John Kerry's "Catholicism"

A dead-on column by James Gannon at (yes) USA Today, June 2:

.... Now, 44 years later, another Catholic is about to become the Democratic nominee for president. I wish I could be as proud and enthusiastic about that as I was in 1960. Instead, I am embarrassed. Given his beliefs and his voting record, I wish John Kerry professed another religious faith or none at all. I would rather have an agnostic or an atheist in the White House than a person who proclaims himself a Catholic but tosses overboard those parts of Catholic doctrine that are politically inconvenient....

As a Catholic who takes the church's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage seriously, I wonder how Kerry can toss aside these "personal beliefs" so easily. Kerry seems to wear his Catholicism like a sports coat that he puts on for Sunday Mass but takes off when going to work. I don't trust a man whose supposedly deep inner convictions can be checked in the cloakroom of the Senate chamber, or cast aside at the door of the Oval Office....

Kerry is consistent in voting in line with liberal Democratic orthodoxy: against abortion restrictions, against restrictions on gay marriage, against capital punishment and for social-welfare legislation such as the minimum wage. This is his true religion, based on his voting record.

John Kennedy didn't face this dilemma. He lived and died before Roe vs. Wade, before the idea of gay marriage, before the Democratic Party became a hostile environment for devout Catholics who won't check their beliefs at the door. John Kerry has made his choice on these matters. He is not one of us. I wish he would stop pretending that he is.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Fri. 06/04/04 06:57:56 PM
Categorized as John Kerry & Religious.