A June 7 Style story on Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) misstated the planting and harvest seasons for wheat in Kansas. According to the Kansas Department of Agriculture, the predominant wheat crop in the state is generally planted in September and harvested in June.
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Faith-Based Initiative
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback: "Instead of getting angry at somebody for opposing you on something . . . you just pray blessings on them, blessings on their family."
(Bill O'Leary -- The Washington Post)
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"But they were living people," said Specter, whose parents were Jewish immigrants.
"These are living embryos," Brownback countered. He then hastened to reassure his opponents that he knew they meant well.
"I do not think our hearts are any different," he told one.
A Humble Leader
During visits to Israel, Brownback used to study the Torah with Ariel Sharon, calling it "each of us feeding our souls." Lately he has been reading the Koran. He says Islam's holy book talks a lot about weighing people's good deeds against their bad deeds, and this has made him appreciate Christianity more.
"That's why I love grace so much. And mercy," he says. "Think of the burden that is on a person, that you're going to be weighed. And all of us fall short."
This notion of falling short is a big part of Brownback's identity. He's even humble about his own humility, saying there are others who surpass him in this virtue. Once, years ago, he washed the feet of a staffer at a farewell party to demonstrate respect and humility. When he feels his staffers need guidance, he gives them index cards with Scripture encouraging them to follow Christ's model of servant leadership, or reminding them that "Pride goes before destruction."
He says he struggles "to be really fully committed to the faith -- to die to self," to "pick up His cross daily and carry it." He talks about a visit he made earlier this year to Gospel Rescue Ministries downtown, where he stayed overnight in a room full of men participating in a substance abuse program.
"But for the grace of God," he says three times, "there go I."
Brownback grew up one of four kids on a Kansas farm outside Parker, which had 281 residents in the last census. His childhood friend David Prentice recalls herding cattle with Sam on motorcycles. In high school Brownback was a quarterback ("Wasn't much of one," the senator says), and maintained a lustrous afro he likes to joke about now.
But if the young Sam was, as high school friend Joe Atwood describes him, "extremely overboard humble," he was also highly ambitious. He held leadership positions through law school at the University of Kansas and was state president of Future Farmers of America. At 30, he was appointed the youngest agriculture secretary in Kansas history.
And now, at 49, he's considering a run for president. Across the country, not many people know who Sam Brownback is. His fundraising has been lackluster, though it's still early. Even if he doesn't get close to winning, though, his support in the conservative Christian community may affect what other candidates are talking about.
"One of his major contributions would be to anchor the moral issues in the Republican Party," says Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister and president of the conservative National Clergy Council. "He in a way could hold the evangelical and the traditional Catholic vote hostage if the party began to waver on those issues."
