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Worried about what they called “disturbing trends” regarding the mixing of religion and politics this election season, leaders of Faith Action for Community Equity invited former Congressman Neil Abercrombie to share his manao.

What they heard for the better part of an extraordinary hour Friday was the Democratic candidate for governor extolling the virtues of a spiritual life, embracing the religious tolerance of the islands and decrying those who would call his own faith into question to influence the outcome of the election.

Abercrombie said he’s the victim of an anonymous e-mail campaign that he compared to Nazi propaganda. He said religious objections to his candidacy are primarily rooted in a disagreement over civil unions, where some religious opponents are confusing the role of religion in setting government policy and the role of the Constitution, which Abercrombie believes must be paramount.

And he warned that the idea that a candidate has to meet a religious test to be fit for office is a change that “is not Hawaii.”

Abercrombie described his own spiritual life to the group of about 20 gathered in a conference room at the Harris United Methodist Church in downtown Honolulu. He said he starts every day with readings of meditations from spiritual leaders, including the Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton, the Dalai Lama, Native Americans and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran theologian who was martyred for his work in the resistance movement against the Nazis.

In the past few days, some of the readings have pointed to the importance of being alone — that is, for self-reflection — but also of belonging to a community.

“I don’t think anybody should be left alone — that’s not pono,” said Abercrombie. “But I take a little exception that some people need to be pushed out of the margins when Jesus Christ spent all his time with people like that, because he was involved with the wrong people and crucified for it, and apparently didn’t apologize for it. Pontius Pilate could find no fault with him. ‘You don’t like him because you disapprove of the people he is with, the associations he has.'”

Abercrombie continued, building to a point:

“You can not turn people away, and as governor you can’t turn people away, or not approve of relations, or attitudes that you pick, or approve of religion or lack of it, and therefore I am going to deny you what the Constitution says,” he said. “This is an entitlement, that’s what the Constitution says and it makes clear under the First Amendment. To invoke religion from a governmental position is to utilize your religion in such away as to deny people.”

Abercrombie paused to look deeply at the clergy caucus he was speaking to before proceeding.

“You need to know what I think,” he said. “This is serious business. Someone is going to be elected governor in two weeks. You need to know, and if we are in a stage in a democracy where people are going to start using criteria whether someone else is worthy based on spiritual life, I have no problem telling you what mine is all about. I am certainly not going to be lectured to on the Bible or Buddhist teachings or anyone else. I’ve had my own journey.”

Politics From the Pulpit

Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) is a faith-based grassroots group founded locally in 1996 that primarily focuses on issues of social justice. Its website says the group has “a membership base of 27 institutions on Oahu, 24 on Maui, and one statewide: 38 churches, a Buddhist temple, 2 Jewish congregations, 10 community groups and non-profit organizations, and one labor union.”

Abercrombie was invited to address the group as FACE and The Interfaith Alliance Hawaii (TIAH), a progressive faith-based group, prepares to release a statement this weekend regarding the role of religion in elections. (Abercrombie’s opponent, James “Duke” Aiona, a Catholic who makes a point of speaking publicly about his faith, has been invited to address FACE next week.)

An early draft of the statement read, “Because faith and religious values are so important in these elections, we, the undersigned faith leaders, who believe in the absolute privacy of the voting booth, feel it is important for you to know that, even though we may tell you who we believe are the candidates to vote for, you have every right to ignore our advice just as you are free to ignore the advice of all others and all groups. In the end, the choice you make in the voting booth is entirely yours.”

The retired Rev. John Heidel, president of TIAH, told Civil Beat that he and other religious leaders are worried about what they see as an alarming trend of other leaders politicking from the pulpit.

“That is a direct violation of the separation of religion and government, and they are doing this becuase they want this as a test case,” said Heidel, who has been active in Hawaii’s religious communities since 1962.

Asked to identify the churches, Heidel could not name one. He cited statements made by GOP Chairman Jonah Kaauwai during the primary about voting for the most “righteous” candidate. A letter from Kaauwai was widely circulated and was posted on the website of the .

“As we get closer to the general election, there will be a lot of pressure on voters to vote in a a particular way,” warned Heidel. Referring to Kaauwai and others, “They feel so strongly and they want to get the word out.”

Blame It On Civil Unions

The reason “they” — meaning, broadly, religious conservatives in Hawaii — feel so strongly is because of the fight over civil unions, says Abercrombie.

“There are other issues as well,” he said, “but there is a serious issue here as to whether moving from considering democracy as a small ‘D’ basis for political action to a religious requirement that has to be met and decided by one group for everyone else. That is a serious issue, a constitutional issue, of civic equilibrium, and I take issue with it. The idea that someone has to meet a religious standard or a check-off has to be made whether you meet somebody’s required religious leanings by their definition — that is a change. That certainly is not Hawaii.”

Abercrombie used the well-known example of the late Gov. John Burns, a devout Roman Catholic who went to Mass as often as he could, allowing an abortion bill to become law in the 1970s. The bill was guided through the Legislature, said Abercrombie, by two Catholic lawmakers.

“The bill was passed on the basis of a commitment to civil rights, and at the time it never occurred to me they were Catholics,” he said. “They didn’t hold that up and put that in my face. I assumed their motivation was the idea of compassion.”

Abercrombie — as is his wont — continued: “We have this tradition of accepting one’s faith with respect.”

Abercrombie said there were anonymous “screeds” being circulated around Hawaii that aim to “demonize” him and his record. He referred to the campaign as a “21st-century version of what Goebbels did,” referring to the Reich minister of propaganda in Nazi Germany.

Drew Astolfi, FACE’s executive director, cited an example that he and other members said they had seen: a recent e-mail that said a Gov. Abercrombie would not allow Hawaii’s New Hope churches to hold services in public schools, as they do now.

Abercrombie indicated that he thought it was absurd to think that he would deny churches the right to use schools for Sunday worship.

A Spiritual Journey

Abercrombie produced two talisman that he says he carries with him always.

The first is a quote from Mohandas Gandhi: “Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man you have seen, and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be any use to him.”

“Think about this if you are a government official,” said Abercrombie. “Then you will find your doubt in self melting away. You are not the important one anymore. Your job is not about you. It is your capacity to act on behalf of others.”

The second talisman is from Sister Maureen Keleher, who ran St. Francis Hospital in Hawaii. Abercrombie did not read the second talisman, the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace …”).

Abercrombie spoke of other important readings to him in terms of government and faith, such as from the German-American theologian Paul Tillich, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr.

He choked up when recalling his friendship with the Rev. Mitsuo Aoki, the University of Hawaii religion professor who died just last month.

“My spiritual journey has led me to be very, very wary of making judgments of other people’s faith, and to be very leery of expressing self-righteousness over another’s humanity,” he said. “And above all, as a public official to make sure I did not use that authority in any way different than what Gandhi was talking about.”

As he did in several recent debates with his opponent, Abercrombie denounced anyone who would deny someone their civil rights on the basis of religion.

“That is not what a governor does,” he said.

God and the Civic Arena

But religion does have a critical role in American civic life, said Abercrombie, pointing to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that prominently featured religious leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.

He also credited island religious organizations with helping address issues like drug addiction and prisoner rehabilitation, saying he would want to work with these groups as governor.

“You will know them by the virtue of their deeds,” he said, paraphrasing Matthew 7:16.

Asked by the Rev. Bob Nakata, a former legislator and now pastor of the Kahaluu United Methodist Church, whether Abercrombie would be “foolish enough” to try and bring the issues discussed at the FACE forum to light, perhaps with the help of the media and universities, Abercrombie said, “Sure. I am happy to do that.”

Abercrombie relayed the governing style of former state Sen. President Dickie Wong, who had two rules: nobody leaves when decisions are being made, and nobody punches anybody.”

Wong’s point, said Abercrombie, is that people have to come together to resolve problems regardless of how much they disagree with each other. He added that he has recently been in “conversations” with some who oppose him through the Hawaii Pastors Roundtable, and cited those meetings as something good that may have come out of the strife over civil unions.

Pastor Sam Domingo of Harris United Methodist Church closed the talk by thanking Abercrombie for his “sermon.”

Replied Abercrombie, “Don’t forget, I was an Episcopalian — somewhat fallen astray, apparently. But once an Episcopalian, always an Episcopalian.”