Posted on 06/15/2004 5:40:04 PM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has hired a new director of religion outreach, who is being described by a Catholic group as "a curious choice."
Mara Vanderslice, who formerly worked as religion outreach director for Democrat Howard Dean, was raised without any faith and didn't become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism, the Catholic League said on Monday.
According to Catholic League President William Donohue, when Vanderslice was in college she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism.
Upon college graduation, Donohue said, Vanderslice spoke at rallies organized by ACT-UP, an anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989 and spit the Eucharist on the floor.
In 2000, according to Donohue, Vanderslice practiced civil disobedience by taking part in a protest of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, and in 2002, she was among those who tried to shut down the nation's capital in a protest against the IMF and the World Bank.
"At first John Kerry was considered too moderate for Mara, which is why she became Howard Dean's Religion Outreach Director," Donohue said. "She admits that she was a freak in the Dean campaign: her colleagues dubbed her the 'church lady,' informing her that Dean was liked precisely because he didn't talk about religion."
"'How in the world did you get hired?' is how one staffer put it," Donohue said.
"Unfazed Mara contends we have a 'collective commitment to protect the integrity of God's creation,' specifically citing the needs of the 'least of these.' Yet she supports John Kerry, a man who has never learned of an abortion he couldn't justify, Donohue said.
"All the polls show Kerry getting whipped badly by Bush among practicing Catholics, Protestants and Jews. Moreover, the latest edition of Time magazine reports that only 7 percent of likely voters think Kerry is a man of strong religious faith," Donohue said.
"Given all this, his choice of Mara Vanderslice as his religious point woman is confounding. Her resume is that of a person looking for a job working for Fidel Castro, not John Kerry.
"Just wait until Catholics and Protestants learn who this lady really is," he added.
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I suppose it's reassuring that "only 7 percent of likely voters" need a keeper!
She's an evangelical????
I'm starting to think this guy is intentionally trying to be profane.
Would you listen to her? She should be taking my lunch order and being nice about it if she wants a tip.
I wish the bishops had the guts of Bill Donohue.
Sounds like college to me.
However, I was able to verify most of the things in this article.
On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2003, the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition held a panel discussion/press conference entitled Iraq: George W. Bush's "Vietnam"? at the National Press Club in Washington DC. The panel featured former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, family members of U.S. GIs, and other leaders of the anti-war movement, who collectively discussed the growing mood in the United States to bring U.S. troops back from Iraq and to end the occupation.
Couple this with the recent coming out party for Jim Wallis and Clinton's new-found charitableness ... and I have to wonder if the recent abduction of a Catholic archbishop in Iraq will be the next thing libs can associate with to try to draw some religious folks to their ranks.
Might be revealing to see if/how Fr. Jean-Marie Benjamin and/or Archbishop Renato Raffaele Martino (the former Vatica-UN liaison who was the most shrill Vatican critic of US action against Iraq, along with Jean-Louis Tauran, who issued statements that went beyond what John Paul himself said) chime in on it.
www.benjaminforiraq.org
I wonder if he tithes in oil, cash, or blood...
I think up until 2003 he tithed in oil vouchers.
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