Kerry Talks of Loss, Renewal of His Catholic Faith

[Stephanie]

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 19, 2006; Page A04

In a speech he said he wishes he had given before the 2004 presidential election, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday described his religious life in greater candor and detail than ever before.

Kerry said in Malibu, Calif., that he "wandered in the wilderness" after the Vietnam War but came back to the Roman Catholic Church after a sudden and moving revelation in the late 1980s.

Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said he should have spoken about his faith in the 2004 presidential campaign. (Matt Sayles - AP)

Kerry expressed regret over his reluctance to talk publicly about his faith during his failed presidential campaign. "I learned that if I didn't fill in the picture myself, others would draw the caricature for me. I will never let that happen again -- and neither should you," he told students at Pepperdine University.

Kerry is the third high-profile Democrat to give a reflective, deeply personal speech on religion and politics in recent weeks, following Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Robert P. Casey Jr., the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

The addresses fit into a broader effort by liberal religious groups and Democratic candidates to appeal to religiously motivated voters in November's midterm elections. A pair of opposing events in Washington this week neatly encapsulates the battle.

Yesterday, a new group called Red Letter Christians, named for the colored type that highlights the words of Jesus in popular editions of the Bible, called for Christians to "vote their values" by considering the war in Iraq, torture, environmental degradation and helping the poor to be vital religious issues.

"We believe in a Jesus who said 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' " said the Rev. Tony Campolo, a founder of the group, which says it is forming a grass-roots network of 7,000 clergy members.

Meanwhile, conservative advocacy groups are planning a four-day "Values Voter Summit," starting Friday, that is expected to draw 1,500 religious and political leaders to Washington. The goal of the conference is to "bring back to the forefront the issues that motivated and drove values voters to the polls in 2004 -- protecting human life, defending traditional marriage and preserving our religious liberties," said Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council.

Kerry's speech "almost sounds like a speech that I might give," Perkins said. "It sounds good." But he added, "The pickle that some of these liberal policymakers find themselves in is, they know that faith is important to people, but when they get pinned down on their policy positions that are inconsistent with the tenets of their faith, they start hedging and talking about other factors in their decision."

Kerry, who supports abortion rights, was pilloried in the 2004 campaign by conservative Catholics, including a small minority of U.S. bishops who threatened to deny him Holy Communion.

In yesterday's speech, Kerry said he was "born, baptized and raised a Catholic." In Vietnam, he said, "my relationship with God was a dependent one -- a 'God, get me through this and I'll be good' relationship." As he became disillusioned with the war, he said, he struggled with "the problem of evil, the difficulty of explaining why terrible and senseless events are part of God's plan."

"For 12 years I wandered in the wilderness, went through a divorce and struggled with questions about my direction. 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," he said.

Kerry did not describe the revelation in the speech. But in a telephone interview afterward, he said it occurred in 1987 or 1988 after a friend, whom he declined to name, died of cancer.

"I have a very vivid image of the loss of that friend and of his words about why he had to die, how it was part of God's purpose. And out of that came a sense of acceptance," he said.

It was "a stark awakening about how you reconcile some of these difficulties I had about . . . the suffering, about the problem of evil," Kerry added. "I understood that to be part of the test of faith."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/18/AR2006091801149.html

 

[musicman]

From the article:
"Kerry did not describe the revelation in the speech. But in a telephone interview afterward, he said it occurred in 1987 or 1988 after a friend, whom he declined to name, died of cancer."

Oh, hell - I hope this one isn't SEARED into his memory, too; he could be talking about a school chum who caught the crabs in the 1950's.

 

[Stephanie]

Oh, hell - I hope this one isn't SEARED into his memory, too; he could be talking about a school chum who caught the crabs in the 1950's.

I'm glad I didn't have a drink at the time of reading that one. You'd owe me a new keyboard....


What's that old saying...
Fool me once, shame on you..
Fool me twice, shame on me...

Is there a fool me three times?


Kerry's and some of the Dems. new motto.....

I found religion in my life, before I didn't find it, but now, I've found it again (because it's near an election, and we can at least try to fool some of those religious people)..........:

 

[CSM]

Hmmm...does this make him a left wing, religous extremeist who is part of a movement to make the United States of America a theocracy?

 

[Avatar4321]

You know, why exactly should we believe any of this? The Democrats keep telling us that they need to reach out to the religious. and now John Kerry convenient begins sharing his "return" to religion. And he assumes that is somehow going to make us vote for him?

I find this very condescending. I mean why should i vote for someone just because they are religious even when there is no evidence that they follow that religion at all. But of course, if she shares this people are magically going to vote for him because we are a bunch of idiots who follow religion and thats all we care about.

 

[dmp]

Kerry is in very real danger of losing his very soul due to his pandering.

 

[archangel]

Reminds me of Madonna...evrytime he goes on tour he 're-invents' himself...geez I remember during his campaign against GW his praising his Jewish roots while hugging Madeline HalfBright! Now he has embraced his re-borne Catholic roots...Next he will say he went on a Special Opp's mission to Afghanistan...it will never end with this clown!

 

[Hobbit]

I am reminded of a verse in Matthew that Kerry would do well to look up.

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

Kerry would do well to also look up this one.

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

 

[Abbey Normal]

So let me get this straight: Kerry was for religion, before he was against it, before he was for it?


(And exactly where does his campaigning and voting against the Catholic Church's teachings on abortion fit into his rediscovered religiosity?)

 

[Nienna]

You all got this one covered, it seems.