Kerry Flip-Flops on His Faith

NewsMax ^ | 10/15/04 | Fr. Michael Reilly

[wagglebee]

NewsMax.com's Fr. Michael Reilly zeroes in on John Kerry's little-noticed debate flip-flop on religion in politics.

"Now, with respect to religion, you know, as I said, I grew up a Catholic. I was an altar boy. I know that throughout my life this has made a difference to me," Sen. John Kerry told the audience at Arizona State University during Wednesday night's presidential debate. Kerry explained that he can't rely on his faith when it comes to issues like abortion and gay marriage, but by the end of his answer, he was arguing that his faith influences his positions on poverty and the environment.

"I believe that I can't legislate or transfer to another American citizen my article of faith. What is an article of faith for me is not something that I can legislate on somebody who doesn't share that article of faith," Kerry pontificated.

But are the facts of biology really an article of faith?

Science, not faith, tells us that life begins at conception - and legislators who claim to respect what science teaches really have no choice in the matter.

The truth is, for Sen. Kerry, neither faith nor science has much to do with his position on abortion. His Senate record shows a 20-year history of pandering to the anti-life special interest groups that still hold the Democratic Party captive on this issue.

In this year's campaign, Kerry has accepted the endorsement of Planned Parenthood Federation, an aggressive promoter of abortion. He stopped his campaign and flew across the country to vote against the Unborn Victims of Violence Law (Laci's Law), which protects pregnant women and their unborn babies against violence.

Just last week he called the Catholic Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life "extreme right-wing ideology."

He also voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban six times, despite the fact that the ban included an exception for the life of the mother.

According to the Congressional Record, Kerry stated in 1994 that he would "vote against any restrictions on age, consent, funding restrictions, or any law to limit access to abortion."

He voted 25 times in favor of using taxpayer dollars to fund abortion. What's more, he has made it very clear that Catholics who agree with the Church teaching need not apply for judgeships.

In short, while claiming a Catholic heritage, he has used every opportunity to undermine Catholic values. This is why Kerry is trailing Bush among Catholics 53 percent to 36 percent. .

Of course when it's convenient for Kerry to cite the very faith he so often disdains, he has no problem doing so.

During the same two minute answer during Wednesday night's debate, Kerry proclaimed:

"My faith affects everything that I do, in truth. There's a great passage of the Bible that says, 'What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead.'

"And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people.

"That's why I fight against poverty. That's why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth.

"That's why I fight for equality and justice. All of those things come out of that fundamental teaching and belief of faith."

So for Kerry, it's not appropriate for faith to influence his views on abortion and gay marriage, but it's the driving force behind his positions on poverty and the environment.

Flip-flop, anyone?

[wagglebee]

The arrogance of this hypocrite astounds me more and more every day.

[lahargis]

He's a loser.

[GSlob]

So is it that he had faith before not having it or that he did not have it before getting some?

[wagglebee]

sKerry has absolute faith, in the federal government.
He has faith that sooner or later Marxism will succeed and his hope is that America will be that "success".

[Fiddlstix]

He was a Catholic before he was a Protestant before he was a Hindu before he was a Jew before he was a Muslim.......
Oh! Hell! Forget it..........

(I'd have to buy another computer just to keep up with all his flip flops)

[theoldChief]

"So is it that he had faith before not having it or that he did not have it before getting some?"

JFraud would quickly tell you: "Yes."

[jmstein7]

Please Support the GOP 2004 End Game!

The RNC: runs the all-around ground-game on Election Day (e.g., Get Out The Vote) AND the legal effort (anti-vote fraud measures)

https://www.donationreport.com/init/controller/ProcessEntryCmd?key=X1I6V1C9E8

John Thune for Senate: Daschle must go, but Thune needs $ for that final push against a well-financed, fraud-cushioned incumbent.

https://www.rapiddonor.com/JohnThune/

Majority Fund for America's Future: Funds/runs the campaigns in the tightest Senate races that need the most last-minute resources

https://donate.majorityfundforamerica.org/index.cfm?mode=account&category_meta_id=433

National Republican Senatorial Committee: Ground Game for the close Senate races + Presidential

https://donate.nrsc.org/index.cfm?mode=account&category_meta_id=150

National Republican Congressional Committee: Ground game for the close House races + Presidential

https://www.donationreport.com/init/controller/ProcessEntryCmd?key=K6X4V6F8B6

STOMP, the Strategic Taskforce to Organize and Mobilize People is a nationwide network of dedicated volunteers who have committed to assisting Republicans in our most competitive areas. By strengthening our Party in the most competitive areas, we will lead all of our Republican candidates to victory.

https://www.donationreport.com/init/controller/ProcessEntryCmd?key=Y6Y6P2I5B0

And, of course, GELAC, the Bush-Cheney '04 Legal Compliance Committee (fighting vote fraud, e.g.)

https://www.donationreport.com/init/controller/ProcessEntryCmd?key=I5B7P3F2B6

[GSlob]

"sKerry has absolute faith, in the federal government."
Were it the case, becoming a gigolo would be superfluous. Thus I have some doubt as to the quoted statement.

[wagglebee]

He's just hedging his bets.

[rockprof]

He's just hedging his bets.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. Rev 3:15-16 (NIV)

[austinaero]

sKerry wears his faith like a sweater,,puts it on when convenient to shield him,,,takes it off when it gets a little warm.

I don't know what it's called,,but he has no faith,,,just empty, soulless rhetoric.

[Lexinom]

"Now, with respect to religion, you know, as I said, I grew up a Catholic. I was an altar boy. I know that throughout my life this has made a difference to me," Sen. John Kerry told the audience at Arizona State University during Wednesday night's presidential debate. Kerry explained that he can't rely on his faith when it comes to issues like abortion and gay marriage, but by the end of his answer, he was arguing that his faith influences his positions on poverty and the environment.

Does anyone see the inherent problem in statements like the above? Everybody, without exception, bases their decisions on a belief system resting on unseen, transcendent truths, or archi (Greek, lit. first things). These are the root. A person's "religion" or "faith" can be said to be which set of core beliefs their actions reflect, and not just what they say.

Kerry himself said, paraphrasing the Apostle James, "Faith without works is dead." Now, which belief system to his works - his votes on abortion, his wishy-washiness on the gay issue - reflect? See my page for a hint...

[NYer]

Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

THE FIVE NON-NEGOTIABLE ISSUES
These five current issues concern actions that are intrinsically evil and must never be promoted by the law. Intrinsically evil actions are those which fundamentally conflict with the moral law and can never be deliberately performed under any circumstances. It is a serious sin to deliberately endorse or promote any of these actions, and no candidate who really wants to advance the common good will support any action contrary to the non-negotiable principles involved in these issues.

1. Abortion

The Church teaches that, regarding a law permitting abortions, it is "never licit to obey it, or to take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or to vote for it" (EV 73). Abortion is the intentional and direct killing of an innocent human being, and therefore it is a form of homicide.

The unborn child is always an innocent party, and no law may permit the taking of his life. Even when a child is conceived through rape or incest, the fault is not the child's, who should not suffer death for others' sins.

2. Euthanasia

Often disguised by the name "mercy killing," euthanasia also is a form of homicide. No person has a right to take his own life, and no one has the right to take the life of any innocent person.

In euthanasia, the ill or elderly are killed, by action or omission, out of a misplaced sense of compassion, but true compassion cannot include intentionally doing something intrinsically evil to another person (cf. EV 73).

3. Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.

4. Human Cloning

"Attempts . . . for obtaining a human being without any connection with sexuality through 'twin fission,' cloning, or parthenogenesis are to be considered contrary to the moral law, since they are in opposition to the dignity both of human procreation and of the conjugal union" (RHL I:6).

Human cloning also involves abortion because the "rejected" or "unsuccessful" embryonic clones are destroyed, yet each clone is a human being.

5. Homosexual "Marriage"

True marriage is the union of one man and one woman. Legal recognition of any other union as "marriage" undermines true marriage, and legal recognition of homosexual unions actually does homosexual persons a disfavor by encouraging them to persist in what is an objectively immoral arrangement.

"When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral" (UHP 10).

ABBREVIATIONS

CCC Catechism of the Catholic Church

CPL Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Notes on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life

CRF Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family

EV John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

RHL Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation

UHP Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons

---

Voter's Guide for Serious Catholics

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[Flying Circus]

Funny thing about him quoting James, the first thought that came to my mind is that he was saying his faith is dead. If he cannot work from his political position to protect life, then his faith is meaningless and dead.

[holden]

I think perhaps God let sKerry say that, with the implication to anyone aware of James' teaching, given 20 years without works representation in government, the only reasonable conclusion is that--

whatever his faith, it's dead!"

HF

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

In terms of the public policy issue, legal history, and political controversy of abortion, that an unborn child is "living" and "human" is not primarily some mystical "article of faith" in Catholicism and cannot be written off as such. The moral teaching of the church provided on legalized abortion is not an "article of faith." It does not require faith to figure out that an unborn child is "living" and "human." Kerry is very confused about this issue. Or...he willfully misrepresents and distorts the issue for political purposes.

I must add that Kerry talks about religion and Catholicism through the confused haze and heretical fog of fideism.

I wish a group of ethical and legal scholars would publish a book or article calling Kerry's number on this in a way that is compelling, clear, thorough, and decisive. Did you see Charles Krauthammer's article which slams Kerry and Edwards for their sophistry and misrepresentation of the embryonic stem cells issue?

Kerry might as well suggest that he will need to review all U.S. laws on rape, murder (of adult humans), and stealing because he just realized that the Catholic Church prohibits those as a matter of "faith" as well. [irony]

[Salvation]

To read later.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Kerry apparently thinks enough people can be snookered into buying his "article of faith" line, excluding pro-life policy on religious grounds as if that ends the argument. This is just more balderdash and nonsense from Teresa's ultra-liberal fopdoodle. He ought to be spanked.