John Kerry’s Faith Without Deeds
By Lisa Fabrizio (10/21/04)
This year’s presidential campaign is described by some as one of the most important in our history. Towering above all the issues is that of national security and which candidate can best ensure it. Peering under the circus tent that envelops the process, one can get a glimpse into two of the most vital qualities of a Commander in Chief: faith and leadership.
There are those who will belittle the concept of faith as un-nuanced and cite the alleged doctrine of separation of church and state to denigrate George Bush’s strong reliance on his. Though religion requires faith, they are not always the same. While we often hear the president speak of his faith, he seldom mentions his religion. John Kerry, on the other hand, often speaks of his religion by name. So says he in answer to a question about abortion in the second debate:
“First of all, I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I'm a Catholic, raised a Catholic. I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. It helped lead me through a war, leads me today. But I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith, whether they be agnostic, atheist, Jew, Protestant, whatever. I can't do that.”
Because he has said he personally opposes abortion, this is a cowardly position. Sad would be the state of our country today had Kerry’s predecessors said, "While I am personally opposed to slavery, racism and sexism I cannot force my personal view on the rest of society." Shouldn’t an “article of faith” be ingrained into one’s conscience thereby informing all his works?
A man can no more separate his faith from his everyday life than he could walk about with his skin shed. One’s sense of right and wrong, or conscience cannot quiver submissively as political winds blow. The president had it exactly right in the third debate when he explained simply, “And so my principles that I make decisions on, are a part of me and religion is a part of me.”
Mr. Kerry seemed to agree saying, “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." But in the very next breath, the paradox appears; “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.”
The faithful Mr. Kerry considers abortion a ‘right’, protected by the Constitution--having been discovered there by the Supreme Court in 1973--and therefore the law of the land. Yet laws protecting slavery were once upheld by that same body. When abolitionists pushed for the demolition of the ‘right’ of some humans to possess others, many cited religious justification, while others did not. But all of them believed they righted a grievous wrong. President Bush believes that abortion is wrong and he will do all in his power to curb or end it. Rightly or not, he is using his faith to guide his leadership--it is a part of him.
A recent University of Akron study on politics and religion in America reveals that most people want it that way. 63% surveyed are comfortable when candidates express their faith while a whopping 68% find it important that their president has strong religious beliefs. (Note, only 3.2% identified themselves as Atheist/Agnostic.)
Another poll, albeit an unscientific one, conducted by Army Times shows that three out of four people in the military support the president. Though many do not share his particular religion, they apparently share his faith and, more importantly, have faith in him. And given the nature of his status as a wartime commander, this covenant is all the more vital to our success in the War on Terror.
President Bush has been ridiculed for suggesting that the notion of good versus evil can exist in modern times, and pilloried for his unabashed expressions of faith. But the well of faith from which he draws has nourished this nation since its birth and is necessary for our continued prosperity. Addressing our military over two hundred years ago, John Adams said it best:
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135380,00.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/frame_offsite.asp?pageLoc=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27920-2004Jul4?language=printer
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,134937,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-10-03-bush-troops_x.htm
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