Posted on 08/06/2004 11:50:07 AM PDT by Graybeard58
America is a religious nation. Polls reveal 94 percent of Americans believe in God or "a higher power," 84 percent believe religion is fairly or very important to them, 85 percent believe in life after death and 61 percent pray at least once a day. Consequently, presidential candidates and political parties know that if they come off as too secular, they will alienate voters. So they routinely appoint aides to advise them on religion issues.
This spring, Sen. John Kerry hired Mara Vanderslice to be his director of religious outreach. Billed as a Christian activist, Ms. Vanderslice was raised without a faith and grew up to become a radical left-wing agitator who has spoken at rallies staged by ACT-UP, an anti-Catholic group. She became a born-again Christian while at Earlham College, where she belonged to the school's Socialist Alliance, which preached the godless Marxist-Leninist line. She participated in the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 2000 and Washington in 2002. When her true colors were exposed by the Catholic League, Sen. Kerry was forced to muzzle her, but did not remove her from his staff.
Now the Democratic National Committee has named the Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson as its director of religious outreach. "Brenda has dedicated her life to showing us all how religion and politics intersect with integrity," National Chairman Terry Mc- Auliffe said.
He did not mention the friend-of-the-court brief she filed last year in support of atheist Michael Newdow's suit seeking to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance.
These women are out of step with the nation and rank-and-file Democrats for that matter. Party faithful should be alarmed by the tin ear toward religion that Sen. Kerry and Mr. McAuliffe have shown.
Sen. Kerry has been criticized for his secularism, his anti-Catholic views on abortion and other church teachings, and his unwillingness to discuss his faith publicly. Time magazine recently reported that only 7 percent of Americans describe Sen. Kerry as a man of strong religious faith and that church-going Americans are flocking to support President Bush. And with appointments like Ms. Vanderslice and the Rev. Ms. Peterson, who can blame them?
Bush 54%
Kerry 44%
Nader 2%
I have trouble believing the second sentence. 94% believe in God or a higher power?
94% believe in God but only 84% believe in an after life.
What a depressing god.
As always, it depends on who's doing the polling.
Although, consistently, poll after poll show that the overwhelming majority of Americans do believe in God or a god.
Although that doesn't necessarily mean they pray, attend religious services, etc.
"I have trouble believing the second sentence. 94% believe in God or a higher power?"
Well, your trouble is resolved easily: at least 94% do have a supervisor of some sort, who IS A HIGHER POWER.
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