We Loved You, Mark Hatfield

Former Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), who died at 89 years of age, was a hero to many of us who consider ourselves "New Evangelicals."

My first occasion to hear him speak was in 1970, the graduation ceremony at Fuller Theological Seminary. It was a contentious political era in the height of the Vietnam War, and the hard feelings were felt deep in the nation's psyche and exemplified by the black armbands being worn that day. As an opponent of the War, one of the few in the United States Senate, Hatfield was invited to address the graduates. Upon completion of his message, which presaged thoughts from his 1971 book "Between a Rock and a Hardplace," a banner was unfurled entitled "We Love You Mark." It represents how so many of us felt then, and always have since, about this principled man.