← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Buster
Thread ID: 13042 | Posts: 2 | Started: 2004-04-06
2004-04-06 17:27 | User Profile
Get a load of this dazzling theological insight from today's NY Times:
Mr. Kerry became combative when told that some conservatives were criticizing him for being a Roman Catholic who supported policies, like abortion rights and same-sex unions, that are at odds with Catholic teaching.
"Who are they?" he demanded of his questioner. "Name them. Are they the same legislators who vote for the death penalty, which is in contravention of Catholic teaching?"
He added: "I'm not a church spokesman. I'm a legislator running for president. My oath is to uphold the Constitution of the United States in my public life. My oath privately between me and God was defined in the Catholic church by Pius XXIII and Pope Paul VI in the Vatican II, which allows for freedom of conscience for Catholics with respect to these choices, and that is exactly where I am. And it is separate. Our constitution separates church and state, and they should be reminded of that."
Mr. Kerry apparently meant John XXIII, as there is no Pius XXIII.
What is it the French say, "Conscience and convenience coincide."
2004-04-07 00:01 | User Profile
Re Kerry on abortion
Were you making a point here? -- as if Kerry's position were wrong?
While he can never be president, in my book, even if installed by Newsweek et al, they way they installed the last two or three, neither can anyone who takes anti-abortion over into politics. As if God made it any of their damn bisiness. Catholics haven't had a real non-political tradition of opposing abortion as a specific sin; nor have Protestants. It's all politics. It is an "issue" the cowardly Vietnam war generation used to try to please the Big Daddy (in their head: Freudian super-ego) instead of standing up to him, when ordered to kill gooks. "HeY, Look, God! WE AINT JUST KILLIN' GOOKS WEEZE SAVING DA UNBORN!" In the next regime, abortion will be retroactive for whoever opposes it. It is the mark of a higher, finer society to deal with such things discretely, with professional dignity. Abortion clinics aren't where Nazi's are still killing little baby Jews, as John O'Connor opined. And the language of that bill Bush just signed requires constitutional correcting to read that only fully born individuals have birthrights. Duh.