Kerry Speaks out directly about his faith

[Perky]

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) -- Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Monday urged people of faith to work cooperatively on problems such as poverty, global warming and reducing the number of abortions - "godly tasks" that transcend the nation's culture wars.

In a speech laced with anecdotes of his own journey of faith, Kerry, a Roman Catholic, told students in a speech at Pepperdine University that "we can take up God's work as our own.

"Shame on us if we use our faith to divide and alienate people from one another, or if we draft God into partisan service," Kerry said. "As God gives us the ability to see, let us take up the tasks associated with loving our neighbors as ourselves."

Even with the nation riven over reproductive rights, Kerry said a shared goal should be reducing the high number of abortions. The first step, he said, it to accept the responsibility of making abortion rare.


And

"Even as a supporter of Roe v. Wade, I am compelled to acknowledge that the language both sides use on this subject can be unfortunately misleading and unconstructive. ... Everyone is worse off for it," the Massachusetts senator said.


Kerry said although he was raised Catholic, it wasn't until years after the Vietnam War that he came to a deeper understanding about his faith.

"For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. Then suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings. Indeed, the scriptures provided a firmer guide about values applied to life," he said.


http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KERRY_RELIGION?SITE=CATOR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-18-21-16-49

[orpupilofnature57]

1. He should have gone head to head with Fundies more in 2004

being a liberal and a christian I find no problem blending what I believe and what I can prove or Know. It's the same as when Dem's hide from the word Liberal.

[greenman3610]

2. it's been an unnecessary mistake

to give up this ground.
GOP is trying to make hay with Rosie O Donnell's
completely rational condemnation of "radical Christians",
and Dems should stand up for that.
There is a big groundswell of folks being alienated
from the Repubs because of the Swaggert/Timothy McVeigh
types - they need a signal that they can have a new home.

[fedupinBushcountry]

4. You don't understand

and it has nothing to do with being a liberal. Kerry is Catholic and so am I, and back when I was growing up, we Catholics were not taught to push our religion on to others, our faith was personal and our belief was to help others. We were not bible thumpers we were brought up on the catechism.

Read the whole speech, not just the cherry picked words of the MSM.


http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4212

[orpupilofnature57]

11. I too was raised a Roman catholic and that lack of thumping and knowledge

of what "Catechism" was based on, ' The Bible ' was why Kerry shrunk whilst Fundies stole the election.Embarrassment of being a christian and embarrassment of being a Liberal is the same thing, weak.

[fedupinBushcountry]

14. Embarrassment ?

Give me a break. I know what the catechism was based on, I went to Catholic school for 12 years, my Aunt was a nun (now deceased). I am not embarrassed of being a Catholic and neither is Kerry.

I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office. John F. Kennedy 9/12/60

You might want to read the speech, you may actually get something out of it, instead of bashing.

[orpupilofnature57]

16. Thanks I've read most of them ,heres one for you.

http://millercenter.virginia.edu/scripps/diglibrary/prezspeeches/kennedy/jfk_1961_0427.html It's not my fault ,Though its good to here about your family , are they uptight catholics too?Kerry was Weak ,the Car hart was a lack of Faith and Identity.Oh by the way J.F.K. is talking about the catholic church also.

[Sapere aude]

15. I was raised Catholic and yes we were to proselytize.

I was taught that the Catholic church was the one true church and that before the end of the world there would be one church and one religion and that would be the Catholic religion. I was taught that if someone were told that the Catholic faith was the one true faith and that they did not accept that then they were going to hell. We were to go out and convert the non Catholics. I went to Catholic grade school, high school and college. My brother is a priest. I do not believe anything I was taught as a Catholic.


We believe in the one holy catholic
and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.

[orpupilofnature57]

17. Because you saw through the Pius bull .

[ray of light]

6. Actually he did.

Not only did he meet and greet people every Sunday at churches around the country, he's a devout Catholic who attends Wed. and Sun. mass. I remember reading about his faith and Teresa's faith during the 04 election.

Also, during the debates, he nailed Bush and the Republicans on their own biblical 'theory' by quoting,

KERRY: Well, I respect everything that the president has said and certainly respect his faith. I think it's important and I share it. I think that he just said that freedom is a gift from the Almighty.

Everything is a gift from the Almighty. And as I measure the words of the Bible -- and we all do; different people measure different things -- the Koran, the Torah, or, you know, Native Americans who gave me a blessing the other day had their own special sense of connectedness to a higher being. And people all find their ways to express it.

I was taught -- I went to a church school and I was taught that the two greatest commandments are: Love the Lord, your God, with all your mind, your body and your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. And frankly, I think we have a lot more loving of our neighbor to do in this country and on this planet.

We have a separate and unequal school system in the United States of America. There's one for the people who have, and there's one for the people who don't have. And we're struggling with that today.

And the president and I have a difference of opinion about how we live out our sense of our faith.

I talked about it earlier when I talked about the works and faith without works being dead.

I think we've got a lot more work to do. And as president, I will always respect everybody's right to practice religion as they choose -- or not to practice -- because that's part of America."

and this:

"Can I say, if I could just say a word about a woman that you didn't ask about, but my mom passed away a couple years ago, just before I was deciding to run. And she was in the hospital, and I went in to talk to her and tell her what I was thinking of doing.

And she looked at me from her hospital bed and she just looked at me and she said, "Remember: integrity, integrity, integrity. "Those are the three words that she left me with.

And my daughters and my wife are people who just are filled with that sense of what's right, what's wrong.

They also kick me around. They keep me honest. They don't let me get away with anything. I can sometimes take myself too seriously. They surely don't let me do that.

And I'm blessed, as I think the president is blessed, as I said last time. I've watched him with the first lady, who I admire a great deal, and his daughters. He's a great father. And I think we're both very lucky."

and

"And, with faith in God and with conviction in the mission of America, I believe that we can reach higher. I believe we can do better."

[Jay_the_realist]

3. Why do all politicians need to have a religion

All religion does is get in the way of advancment, I'd lend my bote to almost any politican who said "You know fcuk it, I don;t know if there is a god and franckly I don't care! It's making things better in this life that is more important that worrying about an afterlife that probably isn't there"

[vi5]

5. Oh brother. Here we go.....

Election around the corner and all of a sudden we have to bear witness to the race to the bottom to prove who can be more holy and pious and who can shove their religion down people's throats more. We'll have to hear the chest beating about how all those atheists and secular humanists are ruining it for everyone else and thusly have to watch supposedly liberal politicans run screaming into the arms of fundementals everywhere and pander to people who under no circumstances would ever vote for a liberal or a democrat anyway.

I'm just going to pull the covers over my head until election day then go pull the lever for dems but in the meantime try to avoid discussions about how me and my scary 2% fellow atheists have all the power and are corrupting this country.

[Leopolds Ghost]

10. Not to mention those supposedly liberal atheists and secular folks

Who think Dems should fight the culture war (and write off what remains of the working class) but have little to say about social and economic justice, a subject that the bible goes on about at length...

Folks don't seem to realize the number of 60's peace activists who were drummed out of divinity school for their pioneering involvement in the civil rights movement. It was around then that Republicans realized the importance of religion in the war for American hearts and minds at home.

[jedr]

7. A statement like this would have been useful in 2004;

At this point it's just useless rethoric....Maybe he'll get around to answering the swift-boater's soon......Sorry but he has little credibility anymore, even if he is one of our own.

[politicasista]

12. Who has more credibilty then?

[jedr]

13. There doesn't have to be someone with more Cred',,

the fact is that Kerry's lack of definitive answers when needed has given us Siftboating as a effective means of discrediting decorated vets and G.W. Bush. Whatever creditability he had in the '70's is gone now. I would only vote for him due to the fact I would vote for a trained monkey VS GW.( Late post , no return needed...thanks for your response)

[Jacobin]

8. gag me with a spoon

:thumbsdown:

[Apollo11]

9. The Age of Reason?

As a humanist and a rationalist I object to the idea that people should base their choice of candidates on which one they think is "more Christian" than the other one.

All this stuff about being a born again Catholic leaves a sour taste in my mouth. If John Kerry is such a devout Catholic, then how come he had his first marriage annulled - 27 years after the event? Maybe because Teresa Heinz insisted on having a church wedding? None of my business, but I wonder how Alexandra and Vanessa feel about it ...

Learn about the Catholic Church's policy on annulment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annulment

PS - I am divorced and remarried myself. But I don't go around saying that the Catholic Church has all the answers (which is in effect, what John Kerry seems to be saying).


"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, 1793
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine


Gore's 2008 Plans May Become Clearer After Release of Book
By John F. Harris and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post, Sunday, September 17, 2006
Although saying he has no plans to run for president in 2008, former vice president Al Gore has nonetheless left the door ever so slightly ajar. It's a good bet that door will swing open a good bit wider come next May.
That is when Gore is scheduled to publish his next book. With no fanfare, he signed a few weeks ago with Penguin Press to write "The Assault on Reason."
As described by editor Scott Moyers, the book is a meditation on how "the public arena has grown more hostile to reason," and how solving problems such as global warming is impeded by a political culture with a pervasive "unwillingness to let facts drive decisions." <...>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/16/AR2006091600877.html