been a sucker for years.
Once, in the 1988 PRIMARY, not general, when Gore was still pro-life.
But don't let facts get in the way of your innuendo and slander. You certainly haven't previously...
Which fact did I get wrong?
Previous innuendo and slander? What the heck are you talking about?
That's GREAT news Mike. Thank you for that. I too am a fundamentalist (Pentecostal) Christian conservative. If she is a fundamentalist Christian, she's PRO-life. I wish the Conservative groups would do their homework BEFORE they get on the MSM and start blabbing. I truly believe that the President is fulfilling his promise to his base on this most important issue. I couldn't finish watching Pat Buchanan and Tucker Carlson tonight. They really know how to make a bad situation WORSE it would appear. CO
Did it ever occur to you that Bush may have very slickly "hoodwinked" the left?
I am amazed how many on FR are criticizing President Bush for his selection of Harriet Miers, BEFORE they have all the facts.
But then again, many here did the same with the nomination of John Roberts!
More than likely there will a huge fight over the next Republican nomination for president with Giuliani and his goofy pro-choice posturing looming in the wings. It promises to be an interesting internal struggle within the GOP.
If they lose Pro-Life Catholics and Evangelicals over that, the conservative coalition will collapse.
Ping!
Sibling quarrels is a good way to describe it. The bottom line, though, is that we preach Christ Jesus and Him crucified, and that leads us to have far more in common with each other than with the followers of the secular world.
I am encouraged by her membership in this very conservative church. While it is not impossible to be wishy washy on life issues and belong to such a church, it's not the line of least resistance. The really wishy washy are Unitarian, mainline Methodist, or Episcopalian.
Are those the ones who think murder should be illegal? Yeah, I want those kind.
So be it. We can't maintain the status quo if that means nominating more pro-abortion judges. Of course, that remains to be seen, but I'm not very hopeful right now.
what will her personal views be after 10 years of Ivy league weenies like linda greenhouse sucking up to her, as they did with O Connor, Kennedy and Souter?
Great post!!!!
I would have preferred Janice Rogers Brown, and a few others; however, it made me feel good that Miers was heavily involved with the selection of Janice Brown and other conservatives.
With the RINOs and sell-outs in the Senate, led by liberal McCain, it's like not even having the majority. Brown, et al might not get confirmed.
Check this out about Miers:
http://www.aclj.org/news/Read.aspx?ID=1922
"her personal views are consistent with that of evangelical Christians..." To which you added" the same as the Catholic Church."
I agree that Evangelical Churches share essentially the same pro-life views as those of the Catholic churches. And I do view our Evangelical bretheren as exactly that, bretheren.
However I would not say that Ms. Meier is a good nominee for the Supreme Court or should be confirmed solely because of her membership in an Evangelical church. That would be like saying that Teddy Kennedy should be supported because he's Catholic or that we should give deference to the rainbow sashers because they attend Catholic churches. We don't know much about Ms. Meier one way or the other.
I truly hope that Ms. Meier ends up being the proverbial diamond in the rough. In my opinion, she was a poor choice given other outstanding candidates with demonstrated conservative track records.
The underlying political logic behind this appointment is that it would avoid a protracted battle in the Senate. This unwillingness on the part of the GOP leadership to engage is, in a nutshell, the reason why I'm not a member of their party.
The Republican party currently controls the Presidency, both houses of Congress, most state legislatures and most Governorships. 7 of 9 Supreme Court nominees were appointed by Republican Presidents. How much more in control does the Republican party need to be in before it's willing to take the "risk" of appointing a conservative justice with a demonstrated track record?
Oh Sure. He's really sticking it to them. That's why Schumer and friends are at a loss for words with glee.
You trust ANYTHING that comes out of Schumers mouth. Besides, it was just a thought. The fact that she is an Evangelical Christian, if a committed one, would mean that she was ABSOLUTELY pro-life. You don't find many PRO-death committed Christians because they can't be both.!!
That article offers some hope.
Yup, good article!!
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