The peaceable senator: Mark O. Hatfield, 1922–2011

In the midst of today's rancorous politics and the
trivialization of religion in the public square, the death of Mark O. Hatfield
on August 7 called to mind a different kind of political style and a different
kind of Christian political witness.

When Hatfield entered the U.S. Senate as a Republican from
Oregon in 1967, the Vietnam War hung over the nation like a dark cloud. He had
already registered his opposition to the war by casting the lone vote against
Lyndon Johnson's policies at the national governors' conference. He joined
Democratic Senator George McGovern in 1970 to introduce legislation to cut off
funds for the war. Following President Nixon's invasion of Cambodia that year,
that legislation became the political focus of the antiwar movement.

Hatfield's evangelical Christian convictions and his
opposition to the war made him an unusual and controversial figure. At one
point, he was prohibited by the president of evangelical Wheaton College from
speaking at the school's chapel service. He made an indelible impression on an
emerging generation of young evangelicals who were searching for models of
faithful political action. Hatfield gave a powerful witness not only in opposing
the Vietnam War but in addressing issues of social justice and the global
division between rich and poor. When he read the first issue of the Post-American, the precursor to Sojourners, he immediately sought out
the editor, Jim Wallis. In 1973 he supported the Chicago Declaration of Social
Concern, a watershed statement by 40 evangelical leaders declaring their
Christian commitment to work for social justice.