Posted on 09/27/2006 2:08:00 PM PDT by siunevada
Senator claims his faith helped him make it through “wilderness”
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY, California – Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry gave a speech yesterday at Pepperdine University in California, calling for pro-life supporters and abortion proponents to achieve “common ground” between their irreconcilable positions over abortion. However, the dubiously “Catholic” Kerry also spliced many references to his “faith” and Catholic upbringing in his speech, in what critics contend is an attempt to weaken the pro-life movement and win back Catholic voters to the Democratic Party.
“Even as a supporter of Roe v. Wade, I am compelled to acknowledge that the language both sides use on this subject can be, unfortunately, misleading and unconstructive,” said Kerry, who insisted, “Instead of making enemies, we need to make progress.” Kerry blamed “excessive language” for polarizing Americans over abortion, and postulated that both sides can come together about issues like tax credits for adoptive parents, more government aid for working mothers, and universal health insurance.
The speech seems to be part of a wider effort of Democrats to create a wedge in the pro-life movement, and seize the political center. Currently Congressional Democrats are trying to paint the Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act as pro-life legislation, contending that it will reduce abortions by making contraceptives more available, well-established as being a myth.
Kerry told the Boston Globe in an interview that he desired both sides of the abortion debate to recognize the sincerity of each other's beliefs and ``be more honest about the complexity of the moral decision here."
Throughout his presidential campaign, Kerry (who has consistently received high marks from the abortion lobby NARAL) had asserted that he would not ``undo a constitutional right" to abortion by appointing pro-life Supreme Court judges to overturn Roe v. Wade, even though he stated his belief that human life begins at conception. Many credit Kerry’s self- contradiction and support of anti-life and anti-family issues like abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and homosexual marriage as part of the reason he and Democrats suffered critical losses in the 2004 federal elections.
Adding to Kerry’s public self-contradictions, are his recent efforts to publicize his “Catholic faith”, which contradicts starkly his support of anti-life and anti-family legislation. The move seems to be an effort to court Catholic voters won by Bush and Republicans in 2004.
The Pew Research Center showed that Kerry lost a majority of Catholic voters by 5 points to President Bush, who spoke of his own personal faith and adopted Pope John Paul’s phrase of building a “culture of life” into his platform.
``For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce, and struggled with questions about my direction," Kerry told his audience at Pepperdine. ``Then, suddenly and movingly, I had a revelation about the connection between the work I was doing as a public servant and my formative teachings."
While Kerry contends that he made it through “the wilderness”, leaders of the Catholic Church including Archbishop Raymond Burke believe that the senator’s persistent support of abortion and anti-life policies remain inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Faith. Burke and others have called for Kerry and other pro-abortion politicians to be denied Holy Communion in the Church.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1705258/posts
More of the Dems getting "religion" in 2006 trend.
"The Pew Research Center showed that Kerry lost a majority of Catholic voters by 5 points to President Bush"
Hmmm. Wonder if the "Catholics" were self identified to Pew Research without any filter questions. Pretty close vote.
Nice nuanced try, John. If you want to gain points with pro-life voters, how about telling us that our position has merit, rather than try to con us with the admission that some of the pro-abortion side's rhetoric is as destructive as the pro-life side's rhetoric.
"My revelation was that I could be a traitor to my faith, try to paper that over in public with weasel words, and still be the junior senator from Massachusetts."
Kerry is such a dork! He isn't fooling any Catholics.
*"We don't kill the baby. We just sever her arms and legs and throw her out into the parking lot where any woman is free to adopt her and receive WIC. I know this is not a compromise that will please all parties, but, at least it is a start," Kerry said.
that's disgusting. How can you say "that's a child, go ahead and kill her"? If you believe life begins at conception how can you not be pro-life?, unless you are a brainless heartless monster.
IMO, Kerry is a heartless monster. All he cares about is the vote and he doesn't really care about the children that are being slaughtered in the womb in staggering numbers.
I still remember this vote:
"Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions."
How do you do that? Either the baby's dead or it isn't. There's no middle ground there!
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