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May 24, 2012

Home > 1982 > October 22Christianity Today, October 22, 1982
Classic Cover Story
Mark Hatfield Taps into the Real Power on Capitol Hill
The senior senator from Oregon shows keen discernment between the power of politics and the power wielded by the Holy Spirit.




Note: Mark O. Hatfield, longtime United States Senator and Oregon Governor, died Sunday, August 7, 2011. Christianity Today will soon be publishing his obituary, but in the meantime we offer this extensive interview, which was the cover story of our October 22, 1982, issue (the last issue for which Kenneth S. Kantzer served as editor). The interview concludes with a question about whether Hatfield planned to seek reelection; he did, and continued to serve in the Senate until 1997. He never lost an election.

* * *

What makes Sen. Mark Hatfield so different? Newsmen and radio commentators find it difficult to place him in a neat pigeonhole. As the New York Times puts it: "Mr. Hatfield does not fit the mold." He is a Republican, but is known as a liberal in politics. He is against nuclear war, but he is not a pacifist. He supports all sorts of programs to aid the poor, but he is a diehard fiscal conservative. He is a friend of Billy Graham, and he cosponsors a resolution with Sen. Edward Kennedy. He has never been a "wheel" of the Senate's power structure, but he has become chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee. He antagonizes his Oregon constituency by voting flatly against a measure 90 percent of them badly want, and they turn right around and reelect him to office. He is a devout evangelical and an active member of Georgetown Baptist Church, but no fundamentalist or evangelical organization has him in its pocket.

What makes that kind of man? We believe this interview will reveal his secret: it is his deep commitment to Jesus Christ and a conscience structured and refined by Holy Scripture as his own final rule of faith and practice.

Senator, would you describe your spiritual and religious roots?

I am convinced that a person carries the imprint of his environment. I had the advantage of being raised in a small community. From that experience of knowing neighborhood and neighbors came a real sense of community. You knew the doctor, the merchant, the groceryman. If the fire whistle blew, you could call central and find out where the fire was. If the doctor was on a house call, you could call central and the operator knew where he was—at Mrs. Jones's house, say—and if you called the Jones house, he would stop to see you on the way back to his office. This was in the little town of Dallas, Oregon.

It was a marvelous experience as a child growing up to sense the relationship to relatives, neighbors, community. Sunday school and the Methodist church were very much a part of our lives. My parents were Baptists but since there was no Baptist church in Dallas we were part of the Methodist congregation. A very important part of my early life was the fact that when I was five my mother left home to complete her education and my father and I moved in with my grandmother. I was the only child in our family.

We moved to Salem when my mother graduated from Oregon State University. She got a job teaching school just as the depression hit. My father was a blacksmith on the railroad and traveled a great deal, living in outfit cars. We united as a family in Salem and returned to the Baptist church. I was exposed to the teaching of the Bible in Sunday school, and learned the catechism pretty well—the Baptist catechism. Some people would react to my using the term "catechism."

I remember vividly that I did not feel a part of the Baptist culture. There was a great deal of legalism in that church that created a sense of separation. I had always gone to movies; my parents felt good movies were good movies and there was nothing wrong with good movies. In high school I learned to dance and went to dances, which further isolated me.





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Displaying 1–5 of 6 comments

Stephen Leonard

August 08, 2011  9:08pm

I agree wholeheartedly with Mark Hatfield on so many thingsand appreciate this interview to remind me of them. However, I believe that his ego, his pride for his position on the Viet Nam War, which was consistent throughout, overcame Christian and biblical principle when he led the way for Congress to abandon our South Vietnam allies and the measures of peace and freedom that had been paid for with the blood of hundreds of thousands and the lives of over 50,000 American soldiers. Hatfield's leadership of his position along with the majority of Congress to cut off all funds, all support, all spare parts for equipment, etc, in one fell swoop was the most shameful act in the history of American government. I think Mark Hatfield knows that today. There is a good argument for the US never to have entered the war, but once there we have an obligation to act honorably in it's right conclusion. Because of the debacle Hatfield led, 3-4 million Cambodians were massacred. The list could go on....

Jeanette Hui

August 08, 2011  9:00pm

We need more of such Christian politicians in the US and in the rest of the world, and the world will be in a better place. Thank you for featuring this interview again, at a time when we tend to despair of politicians.

Ben Gums

August 08, 2011  5:37pm

Thank you for sharing this remarkable interview with a genuinely spiritual public figure. Its timliness just now when religious posturing dominates public life, especially personal quests for political position, Senator Hatfield's witness for our Lord and for respect and decency in poliditcal pursuits provides a role model worthy of emulation.. His recollection that 'land reform in El Salvador went no where because of opposition from wealthy landowners and the security forces" should strike the hearts and minds of those billionaires who today are secretly backing movements and candidates who re-interpret the Constitution to justify their destructive causes and those military leaders and defense contractors who persistently grab for more and more! Thanks be to God for the life and service of Mark Hatfield.

Steve Scholl

August 08, 2011  4:15pm

I had the honor to serve as Senator Hatfield's publisher of his memoir, AGAINST THE GRAIN: REFLECTIONS OF A REBEL REPUBLICAN. The senator was absolutely a brilliant man, with a razor sharp mind, and a huge heart. My favorite moment with him was after a talk at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, he was signing books and greeting old friends. A woman came up and said, "Senator, you probably don't remember me." He then told her of course he did, said her name and asked how her sister was. "Your sister, she was the bossy one, if I recall." He always cared deeply about knowing and serving his constituents. To get information on Sen. Hatfield's autobiography, go to: http://4ze.us/8bW

Aaron Cavanaugh

August 08, 2011  4:05pm

This is a very good interview. It is interesting that it is from the time of Reagan administration because I am reading "Age of Greed" and Reagan has been blamed for starting the unequal distribution of wealth trend in the USA. If find two things interesting in this article. 1) Where he says that the government has little ability to act in a compassionate way. I believe that is totally false and this runs the risk of removing the separation of church and state. This is the same argument that Reagan put forward. Reagan was growing up during the anti-communist phase where communist ideology was seen as the enemy by federal government to the point of fault. Reagan in his own mind flipped this witch hunt into a communist=government ideology. Thus Reagan decided that government was evil and made a choice to try and reduce it. 2) He justifies the reduction of spending to poor as a fractional cost because of "Administrative waste." Oh you mean wages? Thanks this has helped me with my thought

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