Kerry and abortion: Hypocrisy or rationality?

[ocean976124]

Re: Re: Re: I'm sorry but thats not how you run a country.

King was a private individual promoting his views. As I private individual, King had the right to use any legal means to motivate change.

POTUS is an elected position to lead an exteremly diverse nation. It is not in the mandate to deny citizens the right to follow their own religious and personal legal beliefs.

And just how exactly did the Civil Rights amendment pass without people voting for it? Were they devoid of religious sentiment? If a politician said they voted for the Civil Rights amendment because they believe all people were created equal by God mean that they imposed their religion on a nation?
In the 19th century President Lincoln used religious language in many many speeches, and the antislavery movement lived on religious speech.

 

[Barry-O]

Of course its a reality in politics. However, he should also realize that the Church he belongs to has a major problem with legalized abortion. Hard to believe someone has any real convictions when they use their religious identity to garner votes even if they don't believe in their religion...

Bear in mind, as POTUS you are supposed to be a man of the people...not a man of your church. If he is interested in being a man of the church, he should consider being a Deacon instead.

IMHO, the church has no place in politics what so ever...especially in North America.

 

[Ickabod]

Hard to believe someone has any real convictions when they use their religious identity to garner votes even if they don't believe in their religion...

So in your eyes, if he's Catholic but believes women should be allowed in the Priesthood, that would disqualify him from having any real convictions? You are precious.

 

[Peace4u]

I was reading this today:

http://us.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/04/23/vatican.kerry/index.html

I don't understand how Kerry can say he takes his faith seriously but at the same time have the stance he does against abortion.

These quotes cought my eye:


Kerry has said, "I fully intend to practice my religion as separate from what I do with respect to my public life."


This sounds like he wants to separate his religious belief/practice (which might be anti-abortion) with what he publically supports (pro-choice). If you truly feel something is wrong, souldn't you take a stand and trust your gut (or God ins this case)? Is he just being rational and being a good politician by selling himself out for pro-choice votes?

another quote:


Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, called on the Vatican not to "politicize sacraments."

"The Vatican has consistently shown itself to misunderstand the American principle of separation of church and state. ... It is time for church leaders to accept that Catholics in good faith disagree with the absolute prohibition of legal abortion demanded by the Vatican. It is time for church leaders to acknowledge that the threat of denying the sacraments to Catholics who disagree with their positions has no basis in church law. It is both bad politics and bad religion."


I don't understand how Catholics can lecture the Vatican and tell them that their stance is incorrect when the Vatican is the authority over them?

Huh?

I'm not Catholic (or religious at all) but isn't the word of the Vatican the most important? Isn't the Pope the head of the Vatican and the leader of all traditional Catholics? Isn't the Pope the dude closest to God and and if one dude knows the most about God's will it is the Pope? So if the Pope says that abortion is wrong ....then how can Catholics think otherwise? Or is it just a case of Catholics changing with the times and while respecting the Pope out of custom, not thinking his word is the be-all end-all that it used to be and perhaps thinking he has an old way of thinking that is no longer valid?

I always wondered about that.....

Actually the Pope may not be any closer to God than any Born-again Christian,which Christ then dwells within the beleiver.How much closer then can you get. Thankyou.

 

[parmesan]

Kerry hypocrite

Yes, Kerry is a hypocrite, he's practically the richest presidential candidate, for a major party, this century. He married into the billionaire Heinz family and he's dumping on the rich!? He threw (pretended to throw) away his war medals to curry favour with the anti-Vietnam crowd, and now he is trying to milk his war service for all that its worth.

 

[ocean976124]

So in your eyes, if he's Catholic but believes women should be allowed in the Priesthood, that would disqualify him from having any real convictions? You are precious.

His religion isn't looking to deny him communion over the issue of women in the priesthood. His religion is saying that abortion is literally murder, thats quite a difference from a theological subtlety.
Kerry likes to use his Catholic background to gather in Catholic votes but he has no need for it on what it considers core issues.

 

[ocean976124]

Bear in mind, as POTUS you are supposed to be a man of the people...not a man of your church. If he is interested in being a man of the church, he should consider being a Deacon instead.

IMHO, the church has no place in politics what so ever...especially in North America.

Integrity is everything. Kerry sure likes to bring up being Catholic to bring in the votes. But God-forbid (literally apparently) he actually try to be a Catholic...The rest of us had the integrity to leave.