In 1995, Sam Brownback sacrificed part of his body and wound up closer to God. He discovered a melanoma and had to have two surgeries, during which a "big hunk of flesh" was taken out of his side.
"It was a great season in life," the Kansas senator says in his soft lullaby of a voice. "Season" is one of his favorite words. He sometimes sounds as though he's quoting the Bible even when he isn't.
I can identify now better with people that have cancer, 'cause when you're told that, it's kind of like -- where else? What else is going on in this body?" Brownback says. He is sitting on a couch in an office in the Capitol and once or twice smiles a serene smile. "But that's mind focused on the flesh. That's death. Literally, you almost can worry yourself to death."
Instead of dying, the first-term Republican congressman had a revelation. In a speech once, he likened the melanoma to God pounding on his hardened heart, even bringing a hunk of concrete and an ax onstage to make the point. He says now it produced "a wonderful and radical transformation of focus." When he ran for the Senate the next year, his spiritual awakening gave him the determination to run an aggressive campaign and crush his opponents at the polls.
The WP is trying to present Brownback as a "compassionate Christian conservative." I found it a little unsettling how gently they treat him in this article. There's much more here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/AR2006060601616.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
