posted on March 9, 2004 12:43:23 PM
A couple of days ago I saw a picture of Kerry, on an online news site. He was standing at a pulpit in a church somewhere in Mississippi. He was campaigning. Also in the picture with Kerry was a stained-glass window depicting the Virgin-Mary.
I found that ironic as not too long ago some 'rightie' was accused of mixing religion and politics when he shared his political views in a church.
Then today I come across this today: Kerry quoting the Bible. Gave me a chuckle because it's somehow different when President Bush mentions his religion.
Kerry Is Grilled on Gay Marriage and Attacks Bush on Sept. 11 Commission By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Published: March 8, 2004
OUGALOO, Miss., March 7 —
Senator John Kerry showed he could preach from the pulpit one minute and throw political punches the next, as he courted support on Sunday in one of the most staunchly Republican and deeply religious states in the South, where George W. Bush won 58 percent of the vote four years ago.
Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, campaigned this weekend in Southern states that will hold Democratic primary voting on Tuesday, including Texas and Mississippi.
[then the article goes on to say that Kerry made charges against President Bush]
At a town-hall-style meeting here moments later, Mr. Kerry encountered signs of a wedge that his party's strategists fear could be driven between parts of its base over the issue of gay marriage. At the meeting, which drew many white voters from the Jackson area to the historically black Tougaloo College, a fact local Democrats said was noteworthy, Mr. Kerry listened as a black woman angrily decried gay-rights supporters for claiming the mantle of the civil-rights struggle.
Mr. Kerry replied, in part, to the woman: "Well, I know the deep beliefs, I respect, I'm a Christian, I've read the Bible, and I know you can find the clauses that go both ways.
If Mr. Kerry won over the town-hall crowd by setting the Bible aside, he showed Sunday morning that he could put Scripture to political use.
At the Greater Bethlehem Temple Pentecostal Church in Jackson, Mr. Kerry, who is Catholic, quoted James 2:14 — "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds[/b]?" — a reference to the "compassionate conservatism" espoused by Mr. Bush.
I wonder if he's so quick to quote scripture when answering questions in the liberal states, as opposed to when he's in the South....looking for those southern votes.
posted on March 10, 2004 08:29:28 AM
Why shouldn't Kerry tailor his message to his audience ? That is one of the first rules of public communication.
Bush is being criticised for using his version of god and religion for the governmental process, e.g., god gives us our liberty; or god has ordained he do this or that.
