Kerry and Religion: Pressure Builds for Public Discussions

[Q]

Kerry and Religion: Pressure Builds for Public Discussions
By JODI WILGOREN and BILL KELLER

Published: October 7, 2004

When Senator John Kerry highlighted the issue this week, he framed it as a matter of clinical science, surrounded himself with university researchers and doctors in white laboratory coats and disease sufferers. Mr. Kerry seized on the stem cell issue to portray himself as the champion of human reason and scientific progress versus what he called Mr. Bush's stubborn devotion to "extreme right-wing ideology."

At a town hall forum on Monday in New Hampshire, the senator never uttered the words faith, moral, religion, prayer, conscience or God, instead conjuring Galileo and other scientists who once drew the wrath of established religion. It was a typical performance for Mr. Kerry, a Roman Catholic who attends Mass on most Sundays but has largely avoided discussions of faith throughout a campaign in which Mr. Bush has frequently appealed to religious sensibilities and is trying to raise the Election Day turnout of the evangelical and the orthodox.

Aides attribute Mr. Kerry's visible discomfort in discussing religion to his Catholic upbringing in reserved New England, a contrast to Mr. Bush's spiritual rebirth into the more confessional tradition of evangelical Christianity. Also, pollsters say that the secular liberals, including many Jews, who make up part of the Democrats' base often recoil at blending religion and politics. Polls suggest that Mr. Kerry may be paying a price for his privacy, with nearly three-quarters of the public wanting a president of "strong religious faith," and a swath of independent voters who identify as religious swaying toward Mr. Bush.

"There are a lot of middle-of-the-road Catholics and middle-of-the-road Protestants who aren't over there with the religious right but who take their faith very seriously and who are open to appeal," said Prof. John C. Green of the University of Akron, who specializes in religion and politics and found in a study that 8 to 10 percent of Catholics and evangelicals remained undecided. "What you're looking for in a campaign,'' he said, "is the candidate talks a certain way and the voter says, 'Yeah, I get it.' I think maybe an opportunity is being missed."

Mr. Kerry, who wears a small crucifix around his neck and carries a rosary and Bible on the road, said in an interview on his campaign plane on Monday that he would most likely give a speech about religion and policy "somewhere in the course of the next month."


http://nytimes.com/2004/10/07/politics/campaign/07memo.html?hp&ex=1097208000&en=95613deafdfcca8d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Q]

1. 75 percent of the 'public' wants a president with 'strong religious faith?

- You would think that Americans wouldn't want a president that wears his religion on his sleeve and doesn't pretend to 'communicate' with God.

[LizW]

2. Wilgoren alert

I don't like it. I think it's a bad idea. Anything he says about religion is not going to satisfy a lot of people, and the right wing-nuts will just use it against him.

If he tells the truth, which is that he believes in separation of church and state, the right will portray him as ready to "take away threir Bibles". And if he panders, well, that will make me puke.

[ismnotwasm]

3. So

Should we all be required to state religious preferences prior to casting our votes? Maybe the Democrat/Catholic party, or the rebublican/Baptist party. I understand the point of the article, but it is just so annoying. I like the fact he is private about his faith. Way it should be.

[bryant69]

4. This might be a new meme

Marvin Olasky's article today was about his catholicism as well, and somewhat humerously took all its quotes (I think) from Windsurfer Magazine. (Reviewed it for my website, actually --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com/archives/2004_10_03_politicalcomment_archive.html#109716546896126550

Personally, as a religious person, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of a discussion on it; but I'm not sure now is the right time for it. Seems like it would be a trap. "You claim to be a Catholic, but you don't seem to agree with the church's position on Abortion."

Bryant

[Behind the Aegis]

5. If he were to say something.

Perhaps he could say:

MATTHEW 6:5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

MATTHEW 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

And since many do not actually read the Bible, he would need to explain that these passages mean one should not run around spouting religion, but should contain it to their homes and hearts as G-d wanted!

Brightest Blessings!

[greekspeak]

6. What happened to that "no religious test for office" bit?

I guess that went out the window with bell bottoms and rational thinking. 75% want a president with strong religious faith? I think they mean a modern day Abrahamic Pharisee, someone who prays loudly on the street corner and trumpets his or her religion from the rooftops, along with a healthy dose of hate disguised as caring.