Nancy Pelosi is doing some preaching, but is anybody listening? No one in the mainstream media, apparently. CNS News captured some video where the House Speaker said at a May 6 Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill that she wants to "give voice" in terms of public policy to "the Word." Here's part of the transcript from CNS News:
At a May 6 Catholic Community Conference on Capitol Hill, the speaker said: "They ask me all the time, 'What is your favorite this? What is your favorite that? What is your favorite that?' And one time, 'What is your favorite word?' And I said, 'My favorite word? That is really easy. My favorite word is the Word, is the Word. And that is everything. It says it all for us. And you know the biblical reference, you know the Gospel reference of the Word."
"And that Word," Pelosi said, "is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word. The Word. Isn't it a beautiful word when you think of it? It just covers everything. The Word.
"Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means: 'The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.' And that's the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again. So, we have to make sure we're prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise, as to how we have measured up."
The Speaker of the House is paraphrasing John 1:1 and John 1:14.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The remarks were reported on some blogs, a roundup from The Week, and in a column in the Daily News, but they received little to no attention in the mainstream. Can you imagine former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert making comments like this? Not only that, but it seems like Pelosi is on a roll with her religious outreach lately. A few weeks ago, Mollie looked at the nonexistent coverage of Pelosi's outreach to Catholics over immigration legislation. Here's what Pelosi said at the time:
"The cardinals, the archbishops, the bishops that come to me and say, 'We want you to pass immigration reform,' and I said, 'I want you to speak about it from the pulpit. I want you to instruct your'--whatever the communication is," said Pelosi, who is Catholic, speaking at the Nation's Catholic Community conference sponsored by Trinity Washington University and the National Catholic Reporter.
"The people, some (who) oppose immigration reform, are sitting in those pews, and you have to tell them that this is a manifestation of our living the gospels," she said.
So on one hand, Pelosi seems to be intentionally reaching out to the Catholic Community. On the other hand, last week, Mollie looked at coverage of the Democratic Party's faith outreach, which appeared to be waning from an organizational level. So is the Democratic Party spending less money on outside consultants and ramping up its outreach through its own politicians?
CNS News, bloggers and commentators will have their own reasons for airing the video, but wouldn't this be of interest to the general public? I guess political reporters are too busy reporting who said he had an affair with whom.