Catholics, Black Christians See Through Kerry's Religious Rhetoric
by Jenni Parker and Chad Groening
October 21, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Catholic researcher says Senator John Kerry's anti-family stances are clearly out of synch with the tenets of the Church, and therefore, the Democratic presidential candidate should not expect Catholic voters to support him. Meanwhile, a National Faith Based Initiative Coalition spokesman predicts black Americans will never choose Kerry if it means putting politics ahead of faith.In the final presidential debate last week, American viewers heard John Kerry reiterate his unwavering support for the continuation of legalized abortion. George Marlin, author of The American Catholic Voter: 200 Years of Political Impact (St. Augustine's Press, 2004), says the Massachusetts senator has views that have alienated many practicing Catholics.
Like others in the church, Marlin says he can judge Kerry's public statements and public actions, and conclude that he is definitely a "cafeteria Catholic," who picks and chooses his religious beliefs a la cart. "He's ignored the church on abortion," the author says. "He's pro-abortion, pro-funding of abortion, pro-partial-birth abortion, pro-domestic unions. He is out of synch with the tenets of the church."
And Marlin says it is silly for Kerry and other pro-choice Catholic politicians to make the excuse that he does not want to impose his personal beliefs on others. "Every time you vote on the Senate," the author says, "you want to impose your view. You want to get 51 men and women together in the Senate to impose their view on the nation. So they always try to give an excuse, and it just doesn't fly."
Many Catholics will vote for George W. Bush this election year because he shares their traditional values, the researcher says, and because Bush is unapologetic about being guided by his faith. Kerry, however, appears to many members of his own church to be the type of Catholic who picks and chooses which doctrines he wants to follow and which he wants to ignore.
Black Conservative Christians Increasingly Support Bush
Meanwhile, the executive director of the National Faith Based Initiative Coalition (NFBIC), Oliver N.E. Kellman, is saying John Kerry may have alienated another segment of the believing public -- black conservative Christians. He cites a recent poll that shows Bush has more than doubled his 2000 numbers with this group, going from having 11 percent to 36 percent support among the black conservative Christian community.
Another poll, released earlier this week by the New York Times, indicates that President Bush has the support of 17 percent of black voters in the U.S., a significant number since he only received around 9 percent in 2000, and the most that any Republican presidential candidate has had in the last 20 years was Bob Dole's 12 percent in 1996.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council explains black American voters' shift toward Bush as an indication of the two areas where the black community really connects with the president -- faith based initiatives and support for traditional marriage. "As long as no one gets cold feet," Perkins says, "this could be a major factor in determining the outcome of the presidential election."
But while shared values have allowed Bush's star to rise among black Americans, Oliver says the Kerry campaign has been trying nearly every conceivable tactic to motivate black voters, from scare tactics to rehashing the 2000 Florida election to last ditch attempts to use liberal surrogates like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Nevertheless, he says, "Senator John Kerry does not get it; the majority of black Americans will never put politics above their faith."
The NFBIC spokesman says Kerry might be able to buy off some black liberal icons, but "those of us in the faith-based community have been listening to what the senator has been saying on the campaign trail and reviewed his senatorial record, and we are not happy."
Yesterday Oliver delivered a cease and desist letter directed at the Kerry campaign, urging an end to its political propaganda in the black faith-based community and condemning the Massachusetts senator's recent remarks in black churches. In the letter, the coalition spokesman notes that Kerry has based his entire campaign on polls but refuses to pay attention to the polls indicating that a large bloc of Black Americans are "breaking ranks with the Democratic Party over the issues of the defense of marriage, school choice, and faith-based initiatives." Oliver says blacks hold these issues in high regard, "since at one time in our nation's history it was illegal for our ancestors to marry, learn how to read, and practice faith openly."
The cease and desist letter contends that the Democratic Party has tried to gag the Church on moral issues, and churches have been threatened with audits and loss of their tax-exempt status for speaking out on the issues that Kerry and his cohorts openly support. Meanwhile, the head of the NFBIC accuses the Democratic candidate of asking blacks to focus more on health care, jobs, and social issues than on questions of faith and morality.
Outraged by Kerry's appeals to black Christians in light of his record, Oliver deplores the senator's nerve in asking black Americans "to abandon the same faith that has seen so many of our people through slavery, racism and the fight for civil rights, so that he can prop his feet up in the Oval Office in January."
Oliver insists that black Christians deserve to be treated as the intelligent bloc of voters they are, rather than like "emotion-driven partisans" that are up for grabs in the race for the White House.
