Votes on war force Washington Democrats to reckon with faith, conscience and politics

[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnWASHINGTON (RNS) — U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman doesn’t technically wear his faith on his sleeve, but he comes pretty close. On his shoulder, he sports a tattoo of his favorite passage from Scripture: “Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God,” it says in Hebrew, a quote from the biblical Book of Micah.“God says very clearly, here’s what you should do,” said Landsman, pointing out that it is one of the few passages where God directly answers a question (“what does the Lord require of you?”) with an explicit directive.
Landsman, who studied economics and political science at The Ohio State University before attending Harvard Divinity School, said that as a member of Congress, “the degree in economics and a degree in theology have been the most useful.”
It has also been painful. The past few weeks, many members of Congress have been living on a knife’s edge, caught between their conscience and political calculation as they vote on what many see as the fate of Israel and the future of Palestinians.
Over the last two months, Landsman, a Jewish freshman congressman who represents a Cincinnati district with an influential Jewish vote, has faced what for him were tortuous votes on aid for Israel in its war against Hamas and the censure of a Democratic colleague for her pro-Palestinian rhetoric — votes that split Landsman’s l …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]