Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/01/politics/01DANF.html
On July 1, 2004 The New York Times ran a feature story on John C. Danforth, Episcopal minister, former United States senator and newly-appointed American ambassador to the United Nations, and his views on religion and politics: "If the American voice at the United Nations is now to be a boldly faith-based one, it will probably run along the carefully parallel tracks on which Mr. Danforth has pursued his political and ecclesiastical lives since receiving separate degrees from Yale's schools of law and divinity on the same day in 1963. In his 18 years in the Senate, he regularly preached at Tuesday morning services at St. Alban's parish church at the National Cathedral...Mr. Danforth was known in the Capitol as Saint Jack — a nickname that paid tribute to his unassailable rectitude while also hinting at occasional annoyance over his bent for moralizing piety. 'Jack is as zealous an advocate of the separation of church and state as anyone you can find,' said Alex Netchvolodoff, his closest friend and chief of staff for 22 years. 'He fervently believes that the government has no business embracing theology, but he does not say that one's own view of life can't inform how you behave, and those are important distinctions.' His voice will be distinctly nonpartisan, friends say. 'He will be pursuing a line that will be much more Colin Powell than George Bush,' said John Deardourff, a longtime Republican political consultant and Danforth adviser. 'What made him electable and re-electable was the sense that his major interest was in not being a partisan Republican.'"