Book Review: Faith Severed from Reason
G. Tracy Mehan III

Faith and Politics: How the ‘Moral Values’ Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together
Sen. John Danforth, Viking Adult, $24.95, 256 pages

Sen. John Danforth—Missouri Republican, stalwart defender of Justice Clarence Thomas, special envoy to the Sudan, and ambassador to the United Nations—has led an exemplary life. A lawyer, an Episcopal priest, devoted husband and father of five children, Jack Danforth (his customary name) led the resurgence of the GOP in Missouri. Elected state attorney general in 1968, he was the first Republican elected statewide in over two decades. He defended a state law restricting abortion, personally arguing the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, with the overwhelming support of the fledgling right-to-life movement which was made up mostly of Catholic (often Labor) and Baptist “Reagan Democrats.” In later years he labored to provide food to Cambodians ravaged by Pol Pot and to further the peace process in Sudan. the rest