Sam Brownback’s unique way of showing respect and humility

June 7, 2006

The WaPo had an interesting item on Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) today, talking about the senator’s faith and conversion to Catholicism. There was one anecdote, however, that caught my eye.

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.

It’s often hard to say how the public at large might respond to something like this, but does this strike anyone else as a little odd? This is not to disparage his personal beliefs or religious practices, only to note that it strikes me as unusual for someone to wash their employees’ feet at a farewell party.

Humility?

He thinks he is Jesus Christ.

  • LOL! Great comment, DA!

    I was goiung to say, what was up with the employee? A normal respopnse would be:

    “Um, you want to do what, sir? No thanks, I’ll just have some cake.”

  • He washed their feet so that he could draw attention to himself for washing someone’s feet, and to ultimately have some write about how he washed someone’s feet.

    However, the joke was on the staffer because Brownback didn’t use soap.

  • I think everyone here is probably missing the point.

    I really think that Brownback meant it to show that he was being humble and he was being sincere.

    There is a lot in most religions that other people find absurd. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it wasn’t sincere.

    There is enough to pick on Brownback for. I don’t think this is one of them

  • neil, there’s a great old bridge near where i live for sale, cheap! act now for greater savings!

  • This is a symbolic act analogous to a Biblical tale of Christ. It wouldn’t raise an eyebrow from a practicing Christian except maybe in its practice by a person of status. Vato’s playing to his base.

  • With apologies to the late Rick James…

    He’s a very kinky senator.
    The kind you don’t take home to mother.

  • I get what Brownback was trying to do with the whole feet washing thing.

    Except, in Jesus’ day, washing someone’s feet was a common duty of the lower class. Jesus was saying in contemporary terms that he identified with the poor and despised of his day, not with the wealthy and powerful.

    Brownback is just showing he can mimic the forms of Christ’s actions without understanding the substance. I suggest he try taking a trash bag and walk along the side of a highway picking up garbage if he wants to prove his ‘humility’.

  • Fetishism and religion have a long history together. Besides, when a good-looking 23 year old female staffer who wears 4 inch heels and miniskirts leaves, God knows she deserves something special.

  • I have attended churches that have had foot-washing services, though I’ve never been to one of those services. But doing it at a farewell party is something else entirely, even stranger than Ashcroft’s desire to be anointed with oil, and it seems inconsistent with Christ’s warning not to be like the Pharisees, making an ostentatious display of your religiosity.

  • Indeed, such a lady deserves a truly heartfelt send-off. But having her feet washed in public by a middle-aged politician is like a 10.5 on the gross-o-meter. I mean, eewww!

    Must have scarred her for life emotionally, poor girl. 😉

  • I am Catholic – actually a practicing Catholic. On Holy Thursday during Lent – in some churches the priests will have their feet washed as a symbolic gesture of when Mary M (? – ok, maybe not totally up on my Catholic stuff) washed Jesus’ feet. Fine by me during Lent by the priests. But at a going away party for a staff member….that is just weird and bizarre.

  • Not so odd considering Brownback’s sponsor for his conversion to Catholicism was none other than Rick Santorum, who brought his deceased infant home from the hospital to show to his children. So I guess in that crowd, oddness is relative.

    (Note; I AM Catholic and I can assure you neither of these practices is part of the modern faith.)

  • He posed a question: “When we walk up to the McDonald’s counter, what if we looked at that person in the eye . . . and we said, ‘God bless you for that Big Mac?!’ “

    That person should look Mr Brownback right in the eye and say: “God damn you for voting for the Iraq war, letting Bush rape the constitution, and flushing my retirement down the toilet.”

  • Perhaps the situation prevented him from sniffing the guy’s behind, the usual test of hypocritical faith. Or maybe check his computer for url’s to foot fetish websites.

  • Beth,

    On Holy Thursday during Lent – in some churches the priests will have their feet washed as a symbolic gesture of when Mary M (? – ok, maybe not totally up on my Catholic stuff) washed Jesus’ feet.

    Yes, it was Mary Magdelene. At least as far as the “historical” record is concerned.

  • No, Sam, you don’t “run” for sainthood the same way someone “runs” for political office, it’s a posthumous honor that … oh, never mind.

  • Remember what “profession” that Mary Magdalene practiced?
    Quite fitting for a Republican’t politician.

  • Beth, I don’t believe Mary Magdalene enters into it. The Lenten services are inspired by Jesus’ washing of the disciples feet during the Last Supper, not by anyone washing Jesus’ feet.

  • If Brownback is sincere about his humility, he is entirely in the wrong profession.

    That said, Americans are confident about their religious beliefs, but will shy away from any odd displays of religiosity, which this qualifies, I believe.

  • Buzzmon,

    Remember what “profession” that Mary Magdalene practiced

    that’s a common misconception. your point remains, however.

  • “Uhh, thanks, Senator. I was hoping for a gift card from Target, but this is, well, different.”

  • If he wanted to truly show humility, he would’ve washed the staffers nose. After all, I’m sure it was completely dirty after having been frimly planted up Brownback’s ass for so long.

  • Did #4 really use “Brownback” and “sincere” in the same sentence? Wow.
    Lets set aside whether this is within the mainstream as a religious observance. Main reason for setting this aside is because it was not, it was work related. That work happens to be government. This was both creepy (c’mon, does anyone really think there was nothing prurient? has he washed the feet of the 60 yr old male janitor who retired?) and not appropriate for the workplace — especially since he was her supervisor. This shows uncommonly poor judgment, in addition to a lack of respect for a division of church and state. And, probably, a crush on the staffer.

  • Unusual, but I understand this event took place at a private event a few years ago. It doesn’t appear that he did it to get publicity. It took some time for word of it to get out.

  • So this guy plays with the feet of a young female staffer in public, pretending to be Jesus while doing it, and every major news outlet in the world reports the action with hagiographic awe?

    Now, I have no problem with people who have fetishes. I just think they should keep such displays in private, and I think the press should either call them for what they are or discretely ignore them.

  • The Pentecostals do this. When I was 16, my mom dragged me to a Pentecostal Church on New Year’s Eve for this crap. I snuck out and stayed in the parking lot all night.
    Talk about a fucked up New Year’s Eve.

  • Was Brownback wearing a lamp shade on his head when he did this? He probably turned a lot of wine into water that night too. Politically, Kansas IS Oz.

  • You guys read Don’t Think Of An Elephant? People have their religions, a lot of them are weird ones, and a lot of people on the right are sincere about their beliefs. And Kansas is [i]really[/i] weird. Brownback is sincerely a right-winger. It stands to reason that Brownback is a sincere, weird right-winger. What’s so hard to believe about that?

    I have to support Neil and similar sentiments on this one. Brownback is a bastard and a nutty right-winger, but he is likely sincerely a nutty right-wing bastard.

  • I don’t think there’s any foot fetish here. I come from a Christian background that actively practices feetwashing as a sacrament. In Jesus’s time, it was a way to welcome travelers and strangers into one’s home. But it probably would be assigned to someone with a lower social ranking: servant, child, woman, etc. So when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, he was giving an example of how the mighty must serve. It is a very humbling and NONSEXUAL rite.

    However, in this circumstance there is no religious sacrament, so it does strike me as odd. Afterall, this is a farewell party that is being described. This actually raises questions and concerns about his ability to separate his religious practices from other activities. The best analogy I can give would be if he decided to take or give communion at the farewell party. There is a time and a place for everything, and I don’t think this was it. But some people….

  • I’d be surprized if M. Magdalen were involved in foot-washing.

    Some years ago there was a great to-do in Pittsburgh (I think) over a foot-washing ceremony in the Catholic Church. Apparently it was an immense honor to be chosen to be a foot-washer, but the Bishop (or whatever he was), whose name I remember as Bevilacqua (sp?), was a conservative who wouldn’t allow women to be chosen. They gave the same rationale as for no women priests, i.e., the original foot-washers were male, so todays foot-washers had to be male, too.

    Amazing!

  • Dude, that is so footfetish.com

    Then again, the Catholic (and many other religious) rituals are rife with fetish-fodder.

  • It stands to reason that Brownback is a sincere, weird right-winger. What’s so hard to believe about that?

    If the prevert had ever washed any feet other than that of a young female employee, I would have an easier time believing it. If I find out he’s also been washing the feet of elderly african-american men, I’ll retract my snide comment.

    Absent something like that, I think the guy is displacing frustrated sexual urges towards a young female by engaging in this kind of behavior. Now, I don’t think Brownback is aware of what he is doing. He probably thinks he’s just being pious and that warm glow he gets all over is holiness, whereas it’s really just the hornyness of a dirty old man.

    It is a serious problem in our society that we give the worst kinds of nuttiness a free pass, so long as the nuttiness is channeled through religion.

  • Jesus-envy? most definitely. next, it’ll be “annointings”on the House floor. there has to be a special circle in Hell for this stuff.

  • Most of you think that footwashing is wacky or erotic, yet you believe it is ok to Kill the most innocent. Plus you think appeasing evil is Love & Peace. Only darkened minds can think such darkened thoughts.
    Footwashing is a sure way to honor someone and at the same time it does take humility to be the foot washer. It is humbling to bow and wash another persons feet (male or female) and can be, and is done without perversion all the time. I have given and received a few myself. It produced tears, not orgasms, and honour, not shame!
    And give us all a break on the fabricated myth of “Seperation of Church and State.” It was unheard of the first 230 sane years of our country.
    Also I have personally spent time with Senator Sam Brownback and have witnessed his great virtues, he is certainly the opposite of nutty.
    Of course most of you would be calling 90% of our forefathers “Nutty Right-Wingers.”

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