Program Particulars
*Times indicated refer to web version of audio

(01:58–04:02) Music
"The Multiples of One" from Awakening, performed by Joseph Curiale

(02:54) Special Prosecutor of Waco Tragedy
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian compound in a rural area near Waco, Texas — four government agents and five members of the Davidians died. As a result, a 51-day siege ensued, ending on April 19 when the compound was consumed by fire, killing 75 people, including the Branch Davidian leader David Koresh.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, who oversaw the volatile situation, was accused of mishandling the events and covering up questionable tactics during the siege. United States Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Danforth as the special counsel to handle the investigation of the events. The complete text of Danforth's interim report [PDF] is available from the Center for Studies on New Religions.

(02:39) Audio Montage
The audio clips of news reports were assembled from various sources. Here's a list in the order they appear in the program:

• Robert Siegel introduced the report "Danforth - Waco" on NPR's All Things Considered on September 9, 1999.
• In "A Nation's Farewell" (June 11, 2004), The NewsHour's Kwame Holman introduces Danforth at President Reagan's funeral before cutting to audio of Danforth's homily.
• President Bush's introduction of Senator Danforth being sworn in as Ambassador to the United Nations (July 1, 2004) is available via the White House's Web site.
• Gwen Ifill reports on Danforth's efforts in Sudan as part of The NewsHour's November 9, 2004 broadcast.
• "Sudan Signs Peace Deal Ending North-South Conflict" was reported by Jackie Lyden on NPR's All Things Considered on January 9, 2005.

(03:50) Danforth as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
President George W. Bush nominated Danforth to serve as his Representative to the United Nations in June 2004. He was sworn in several months later. Shortly after President Bush's reelection, he relinquished the post in January 2005.

(04:15) Reading from Danforth's Op-Ed Piece in the New York Times
Krista cites two editorials Danforth published in the New York Times. The first, titled "In the Name of Politics" (March 30, 2005), declared that "Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians." The second, "Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers" (June 17, 2005), provided a call to action to fellow Christian moderates:

It is important for those of us who are sometimes called moderates to make the case that we, too, have strongly held Christian convictions, that we speak from the depths of our beliefs, and that our approach to politics is at least as faithful as that of those who are more conservative. Our difference concerns the extent to which government should, or even can, translate religious beliefs into the laws of the state.

(04:42–05:35) Music
"Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001: Fuga - Allegro" from Bach: Sonatas, arranged by Manuel Barrueco

(06:23) Reference to Liston Pope
Liston C. Pope (1909–1974) was a professor of Social Ethics and later served as dean of Yale Divinity School. Pope was an active participant in the ecumenical movement during the mid-20th century, particularly the World Council of Churches, and dedicated himself to writing and advancing the relationship of the church to social concerns such as labor and race relations during the 1950s.
Prior to his studies at Yale, Danforth's undergraduate thesis at Princeton focused on the theology of the Reinhold Niebuhr. Learn more about this seminal figure by listening to the Speaking of Faith program, "Moral Man and Immoral Society: The Public Theology of Reinhold Niebuhr."

(07:14) Kennedy's Negotiation of Religion and Politics
During the campaign for the 1960 presidential race, Senator John F. Kennedy faced much scrutiny and fielded many questions pertaining to his Catholicism and the fear that a Roman Catholic president might serve as a mouthpiece for the Vatican. In the show "Religion and Politics," veteran Democratic political insider, Joseph Califano mentions Kennedy's address on this issue to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1960.

(07:35) Danforth's Ordination as an Episcopal Priest
The Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. (ECUSA) is part of the Anglican Communion, which was organized as the successor to the Church of England in the late 18th century. The Archbishop of Canterbury is generally considered the honorary head of the Anglican Communion (or "first amongst equals"). The ECUSA is under the jurisdiction of a Presiding Bishop elected by the House of Bishops.

The Episcopal Church came into existence as an independent denomination after the American Revolution. Today it has between two and three million members in the United States, Mexico, and Central America, all of which are under jurisdiction of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the USA, Edmond Browning. Episcopal priests are consecrated by bishops elected by individual dioceses. Episcopal bishops are consecrated into the "historic Episcopate" or "Apostolic succession" considered to witness to an unbroken line of Church leadership beginning with the Apostles of Jesus themselves. The Church of England has always explicitly valued dialogue with fields of secular study. Isaac Newton was an Anglican clergyman and theologian as were several of the founders of the Royal Society, the earliest institution organized for the promotion of science.

(10:34) Prayer for President Reagan
John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan in the chest on March 30, 1981 outside a hotel in Washington, DC. Although the bullet had lodged in the president's left lung, he walked into the ambulance without realizing he'd been hit. The bullet was successfully removed hours later. While in surgery, the Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker Jr. (R-Tenn.) asked Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.) to offer a prayer for the president. Danforth prayed: "Look upon him with eyes of Thy mercy. Restore him to health, grant that he may grow in grace and strength."

(11:37) Danforth and Hunger Issues
In the 1979s, due to a combination of political blunders by the communist government of the Khmer Rouge, severe flooding in the Mekong River Valley, and stockpiling rice in preparation for war with Vietnam, Cambodia suffered one of the worst famines in modern times. Then, at the end of 1978, the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia and severely disrupted economic and agricultural production in the country, which ultimately led to a severe food shortage that primarily affected women, children, and the elderly. As part of a humanitarian effort, President Jimmy Carter sent an American delegation including then Senator Danforth, who would report his observations to the president.

(12:18) Danforth's Resolution on the Holocaust
On May 18, 1978, Senator Danforth sponsored a resolution that (S.J. Res. 135 for the 95th Congress) designated the weekend of or preceding April 29 of each year as "Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust."

(12:24–12:52) Music
"Bloch: Supplication" from From Jewish Life, performed by Paul Marleyn and John Lenehan

(13:00) Reference to the Love Commandment
The "love" commandment, as John Danforth refers to it, has its origins in the Jewish Torah, the Christian Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus reiterates and develops this teaching, as in this pivotal passage of the Gospel of Matthew (22:34-40):

When the Pharisees heard that (Jesus) had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

"The "love commandment" — to love one's neighbor as one loves oneself — appears throughout the New Testament gospels. In John 2:9, "He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. He who loves his brother abides in the light." And later on in John 13:34 Jesus tells his followers, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

The gospel of Matthew also recounts similar instruction in chapter 5, verse 27: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?"

(15:13) Danforth's Voting Record
See a consolidated list of Danforth's voting record while he served in the U.S. Senate in 1989–1994.

(16:32) Citation from Danforth's Op-Ed Piece
Krista cites a passage from Danforth's June 22, 2005 New York Times op-ed piece, "Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers":

We reject the notion that religion should present a series of wedge issues useful at election time for energizing a political base. We believe it is God's work to practice humility, to wear tolerance on our sleeves, to reach out to those with whom we disagree, and to overcome the meanness we see in today's politics. Christians who hold these convictions ought to add their clear voice of moderation to the debate on religion in politics.

(21:01–21:25) Music
"Duet for Cello and Bass" from Appalachian Journey, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor

(21:20) Reading from Danforth's Book, Faith and Politics
The reading is taken from Danforth's 2006 book, Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together. Here is an extended version of the passage heard in the program:

While disclaiming the role of pastor, I always told my constituents that in electing someone to public office, they were electing a whole person, with all of the background and values that constitute a person. A public official is not a disembodied collection of policy positions, but a unique human being with all that entails. In my case, I was the totality of a lifetime. I was a Christian and I was an Episcopal priest, not just on Sundays, not just when I was in church, but every minute of every day, wherever I was. I brought the totality of myself to public office. When I entered the Senate, I did not check my religion at the door.

There is a difference between being a Christian in politics and having a Christian agenda for politics. There were times when I believed that on a particular issue, I was doing God's will. My attempts to address the hunger crises in Cambodia and Africa were times of such belief, but such times were very rare. For the overwhelming majority of my time in public life, I had no certainty that my side was God's side.

Throughout my years in the Senate, I voted against the death penalty. That position was consistent with what I thought of as religious values, but I did not justify it on religious grounds. My argument was that government should not take lives unless it was necessary to save lives, and since the death penalty did not statistically reduce crime, the test of saving lives had not been met. I certainly did not claim that my position was God's position and that, therefore, the majority of Missourians who supported the death penalty were wrong. Many of them were at least as religious as I.

If, in the divine plan, there were sure answers to questions of public policy, God seldom gave them to me. If God gave the answers to anyone, a lot must have been lost in translation, for on "religious issues" — abortion, stem cell research, public display of religion and the like — people who worship God are on opposing sides. If there is a Christian agenda for politics, what should it be? I, for one, cannot be certain.

Then one might ask, what does faith bring to politics if not an agenda? For me, it brings a struggle to do God's will that always falls short of the goal. It leavens the competing self-interests of politics with the yeast of the Love Commandment, but it seldom fulfills the Love Commandment. It makes us better participants in politics, but not the custodians of God's politics.

Most of all, faith brings recognition that our quest never leads us to certainty. We are always uncertain, always in doubt that our way is God's way. That self-doubt makes it possible to be reconciled to one another. It is a faith that makes the reconciling work of politics possible.

(22:30) Reference to the Terri Schiavo Case
At the age of 26, Theresa Marie Schiavo suffered severe brain damage after going into cardiac arrest from a lack of oxygen being delivered to the cerebral cortex. Schiavo spent the following two-and-a-half months in a coma, and then lived the next 15 years in a condition diagnosed as an irreversible persistent vegetative state (PVS).

During this time, Terri Schiavo was unable to speak for herself and had no written living will. Her husband, who was also Schiavo's legal guardian, advocated the removal of all life support, including a feeding tube, arguing that his wife had verbally informed him before her heart attack that she would not be want to be kept alive by artificial means. Terri Schiavo's parents disputed the PVS diagnosis and believed she would recover.

Court battles ensued for nearly seven years, with a final appeal making its way to the United States Supreme Court. Even Florida governor Jeb Bush, the U.S. Congress, and President George W. Bush became involved on behalf of the parents. In the end, the courts upheld her husband's decision and Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was disconnected; she died on March 31, 2005. An autopsy was performed, but the results have not yet been released.

For a more in-depth discussion about the Schiavo case and matters related to death and palliative care, listen to the Speaking of Faith program, "A Midwife to the Dying." Joan Halifax, a medical anthropologist and Buddhist teacher, has dedicated much of her life to wrestling with these ethical and medical issues about the quality and the meaning of death. She describes what she's learned and how she lives differently after three decades accompanying others to the final boundary of human life.

(23:38) Danforth on Stem Cell Research
During Danforth's tenure in the United States Senate, he was viewed as a strong pro-life advocate who voted for the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. But, in his op-ed essay, "In the Name of Politics," Danforth advocates stem cell research and finds little conflict with his stance on abortion and the death penalty. For him, the social good in curing disease is a virtuous use of these cells and writes, "comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension of religious doctrine into statutory law."

In Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together, Danforth devotes a chapter to the stem cell research debate. His brother Don died from ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, in 1999. In the stem cell debate, Danforth admits his personal experience is an influential factor in where he stands — and that's exactly the point:

Now suppose that in one room is a three-year-old child, and in the other is a rack filled with scores of petri dishes. For most people, a single child is of more value than any number of blastocysts.

It's easy to think of hypotheticals to make the point, but a hypothetical is only that. It is no more than a thought, a game played by the imagination. What are more persuasive than the imagined examples we dream up in our minds are our personal experiences of suffering and death of the people who mean the most to us: our families and our friends.

No theologian, however learned; no church council, however authoritative; no bishop or archbishop, however holy will ever persuade me that protecting a frozen embryo that will never see the light of day should take precedence over my brother Don. No religious doctrine, however earnestly formulated, will ever convince me that cells in a laboratory are so significant that my brother should be denied the benefits of medical research. The very notion goes against both my reason and my deepest feelings. The notion that people with different religious views could co-opt politicians to the point of enacting their beliefs into law is more than offensive. It is a misuse of government to advance religion. It is a clear breach in the separation of church and state.

(26:01) Citation of St. Paul
Danforth cites text from Paul's letter to the Philippians in making the point that humility is a key component of living out God's will:

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

(30:06–32:57) Music
"String Quartet No. 3 Op. 22: III Ruhige Viertel. Stets Fliebend" from Weill, Schulhoff, Hindemith: String Quartets, performed by the Brandis Quartet

(33:40–34:44) Music
"Hamayala" from Lily of the Nile, performed by Hamza El Din

(33:55) Danforth Appointed as Special Envoy to Sudan
President George W. Bush appointed Danforth as his Envoy for Peace in Sudan on September 6, 2001. During his dealings with the Sudanese parties and European nations involved in the negotiation process, Danforth indicated four necessary conditions for the parties to pursue peace and end the bitter civil war. The government based in Khartoum was Islamic and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) of the south were backed by Christians and animists:

• Their ability to achieve a cease-fire in the highly-contested Nuba Mountains region
• Their willingness to cooperate with an internationally-sponsored commission to investigate the ongoing practice of slavery in Sudan
• Their agreeing to the establishment of "zones of tranquility" to allow for emergency humanitarian interventions, and
• Their agreeing to allow international monitors to investigate attacks on civilians.

In January 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed and formally ended Africa's longest civil conflict of 21 years. SPML/A leader John Garang de Mabior was elected as vice-president of the new Republic of Sudan and died in a helicopter crash three weeks later.

(35:22) Reference to the Crusades
The Crusades were a series of military expeditions organized and fought by Western Christians beginning in the 11th century and ending in the 16th century. Many participants in the Crusades fought these "holy wars" to combat the spread of Islam; and, by doing so, they believed they would receive salvation and redemption for their sins.

(36:23) Reference to Animism
Animists believe that all things, and certainly living things, are animated by spirits. Believers worship aspects of the natural world, including such things as celestial objects, the trees and the land, and living beings.

(36:51–37:23) Music
"Annun Sira" from Lily of the Nile, performed by Hamza El Din

(38:21) Application of Sharia Law
In the Speaking of Faith show "Violence and Crisis in Islam," guest Vincent Cornell, former director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies at the University of Arkansas, says the concept of law in Islam is expressed by the related terms of sharia — meaning the "way" or method set out by God — and fiqh — the "understanding" or the practice of this method of understanding. Theoretically, all Islamic law is divine because it is inspired by the word of God in the Qur'an; experientially, most Islamic legal decisions are based on the hadith of the Sunna. Informed Muslims, Cornell writes, use the term sharia to connote the sacred law as a global ideal, while the word fiqh connotes the evolving interpretation through the schools of jurisprudence.

Lamin Sanneh, a scholar at Yale Divinity School, presented a lecture at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress on shari'ah norms and political enforcement. Sanneh lays out the current debate occurring within the Muslim world, and the differences of opinion about the role and identity Islamic states should take to determine their future direction.

(43:44–44:43) Music
"Annun Sira" from Lily of the Nile, performed by Hamza El Din

(45:07) Emergence of Religious Right in Politics
In an Danforth's op-ed article, "Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers", of the New York Times (June 22, 2005), Danforth addresses the growing power of the Religious Right in Congress:

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two.

To assert that I am on God's side and you are not, that I know God's will and you do not, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God's kingdom is certain to produce hostility.

By contrast, moderate Christians see ourselves, literally, as moderators. Far from claiming to possess God's truth, we claim only to be imperfect seekers of the truth.

(46:03) Reference to Intelligent Design in Public Schools
An August 2005 survey conducted by the Pew Forum and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press polled people about sundry topics such as the intelligent design debate, the roll personal faith should play in the public life of politicians, and gays in the military. According to the survey, 64 percent of respondents thought that creationism should be taught alongside evolution while 38 percent thought that creationism should be taught instead of evolution. Also, more Americans say there is too little expression of religious faith by political leaders (39 percent) than say there is too much (26 percent). However, a growing minority feels President Bush mentions his faith and prayer too much.

(48:41–49:26) Music
"Second Time Around" from Appalachian Journey, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor

(49:13) Reading from Danforth's Book, Faith and Politics
The reading is taken from the chapter titled "Public Religion" in Danforth's 2006 book, Faith and Politics: How the "Moral Values" Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together. Following is an unexpurgated version of the passage read in the program:

If public religion is, in truth, a show of religiosity more than an act of faith, and if its influence on behavior is doubtful, then I wonder why so many people feel so strongly about the importance of religion in the public square. Why would anyone care enough about nonsectarian prayers in schools or granite-inscribed versions of the Ten Commandments in courthouses to hold vigils to promote his cause? Indeed, why is public religion significant enough to amount to a cause?

I think the reason behind this fervor is an understandable concern about the state of values in our society. When the divorce rate is 50 percent and unwed teen pregnancies are 34 percent, when it seems that family entertainment is impossible to find among the obscene, when children have access to drugs, then there is little wonder that many Americans are desperate to restore some measure of decency to our common life, to return to a world which, at least in our memories, was better than what we have today — a world in which religion seemed to have more force in influencing how people live their lives.

So it seems we live in a godless age, and we feel deeply that we must reverse this; we must restore God, and we seize upon public religion as a way to do this. School prayer, the Ten Commandments, the teaching of creationism or intelligent design and crèches in front of public buildings all become parts of an effort to reverse our moral course and return our country to a time of public decency.

It is a worthy objective. The problem is that public religion is not up to the task. An innocuous prayer has no power to make us more godly. A display of the Ten Commandments will not make us obey the commandments. What public religion can do is create an appearance that faith is a formality contrived to impress people more than God. It can give us something to argue about among ourselves, in political campaigns and in courts. And when it is not merely vacuous, when it slips into the expression of one religious tradition or another, as it did when I read that prayer at Yale, it tells us that even in our common life, we are not one people, but people on one side or another of a sectarian divide.

The practice of religion is an effective antidote to the disease so apparent in our society. People who practice their beliefs will live according to moral and ethical standards their religion teaches them. They will be witnesses against the tawdriness of the culture around them. They will be examples of the people God expects us to be. They will be that because they understand and live by the tenets of their traditions. That is the practice of religion. It is different altogether from the public display of religion.

(50:41–52:40) Music
"Second Time Around" from Appalachian Journey, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, and Mark O'Connor