Political Staples

You can say one thing about Senator Kerry, he is very slick. It takes a slick talker to quote scripture in the same speech you support abortion. Here is relevant portion of the transcript from the debate last night, thanks to the Washington Post.

SCHIEFFER: Senator Kerry, a new question for you.
The New York Times reports that some Catholic archbishops are telling their church members that it would be a sin to vote for a candidate like you because you support a woman's right to choose an abortion and unlimited stem-cell research.
What is your reaction to that?
KERRY: I respect their views. I completely respect their views. I am a Catholic. And I grew up learning how to respect those views. But I disagree with them, as do many.
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.

As Senator Kerry has said before, he thinks (or more appropriately believes) abortion is taking a human life. It is an article of faith for him, so strong that...

I can't let this one go. It is not between a woman, God and her doctor. You can't bring God into this one, like he may just say, "for you, I will let it go". God was pretty clear on this one.

Now, I will not allow
somebody to come in and change Roe v. Wade.
The president has never said whether or not he would do that. But we know from the people he's tried to appoint to the court he wants to.
I will not. I will defend the right of Roe v. Wade.
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.
And as President Kennedy said when he ran for president, he said, "I'm not running to be a Catholic president. I'm running to be a president who happens to be Catholic."

Here is where it gets fun!

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.

How can you say in one breath that faith without works is dead but in the next say you will not transfer it to other people. Have you not jusy revealed to America that your faith is dead!

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.
But I know this, that President Kennedy in his inaugural address told all of us that here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own. And that's what we have to -- I think that's the test of public service.

Now, to be honest, I feel for Senator Kerry. It is impossible to be the head of the Democratic Party and be pro-life (many would say the same of Republicans and pro-choice, this will be born out in 2008). This forces him to have to twist his beliefs to fit his party. It happens all the time, but I would suggest on less serious issues.

On a related note, I just finished reading Hollywood, Interupted and I was surprised to learn that Martin Sheen is a pro-life Catholic, but declaring so woulfd put him out of the "democratic mainstream". Same thing for Jack Nicholson, apparently he found out when he was adult that who he thought was his sister was his mother and who he thought was his mother was his grandmother. He says (I don't have the actually quote) that he owes his life to fact that his family was pro-life.