Thursday, October 14, 2004

Kerry Should be Careful When Quoting Scripture!

In tonight's debate, John Kerry gave a wimpy defense of why his pro-abortion, anti-life voting record doesn't conflict with his Catholic faith.

In classic Kerry style, he contradicted himself within the space of two or three sentences. Kerry said:

I respect their views [i.e. of the archbishops who say it would be a sin to vote for a pro-abortion candidate]. 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.

I believe that choice is a woman's choice. It's between a woman, God and her doctor. And that's why I support that.

So Kerry first says he disagrees with the archbishops (obvious, because he's not pro-life) then explains his anti-life stance by saying he can't legislate an article of faith! So what is it? Does he disagree with his church's pro-life articles of faith, or does he agree with them but choose not to legislate based on them?

He says that he believes that the woman has the right to choose to have an abortion. Apparently he's willing to legislate that article of faith on somebody who doesn't share his belief!

Later in the same answer, he quotes James:

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.

So let me apply this scripture that Mr. Kerry is quick to quote but slow to think about: What does it mean to say that he has the Catholic faith with respect to abortion if he has no deeds to back it up? Or, if he claims today to not have that belief, what does it mean to say he has faith in a woman, God, and her doctor but then say he can't legislate that belief? And given that he has in fact, legislated that belief, why does he say that he doesn't believe he should?

He goes on to say:

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.

Has he not transfered his faith in partial-birth abortion in an official way to other people?

Perhaps Mr. Kerry needs to read the rest of the book of James, where he'll find the description of a person who looks in a mirror but fails to see his reflection. He is quick to quote the Bible but upon closing the book he fails to see its application in his own life.

I don't understand how people can vote for this guy. Even if you aren't Catholic or aren't even Christian, how can you respect (or trust!) someone who says he has firmly held beliefs but he doesn't believe he can act on them? But then he does act on some of them. Do you believe what he says or what he does? Or neither? You can't believe both!



Now here's what I really want to know: When Kerry says the decision to kill a baby is between "a woman, God and her doctor", does the pronoun "her" refer to the woman or to God?