By Michael Mandigo, Staff Writer
Former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut gave a speech on politics and religion as part of the Alice Pope Shade Lecture series on Feb. 24 in Degenstein Theater.
The Alice Shade Lecture Series brings renowned religious scholars and leaders to engage with the students at Susquehanna.
Lieberman became the first Jewish-American to run for high office in 2000, when he was selected as the vice-presidential nominee to presidential candidate Al Gore.
First elected to the US Senate in 1988, Lieberman served for 24 years until he retired in 2012.
Lieberman was considered one of Washington’s most influential voices on security issues, environmental legislation, education funding and finance reform.
Lieberman was chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Agency. He was responsible for the oversight of the Department of Homeland Security.
Lieberman’s lecture focused on two major aspects: the history of religion in US politics and the impact of religion in his own political life.
“I never realized how important Lieberman’s spiritual side was in the grand scheme of things. It definitely gave me new insight into the world of politics,” sophomore Ryan Dunlap said of the lecture.
Lieberman said that America was founded by men who believed in the bible and if not the bible, in God.
The idea behind what the founding fathers believed was that human rights equaled the rights given by God. One of his examples was the Israelites leaving the captivity of the Egyptians to go and serve God and find God’s law.
“This journey through American history to a better life is similar to that of the bible,” Lieberman said.
Organized religion played a big part in the transformative and progressive nature of the United States and were some of the most effective, according to Lieberman.
Many of the abolitionists of the mid 19th century were Christians and many of the pioneers of the civil rights movements were Christian leaders.
The religious leaders of the early 20th century were the most active when combating child labor laws and minimum wage laws of age.
Lieberman continued by discussing how his own upbringing served as his inspiration and motivation. Lieberman believed life was a “gift from God.”
He also recognized the importance of being drawn to reading and the impact of John F. Kennedy and how he was his political role model.
Lieberman was an observer of Judaism, and much of this did in fact conflict with his role as a public servant especially during the Sabbath. He did, however, try to fulfill his government duty, which in the end, took priority over his religious practices.
Sophomore Thomas Tang saw this as a defining characteristic of Lieberman’s legacy.
“He meticulously describes his religious affiliation and his connection to it,” Tang said.
“Most politicians would just shrug off their religious obligations but Lieberman practices it daily,” Tang continued.
Lieberman concluded the lecture by talking about the state of politics today. He found he could not relate it to religion other than cracking a joke: “When someone asks, ‘what should we do about politics today?’ I tell them: pray.”
He believes the polarization of today’s politics can be attributed to the “my way or the highway” policy that many government officials have taken up and according to Lieberman, when that is the case, “zero percent” of things get done.
He finished the lecture by reflecting on the constitutional convention. He considered the conflict between large and small states when creating the legislative branch of government.
Large states wanted the government to be split by population while smaller states wished for all states to have equal representation.
In the end, through compromise, the founding fathers came together to create the two separate branches of Congress.