The Fight over Faith (so-called)

There is no note in an article or blog yet anywhere, so far as I know, but the program for "CNN Presents" focused on the threat posed to liberal political power and the treasured "religious diversity of America" by evangelical Christians.

Violent disregard was made of the substance of the moral issues on which evangelicals speak out. Also noted was the patent assumption that liberal religion was the historical and cultural baseline against which evangelicals were emerging in revolt, whereas protestant evangelical Christianity forms the principal backdrop for three hundred years of American history.

Are you speaking in code?
No. I am quoting the Lord. By their fruits you shall know them.

I don't quite grasp what you are saying. Does it matter what religions the people are?
Yes, it does. I wouldn't want a Muslim, for example, as my commander in chief. Nor would I want someone who is more devoted to what the Pope says than what the constitution says. I doubt John Paul II would cause much harm in that regard, but you get an anti-American pope who decides to excommunicate folks for things that he disagrees with (war, capitol punishment, etc.,) then there is an issue.

Does it matter how often they attend services?
No. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

If one person talks about faith more than another they are more devoted to their religion? If one person is more observant but speaks about it less how does that weigh in?

Like I said, by their fruits. I like someone who is a bold witness like GWB can be at times. Kerry has derogatorily said "I don't wear my faith on my sleeve." And then proceeds to use his Catholicism as a campaigning point. GWB has put forward faith based initiatives to help the poor and has shown compassion and love in many other ways throughout his career. John Kerry has shown a nasty spirit and blind ambition with very very little concern much less compassion for others. By their fruits. John Kerry's statements on faith, on abortion, on stem cell research indicate someone whose devotion to God is not his #1 priority. One can not be pro-murder and in sinc with God.

I know I asked a lot of questions - but I seriously don't know how from a far we can judge someone's faith....
There are two kinds of judgments in the Bible. One is the "Thou shalt not judge" comment. The Lord was referring to self-righteous judgment there. The kind of judgment that says,"That wicked sinner. I'm glad I'm not like him." The other is fruit-judgment. That is the kind of judgment whereby one discerns a person's spiritual status (such as false prophets and false Christians). It is not based upon looking inward at me, but looking upward to God and looking at His Word. The first type of judgment is a no-no. The second is permissible and even encouraged.

"I know I asked a lot of questions - but I seriously don't know how from afar we can judge someone's faith..."

That depends on the faith.
Kerry is putting his Roman Catholicism front-and-center, essentially asking that Catholics elect him because he is a Roman Catholic.

But with Catholicism, probably more than with any other religion on Earth, there is a clear cut set of beliefs and standards regulating everything. Certainly there are a lot of people, including many Protestant Christians of good faith and high moral principles, who object to the authoritarianism of Roman Catholicism. And certainly there are a lot of Catholics who do not obey all of the rules and precepts of their Church.
However, one thing is crystal clear with the Catholics: there ARE rules, a LOT of rules, and they are not fuzzy at all. Nor are many of them open to interpretation: "You have your denominational reading of the Gospel and I have mine" is not a Catholic approach. There are clear cut beliefs which Catholics are required to have.
Among the most important ones:
(1) Abortion is evil in all cases.
(2) Marriage is between one man and one woman, once. Gay marriage is not marriage, it is an abomination.
(3) It is evil to take living human beings that are still very tiny (fetal stem cells) and use them for our self-interested purposes.
(4) Human cloning is an abomination.

There is no wiggle room at all for any Catholic on any of this.
Now, of course, there is no wiggle room for Catholics on divorce either: divorce is always bad, and remarriage is always a sin according to Catholicism. But Catholic politicians are not expected to stand for outlawing civil divorce, so why can't things like gay marriage and abortion be treated the same way?

The answer to that, in a Roman Catholic context, is "Because Rome says so."

Now, again, this appeal to Papal authority and the central command authority of the Church on matters of morality is bound to rankle many Protestant sensitivities. But the point here isn't to examine whether Catholicism should be like that or not. It's merely to observe that Catholicism IS like that, and the Pope could not have been clearer: abortion is murder. It is not co-equal with other sins. It is a graver sin, an intentional assault on innocent life which is always wrong in the absolute (and the use of stem cells from abortions is profiting from the fruits of murder and also deeply sinful). Rome has said clearly that Catholics CANNOT toss abortion on the scale as being another one of those evils that Catholics need to balance in their political lives. Rome has bound all Catholics to understand that abortion is worse, more evil, and more unacceptable than all of the other sins I have listed above (unlike Protestants, Catholics believe in gradations of sin) that abortion is one of the very worst, direst, blackest, most deadly sins.

Catholics are bound to oppose abortion. Catholic politicians are bound to oppose abortion. There is no wiggle room at all, and Rome has denied Catholics the right to freedom of conscience on the subject. Abortion is an instance in which Rome has commanded Catholics to believe a certain thing and obey, and has stated that the belief is so fundamental to Christianity that it overrides the political liberties of Catholics in their separate countries. Catholics do not have the right to vote for abortion, or to publicly support abortion, because the Pope has commanded them not to.

Now, certainly an American who is a Catholic and who disagrees can remain silent. Or he can leave the Church.
But what he CANNOT do is what John Kerry is doing: to stand up there and openly proclaim his Catholicism, while directly defying the Pope and the Church on a matter of fundamental faith and morals.

If Kerry were a Presbyterian or a Baptist, a Lutheran or an Episcopalian, there are different branches of those denominations he could belong to and take the positions he does. Others in other branches of the same denominations would say it was wrong, but it would be an open question.
But with Catholicism, there is only one brand, and there is only one mode of thought in Catholicism on abortion, because the Pope has commanded it to be so, and Catholics believe that Jesus empowered Peter and his successors in the Papacy with the Power of the Keys, to loose and to bind on earth. The Pope has bound all Catholics on abortion. And that is the end of the discussion. The subject is closed and sealed until the end of time. It is not open to debate, and Catholics do not have the right to oppose this or disagree with it in the inner recesses of their consciences. For a Catholic to secretly believe that abortion is a human right and a good thing is to sin, for refusing to believe what one has been bound to believe as a matter of fundamental morality is itself a sin.

Again, this probably sounds extremely offensive to many Protestants, that the Pope can compel a Catholic in inner conscience and by doing so cause that Catholic to be in a state of sin for having a private disagreement on a matter of fundamental morality. But that is Catholicism.

And on the standards of Catholicism, which are harsh, austere, medieval, and very, very, very clear as sharply carved stone, John Kerry, the "Catholic" who says vote for me, can be judged on the terms of his faith. The Catholic faith is what the Pope says the Catholic faith is. The Pope has not allowed any Catholic any wiggle room, at all, on the subject of abortion. Not even in the inner recesses of his mind may a Catholic entertain pro-abortion thoughts without committing sin through the thoughts themselves. And no Catholic politician in any country, however free, may openly and publicly stand and take the stance that John Kerry has taken in this election.

John Kerry calls himself a pro-choice Catholic. What that means is that he is calling himself a defiant, rebellious Catholic in a state of open sin. He expects Catholics to flock to him because he claims the moniker "Catholic". The only Catholics who are going to go vote for Kerry are the ones who call themselves "Catholic" because of their cultural origins (Catholicism, like Judaism, is as much a culture as it is set of religious doctrines), but who have not seen the inside of a church since maybe last Easter, if then.

This is a no brainer. Kerry is a rebellious Catholic.
He deserves to be disciplined by his fellow Catholics, not voted for.

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