{"id":7009,"date":"2004-07-16T08:58:49","date_gmt":"2004-07-16T08:58:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2004\/07\/religion_in_reserve.html"},"modified":"2004-07-16T08:58:49","modified_gmt":"2004-07-16T08:58:49","slug":"religion_in_reserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/07\/religion_in_reserve.html","title":{"rendered":"Religion in Reserve"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Washington Post article on Kerry and religion<\/a><\/p>\n

John F. Kerry, a lifelong Roman Catholic, carries in his briefcase an unmarked manila folder stuffed full of religion articles, scriptures, personal reflections — and a sermon the Democrat has been fine-tuning since the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

In the latest iteration Kerry borrows the words of James, reputed brother of Jesus, to condemn President Bush’s leadership. “It is not enough, my brother, to say that you have faith, when there are no deeds,” Kerry told thousands of African American Christians gathered in Indianapolis earlier this month for the annual convention of the AME Church. “We look at what’s happening in America today, and if you have a conscience and if your eyes are open, you have to say, ‘Where are the deeds?’ For the last four years, all we have heard is empty words.”<\/p>\n

The speech, based in part on James’s New Testament teachings on Christian social responsibility of nearly 2,000 years ago, was revealing, overtly religious in tone — and one of the rare times Kerry has expounded at any length about his views on faith during this campaign.<\/p>\n

Outside of black churches or meetings with African Americans such as those at the NAACP convention yesterday, Kerry has been largely silent about the personal Catholicism that once inspired a flirtation with the priesthood and the Christian beliefs friends and family say guide his life and political thinking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Amy Sullivan, a former aide to Senator Daschle, is quoted in the article, clarifies her statement on her blog<\/a> and has a piece on similar themes up on The Revealer<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Perhaps Kerry should have taken a page from Bush\u2019s playbook. What Republicans have learned is that if a candidate asserts his religiosity vigorously enough, political writers will label him a \u201creligious man\u201d without asking what that really means or why voters should care. This hands-off approach usually favors Republicans, who get a pass from reporters reluctant to engage in Scripture-quoting contests, but it can also be seen in the treatment of African-American politicians, who are assumed to be more sincere about their faith, and in the way the press approached Joseph Lieberman\u2019s religiosity.<\/p>\n

This kind of coverage is not only inherently unfair, but it cheapens political discourse and does a disservice to readers and viewers. Until religion reporters Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times and Alan Cooperman of The Washington Post lent their expertise to the \u201cIs John Kerry a Good Catholic?\u201d story, readers would have been excused for thinking that the issue was one that pitted Kerry on one side against the whole of Catholicism on the other. That interpretation fit neatly into the \u201cJohn Kerry isn\u2019t really a man of the people\u201d storyline that has already been launched in the campaign. Both religion writers led the way in explaining that, in fact, the debate reflects a deep split within the Church and that more bishops have spoken out to oppose the denial of communion for political reasons than to support it. Badly-needed context for this ongoing debate gives voters better ways to assess Kerry\u2019s role in it.<\/p>\n

However, reporters shouldn\u2019t necessarily draw the lesson that they should entirely avoid the topic of a politician\u2019s faith. Because they shirk their duty just as much when they fail to ask tough questions of candidates who bring their religion into politics and make their religiosity one of their selling points for office. Does Bush dissent from the teachings of his religious tradition, the United Methodist Church? Yes he does, on some critical political issues. Has he been reprimanded by leaders in his denomination? Yes, particularly on the issue of war in Iraq. And if political reporters want to make this a question of who\u2019s a good Christian, then it is fair to ask why President Bush rarely attends church. The candidate who has staked his domestic policy on the power of civil society and of good Christian individuals to change lives isn\u2019t an active member of a congregation \u2013 the very kind of organization in which he claims to have so much faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Washington Post article on Kerry and religion John F. Kerry, a lifelong Roman Catholic, carries in his briefcase an unmarked manila folder stuffed full of religion articles, scriptures, personal reflections — and a sermon the Democrat has been fine-tuning since the early 1980s. In the latest iteration Kerry borrows the words of James, reputed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nReligion in Reserve - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2004\/07\/religion_in_reserve.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religion in Reserve - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Washington Post article on Kerry and religion John F. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}