I looked around a bit for someone who typifies what I imagine to be the reaction of average Democrats to John Kerry's irrational position on abortion, and I finally found her. First, as a reminder, Mr. Kerry says:
"I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception."It should be obvious why this position is absurd, but I'll sum it up anyway: if life begins at conception then abortion is killing, and killing is bad no matter what religion you are (almost). The only reasonable way to support abortion is to deny that an unborn baby is a living human being. If you agree that life begins at conception but still support abortion that means you support murder, by your own admission.Spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said that although Kerry has often said abortion should be "safe, legal and rare," and that his religion shapes that view, she could not recall him ever publicly discussing when life begins.
"I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist," he continued in the interview. "We have separation of church and state in the United States of America."
Still, to rori'd at one girl's life it makes perfect sense.
While Kerry personally does not support abortion, he still supports a woman's right to choose.Preventing unnecessary killing of human life isn't a particularly "Christian" agenda; most everyone is in favor of that. Further, rori'd is saying that she wants a president who doesn't "fight for what he believes in", despite the fact that John Kerry repeatedly tells people that he does fight for what he believes in.THIS is the man I want for President. I do not want one who pushes a Christian agenda on the entire country.
Vote Kerry. Liberty and justice for all.Except, of course, for an unborn baby, who Kerry believes is a living human being that should still be subject to murder according to the whim of his or her mother.
As others have pointed out, Mr. Kerry's stated position makes him either a liar or a cold and calculating killer. He claims to believe that life begins at conception, but he's never said so before and has always championed abortion laws at every opportunity -- if he's telling the truth, shouldn't that bother his conscience? If he's telling the truth, then he's facilitated -- by his own admission -- countless millions of murders during his tenure in the Senate just because he doesn't want to "force his beliefs" on others. But isn't that what our representatives are supposed to do? We elect them to enact laws, that's their whole job. If he doesn't want to do that he should go home.
He apparently has no problem forcing his views on taxation and social spending on the rest of us. Therefore, it's most likely that he's lying about his view of abortion and that he's simply telling people what he thinks they want to hear. Actually, it may be too strong to say he's lying, because he may not have an opinion of his own at all. He may be entirely apathetic towards the issue except insofar as it affects his chances of being elected.
And most Democrats are probably okay with all of that, as long as it means defeating George Bush. They claim to stand on truth and principle, but when they have an opportunity to show it they instead vacillate and take whatever position appears the most "electable".
I find this very reassuring. There is no way an empty suit like Kerry will withstand the crucible of the last three months of a presidential election.
BB: I dunno. I hope the Democrats get annihilated and reform as a real, viable party for 2008. It's not healthy to have a third of the country so wacked out.
Telling people they have to take communion a certain way, or attend a certain church, or worship a certain way - that's forcing your religion on someone.
Taking and supporting a position on abortion has nothing to do with religion (except in the purest sense) and to claim that it's a "religious" belief is imbecilic. Is standard opposition to regular nth-degree murder a "religious belief"?? Is rape? Burglary? Treason? Jaywalking?
For every small point I see Kerry make in his favor he loses about 10 with stuff like this.
"Telling people they have to take communion a certain way, . . . or worship a certain way - that's forcing your religion on someone."
No, that's the very definition of a religion. For example, Christians are really big on the idea that you should worship God and not Buddah or Allah. That may seem terribly exclusionary to delicate modern liberal sensibilities, but that's just the way religions are.
If you want to tell religions which ideas may or may not be part of their religious belief systems, maybe you should go back and re-read the First Amendment.
I'm not sure you understood me:
If you are a willing adherent to a certain religion there are certain customs and practices that are traditionally observed - willingly, by the members/participants/believers - like communion, or baptism, or whatever (and the various flavors of each). However, none of these things are punishable by incarceration (well, maybe eventual spiritual incarceration). They may be required by the practice of your faith, but the worst thing that can happen temporally is you can get excommunicated, or the equivalent.
But I'm talking about politicians allegedly forcing their constituents (in this case, the entire country) to worship a certain way that is backed up by legislation and force of law. Kerry apparently thinks that a law to outlaw abortion is a religious law, and would violate the First Amendment. As Michael says, it has nothing to do with religion any more so than the laws condemning regular murder do now - and to believe that abortion has a special "religious" component more than regular murder is wrong.
I think I understand with Barry and agree with him, based on his second comment, but most of the laws he cites approvingly do have religious components (that are often shared by many religions, accidentally or not).