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Author Topic:   You Must Put No Other God's Before Me
Mirandee
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posted November 06, 2004 12:33 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is a homily ( sermon) given by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit which was printed in the National Catholic Reporter. In it he speaks of his personal encounter with Rev. Jerry Farwell and gives his reflection of that encounter in light of the commandment, "Thou shall put no other Gods before me."

By special arrangement, The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company is able to make available Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton's weekly Sunday homilies given at Saint Leo Church, Detroit, MI.


"In the first part of the Covenant -- the directives, the commandments, where God says: “I am your God. You must put no other Gods before me.” -- I suppose most of us seldom use that Commandment about our relationship with God as part of our examination of how faithful we are to the Covenant.

Oh, I suppose the part of keeping holy the Sabbath -- we examine our conscience on that -- whether we pray faithfully, and worship God faithfully and regularly. But do we ever ask ourselves: “Do we put another God in place of the One God? Do we set up idols?”

I think we do, sometimes, at least. Some of you will remember, I’m sure, a few months ago where I was in a dialogue format program with Reverend Jerry Farwell. Something from that experience stays with me. It happened right at the end of the program when I had suggested that we were really going to war against Iraq because, as one mother over there who was holding her dying child, said to me: “This wouldn’t happen to us if it weren’t for the oil.”

And Reverend Farwell got very agitated and leaped up, almost out of his chair, and he said: “You can’t suggest that! That our President, that our Government would take us into war for oil! That’s blasphemy!”

Well, think about that. You only commit blasphemy against God. So, if that’s blasphemy, then for him, going against your government, criticizing your government, then you have made your government God.

And there is a spirit in our midst in this country now. There is going to be a big march starting up in Sterling Heights -- a car caravan. They are going to drive down from Sterling Heights through Warren and Roseville and Fraser and so on -- over the whole northeast side of the Metro area saying: “We must be loyal to our government!”

Isn’t it appropriate according to the commandment of God that we not say: “My Government, right or wrong?”

No! We have to question it at times, even act against the authorities. I am not saying that every one of us has to agree with those who say “no” to this war but I am saying that every one of us has a responsibility to make sure we are not simply taking what our government says as the word we must accept and follow. Only God gives us the word that we must follow. Only God is the one God and we must put no other idols or gods in place of the one God. And that God has spoken to us very clearly.

Isn’t it strange? Think about this! The other commandments: “Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet your neighbors’ goods. Thou shalt not steal” -- and so on. To any of those commandments do we suddenly say, “Well, if certain conditions are fulfilled, it’s OK to steal. It’s OK to lie.”

Why is it that only the one that says “Thou shalt not kill” that we can find ways of getting around. Well, if certain conditions are fulfilled, it’s OK to kill, even innocent people -- or any person whether they are innocent or not. God says thou shalt not kill. How do we dare to say that certain conditions make it okay to go against God’s clear word?

That is a puzzle, I think. Why do we do that so readily. With only one commandment do we do that. The rest we understand. No, you never steal. That’s wrong. You don’t lie. That’s wrong and so on.

Well, part of the reason why, I think, we fail to accept that commandment about not killing as fully as we should, is that we have failed to listen to Jesus. And that is why the other two lessons today are so important to listen to, to take into our hearts.

And so when we come to interpret the directives and how to live up to the covenant, we have to look to Jesus. We must look to Jesus. And that is why Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth is so important. He told those first Christians: “Look. I did not come among you simply to baptize, to celebrate sacraments.”

Jesus really is showing us there is a different way to overcome injustices, to overcome sin in our world, to transform our world, to make it into the reign of God. It won’t happen through violence, killing, returning hate for hate, evil for evil. It won’t happen that way. The only way it will happen is when we listen deeply to Jesus and follow his way.

Give up those so-called conditions that allow us to kill and understand that Jesus says the only way you change this world -- the only way you change your heart -- the only way change the hearts of other people -- the only way you change the world -- is through love.

So often on Sunday, we proclaim the Eucharistic prayer: “Jesus brought us the good news of life to be lived forever with God and he showed us the way to that life, the only way, the way of love.” This is the good news. But, as Paul points out so powerfully, to the Jewish leaders it was a scandal, a stumbling block. They could not get passed this. And to the Greeks, the so-called intellectuals, it was nonsense, foolishness.

But then, take home with you the word with which Paul concludes that passage -- words that profess a profound truth: “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Through the foolishness of God and the weakness of God, the reign of God will happen. We can make peace come into our world.

As we continue to prepare for Easter and for the renewal of our covenant with God, I hope that we will listen deeply to what God has proclaimed to us today. And be prepared to say: “I will follow the way of Jesus, the way of love, so that the reign of God will happen in our world.”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

NOTE: A few weeks ago, we were able to provide you with a reflection on the life of Franz Jagerstatter. Bishop Gumbleton offered it in place of his homily. As we mentioned, the Bishop was traveling and unable to give the homily. However, Bishop Gumbleton did give us a letter explaining his trip and the importance of Franz Jagerstatter. We are happy to provide you with a copy of that letter.

Dear Friends,

I am confident that most of us long ago were able to judge that Hitler's war of aggression was evidently evil. And we may have wondered how Christians in Germany could have supported it. But with few exceptions, German Catholics and other Christians decided they had to accept their government's decisions to go to war. One of those who did chose to serve in Hitler's army was an Austrian peasant, Franz Jagerstatter. Because of his refusal, he was executed by the German government on August 9, 1943.

Today, I will join with Bishop Maximillian Aichern and others in celebrating Mass in Franz's village of St. Radegund. The special occasion is the 90th birthday of his widow, Franziska. Over the past 30 years or so I have come to know Franziska and her family quite well. I have the greatest admiration for her. With great courage she managed to withstand the hostility against her and her family because they were looked upon as "unpatriotic" or even as traitors. It also took a lot of determination and hard work to raise their 3 children. And I am sure none of us can even begin to comprehend her suffering at the loss of her husband whom she so dearly loved.

Over the years, Franz and Franziska have been a model for me of what the cost of discipleship might be. They and their children have been "martyrs" in the truest meaning of that word: "witnesses". I believe their witness needs to be invoked at this time especially. Our own country is poised to begin a "preemptive" war against Iraq. Pope John Paul II and religious leaders and theologians around the world have insisted that such a war of preemption would in fact be a war of aggression and could never be morally justified. How many of us will have the courage to resist? How many of us will be willing to pay the cost of genuine discipleship?

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 07, 2004 02:02 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So, show me where and when all that Iraqi oil was stolen, appropriated or otherwise absconded with by Bush, the Bush administration or American oil companies.

Just the facts please, dates, amounts and who done it.

Or is this just more hot air rhetoric from the radical left?

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iAmThat
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posted November 07, 2004 03:32 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Dear Mirandaa,

Thanks a ton for this post. These days, analogy such as this helps people to look at both sides of equation and ascertain the true cost paid.

Yeshua said give to Caesar whats due to him and likewise for God.

Its better for people not to vote if its constitution allows. Imagine, my hands would be stained of blood if the government does go for war.

Turn your right cheek if a man slaps your left cheek - Yeshua.

Why did Americans retaliate? Majority of Americans are not much different than the Pharisees or Sadducees present at his time.

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LibraSparkle
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posted November 07, 2004 04:54 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don't remember where, but, somewhere I read that only 2% of the oil we use in the US comes from Iraq. That's really not that much.

It seems to me that *if* the US were only in it for the oil, the oil would have been secured by now. If that were the case, gas prices wouldn't be so high.

If this were a war for oil, we would have benefited from it by now.

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Mirandee
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posted November 07, 2004 11:55 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The facts is we aren't out of the war yet, jwhop. And you once again missed the whole point of all this and want to nik pik on something dumb.

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Mirandee
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posted November 07, 2004 11:58 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This post is not about oil.

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Mirandee
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posted November 08, 2004 12:05 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes I AM THAT, it does help to look at all sides of things to gain a deeper and truer understanding.

You are right in that if our government goes to war it also has an effect on us. What Bush does as President in the world he does in our name too. We are a nation. Not just one man, one administration, making decisions. If we allowed the war and did not protest it ( though some of us did ) or did not do all we could to stop it then we have the blood on our hands too. As a nation we bear the guilt.

Truthfully I have to say that jwhop's reaction by picking one small thing out of all the rest of it and only seeing what he deems some radical, liberal attack on his President gives a good example of what Bishop Gumbleton's whole homily was about, making a false idol out of a President and putting him before God. Making that President God and therefore above questioning. Jwhop's reaction was along the same line as Farwell's. Interesting.

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 08, 2004 12:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What we have here is an attempt to justify the incessant attacks on the President by someone in the Catholic Church.

Surprise, Catholics supported the President in ever larger numbers, understanding Kerry is a phony Catholic.

The Catholic church has many divisions, some of whom stray from the mainline Catholic doctrines.

I didn't bring up the oil issue. You did by posting the homily of someone out of the mainstream of Catholic teaching.

Face it, you are out of the mainstream of American thought, out of the mainstream of American political thinking and out of the mainstream of Catholic teaching...for all your quotes of other out of the mainstream thinkers.

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Mirandee
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posted November 08, 2004 01:25 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
What makes you think that Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is "out of the mainline teaching" of the Roman Catholic Church and not those bishops who came out and said what they did about not giving Kerry communion because of his abortion stance?

How would you know who was in and out of Catholic teaching anyway? You would know that better than me? I am a Catholic and beyond that I have taught catechism, studied at the seminary for 4 years with a 4.0 grade average in theology and worked in the church. Are you going to tell me you know the church better than I do?

One does not use the Holy Sacrament of Communion as a political tool as those few conservative bishops did. Communion is not a bargaining chip. They were outside of Catholic teaching. There is no such Canon Law that gives them the authority to do that.

quote:
The Catholic church has many divisions, some of whom stray from the mainline Catholic doctrines.

That's a lie? Catholics have their liberals, moderates, and conservatives just like all churches. Churches are made up of people so they pretty much reflect trends in society. Many divisions? We have been around for over 2000 years with only two schisms in the history of the church. So where do you get many divisions? Prove those divisions.

There is no real proof that more Catholics voted for Bush than Kerry other than some stats in the media. I would wait for the Church to tell me that before I believed it. Because the conservatives only comprise a very small minority in the Church.

I showed you in another post what the Vatican's stance on voting for a political candidate who was pro-abortion was but apparently like most things it escaped you:

quote:
According to a report by Catholic News Service, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger recently issued a memorandum that said it is not necessarily sinful for Catholics to vote for politicians who support abortion, as long as they are voting for that candidate for other reasons. Ratzinger is head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

So now tell me again who is in and out of the Catholic teaching?

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 08, 2004 01:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One does not take holy communion who adopts positions directly opposed to the teachings of the Catholic church and no priest of the Catholic church is empowered by Rome to administer communion to apostate Catholics.

Those who take such communion are breaking the sacraments of the Catholic Church and those who permit them to do so are themselves regegades of the Catholic faith.

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 02:03 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
You are losing it, jwhop and my suggestion is that you see a therapist.

Just look at what you are doing in this thread. I put articles in this forum concerning religion and in your twisted and warped mind that is a personal attack on Bush and you. You have launched attacks on each and every one of those articles I posted here. Why? They were not designed for any other reason than to present a different viewpoint. Is that what has you so upset that you have to attack? A different viewpoint?

You are making illogical and unreasonable attacks not even based on any knowledge of the true facts.

Now you are attacking the Roman Catholic Church without even having any full knowledge of that religion. That is very sick.

Go see a therapist and ask him why you cannot tolerate a different opinion than yours, a different viewpoint that does not agree with yours, and why you would stoop so low as to attack someone's religion and their faith. Ask him why you feel all this hate for anything different than you. Ask him to help you to be a little more tolerant and a little more flexable.

Consider that maybe, just maybe, you are the God that you put before God. Maybe you put being right before God.

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miss_apples
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posted November 08, 2004 02:09 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The part that stood out most for me is the part where it says "We should not return hate with hate"

Then why does it seem to be acceptable for people to say they "hate" Bush?

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KarenSD
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posted November 08, 2004 02:14 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 02:23 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
One does not take holy communion who adopts positions directly opposed to the teachings of the Catholic church and no priest of the Catholic church is empowered by Rome to administer communion to apostate Catholics.
Those who take such communion are breaking the sacraments of the Catholic Church and those who permit them to do so are themselves regegades of the Catholic faith.

Why are some bishops not in favor of withholding Communion?

Many feel uncomfortable with using the Eucharist--the highest expression of Jesus' sacrifice for humanity--as a tool for enforcing political views. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the Washington D.C. archdiocese has written that "I do not favor a confrontation at the altar rail with the sacred body of the Lord Jesus in my hand." They may also feel the Eucharist is too necessary to one's spiritual well-being to be withheld.

Judie Brown of the American Life League has accused California bishops of giving Arnold Schwarzenegger "special treatment." Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles diocese, where Schwarzenegger attends church, has indicated that he does not believe in denying Communion to people.

It's up to each bishop to determine whether to deny communion or not but on the whole denying communion to any Catholic is frowned on by most theologians. Why? Because it is the body and blood of Jesus and who are they to deny any Catholic the body and blood of Jesus? It is like using Jesus as a bargaining chip or punishment. In some cases such as heresy where the person is excommunicated then communion is no longer their baptismal right.

I don't recall anyone but you saying that John Kerry is an "apostate" Catholic. The Pope made no such decree. It would be big news if he did. As yet the Pope has said nothing about that.


What religion do you belong to jwhop? The next thing that I expect to hear from you is "Let there be Light."

You are also dead wrong about Kerry. He is anti-abortion personally and he stated that during his campaign rally in Iowa. He never said in the debates rather or not he was personally against abortion. He only said if he was elected President he would have to be President of all the people and not let his own personal beliefs interfere with the separation of church and state. Just because Bush has no regard for democracy and the Constitution does not mean that Kerry should be the same.

Check out the fact before you shoot off your mouth because it only makes you look like a complete fool.

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 02:30 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well, personally, miss_apple I never said I hated Bush and even those who do say it we can't judge whether or not they truly feel hate or just an extreme dislike. Only God can see the soul of others so only God can judge them.

I have said I hate the things he is doing to this country and this world. I hate his policies that only favor the wealthy and corporations over the working class and poor of this country. And personally, I don't like him much at all. I have a hard time being in the room with television when he is talking. So I guess it is an extreme dislike. But I don't wish him harm. Out of office, yes. Harm no.

As for rendering hate for hate it's like everything else. It is what we should be striving for if we want to be in line with Jesus' teaching but with our human emotions tripping us up and overcoming our egos that want to give *** for tat it is awfully hard not to retaliate at times.

I'm certainly no saint and don't pretend to be. Jesus isn't through with me yet and he isn't through with any of us yet. I mess up a lot. Don't have any problem admitting that.

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 02:34 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I like that map, Karen.

Canada - the new Democratic exit poll

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LibraSparkle
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 03:15 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The facts is we aren't out of the war yet, jwhop. And you once again missed the whole point of all this and want to nik pik on something dumb.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This post is not about oil.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Well, excuse the F out of me Ms. Snappy.

***throws Ms. Snappy to the wolves and decides never to look back***

You're on your own, sweetheart.

And guess what, darlin'... the string is about whatever the posters make it about. In this case, oil has become part of it.

Deal with it.

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 03:28 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Libra, I didn't mean to be snappy at you. I'm sorry.

I was irritated and took it out on you too I guess. I did not want to let jwhop once again, as he always does, change the whole topic and start arguing over partisan politics. There was so much more in the article than just the part about oil. To get off on that would just once again be jwhop's partisan political arguments.

I was out of line so don't blame you for being annoyed by it.

As for oil what other reason could we be there? Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 or Osama bin Laden. Not that he was a nice guy but the U.S. has a history of supporting tyrants and in fact, back in Reagans administration Hussein was considered an alli and he didn't treat his people any better at that time either. Reagan even ignored his genocide on the Kurds using American helicopters .

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Mirandee
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 03:42 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am posting this though I doubt that jwhop will read it. To do so might prove him wrong about Kerry's faith.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/150/story_15043_1.html


Not a Prodigal Son
Kerry has a different language, a different connection to ritual, and a different relationship to Jesus than that of Bush.

By Deborah Caldwell


John Kerry was never a Prodigal Son. His faith journey contains no leave-taking and triumphant return, no revival, no conversion on the road to Damascus. Unlike President Bush--a Protestant who experienced a profound conversion at age 40 under the Rev. Billy Graham's tutelage--Kerry has been a steady, churchgoing Catholic literally since the day he was born.

John Kerry was never a Prodigal Son. His faith journey contains no leave-taking and triumphant return, no revival, no conversion on the road to Damascus. Unlike President Bush--a Protestant who experienced a profound conversion at age 40 under the Rev. Billy Graham's tutelage--Kerry has been a steady, churchgoing Catholic literally since the day he was born.

For Americans who have grown accustomed in the last four years to a certain kind of spiritual biography, Kerry's will seem starkly different. He uses different language, has a different connection to ritual, and most likely a different relationship with Jesus. His faith life illustrates not only the stylistic and theological differences between Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism, but also the differences between American Catholicism of an earlier generation and that which has grown in the last few decades.

According to those who know him, Kerry is a religious man. On the campaign trail, he is said to carry a rosary, a prayer book, and a St. Christopher medal (the patron saint of travelers). He attends Mass regularly--complaining when his campaign staff doesn't leave time in his schedule for it.

His father, Richard, was a Catholic, and his mother, Rosemary, was an Episcopalian who raised the four children as Catholics. Kerry was baptized and reared in the pre-Second Vatican Council Catholic Church, with its strict rules and Latin Mass. When he was 10 and the family was living in Berlin, his parents sent John to a boarding school in Switzerland. The young boy would sit alone in the chapel's back pew, staring at the altar or lighting a candle, according to his biographer, Douglas Brinkley, author of Tour of Duty.

Although Kerry is descended from John Winthrop, the first Massachusetts governor, and the prominent Massachusetts Forbes family, his father was in the foreign service and was, essentially, a government worker--not a member of the upper class. John Kerry's wealthy and childless Aunt Clara paid for his private schooling. So although Kerry rubbed shoulders with rich people throughout his childhood, he was a lonely, not-quite-as-wealthy outsider--a little too serious, eager, and dorky to fit in to the casual, sarcastic culture of upper-class New England.

"I thought of being a priest," Kerry recalled. "I was very religious while at school in Switzerland. I was an altar boy and prayed all the time. I was very centered around the Mass and the church." What Bible passages moved him most? "The letters of Paul," he said, "taught me not to feel sorry for myself."

As a teenager he attended St. Paul's, an Episcopal boarding school where he was one of only a few Catholics. Kerry took a taxi into town to attend Mass while the other boys went to the on-campus Episcopal chapel.

There, Kerry met his most important spiritual mentor: the late Rev. Richard Walker, a black Episcopal priest who went on to become Bishop of Washington. According to Brinkley, Kerry and his pal Daniel Barbiero spent evenings listening to Walker discuss civil rights and faith. Kerry was "always quite religious," Barbiero told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

When Kerry and Barbiero later arrived at Yale together, Barbiero let his religious life slide, while Kerry still attended Mass. "One of the first things he did when he got there was to find out where the Catholic Church was," Barbiero said.

Kerry has said his religious faith propelled him to join the Navy and go to Vietnam, because he wanted to please God. Six of his closest friends died there, and Kerry received the Silver and Bronze stars for valor and three Purple Hearts for minor injuries. Barbiero remembers carrying a Catholic missal into battle; Kerry carried a rosary and prayed it daily. "We viewed those things as keeping the good Lord as close to us as possible during what we knew would be a difficult time," Barbiero said.

When Kerry got home from Vietnam, he told Time magazine, he went through what he calls a "period of a little bit of anger and agnosticism, but subsequently, I did a lot of reading and a lot of thinking and really came to understand how all those terrible things fit."

Indeed, Kerry recently described his Catholicism as "an important part of getting through tough periods in my life and remains a bedrock of values--of sureness, I guess--about who I am, where we all fit, what our role is on this planet."

As John Kerry grew older, Catholicism was changing dramatically.

Between 1962 and 1965, Catholics worldwide gathered in Rome for the Second Vatican Council, which brought sweeping change to the church. Many Catholics at that time, particularly Americans, felt liberated by new Vatican encouragement to think for themselves and to evaluate moral decisions based on Christian conscience. This is why, for example, so many American Catholics--upwards of 90 percent--reject church teaching banning artificial birth control: to them it seems wrong, and they feel Vatican II gave them license to make that decision.

The Rev. John Ardis, director of the Paulist Center in Boston, where Kerry often worships, believes the senator typifies Catholics of his generation. "Vatican II called us to a greater participation in the church. It called us to greater ownership of the church. For the Paulists, that would also mean we emphasize taking our faith into the workplace," Ardis told Beliefnet on Wednesday. "And that is clearly what he has done--taken it into his life's work."

Vatican II also emphasized what is called Catholic Social Teaching, a body of ideas about how the church deals with issues in the world. Since the 1960s, liberal and moderate Catholics inspired by those teachings have been loosely called "social justice" Catholics--emphasizing work with the poor, fair wages, nuclear non-proliferation, environmental concern, and just immigration practices. In addition, many of these Catholics emphasize what the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago coined the seamless garment life ethic: that all life is sacred, and therefore abortion and war-mongering, poverty, and the death penalty are wrong.

Conservatives argue that Vatican II had some negative side effects, including an increase in divorce among Catholics. John Kerry typified his generation of Catholics in that way, too. In 1970, he married Julia Thorne, an Episcopalian who is the twin sister of Kerry's Yale friend, David Thorne. Kerry apparently didn't insist on a Catholic upbringing for the children. Kerry and Thorne did, however, have the marriage recognized by the Catholic Church. "He and Julia got a priest's blessing on Long Island before they got married in a more ecumenical ceremony on my grandmother's lawn," David Thorne said.

Julia battled depression and chose to end the marriage in 1982. After six years of formal separation, the couple finally divorced in 1988.

In 1992, Kerry met Teresa Heinz while fumbling his way through a Portuguese hymn at a Catholic Mass in Rio de Janeiro. They were both attending a United Nations-sponsored Earth Summit. When they wed three years later, Kerry's divorce forced them to marry outside the church, which doesn't officially permit it. But Heinz Kerry was reportedly uncomfortable in what is called an "irregular relationship" with Catholicism. So in 1997 Kerry applied for and was granted an annulment of his previous marriage--an act that allowed them to receive communion.

When Kerry is home, he attends the Paulist Center in Boston, an easy walk from his house. It is not a traditional parish; its members describe it as an "intentional community" because they choose to worship there--many of them driving from all over New England. Built in 1970 by the Paulists (a religious order like the Jesuits), it operates with the permission of Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston, but is financially independent of the Church.

The Paulist Center emphazes liturgy, music, and helping the needy. It attracts as many as 1,000 worshippers at its four weekend Masses, and has 2,400 families on its mailing list, says Ardis, the center's director.

"He worships here regularly when they're in town, but we've never sat down and had any kind of at-length conversation about his faith," Ardis says. "In some ways I probably have the same relationship with him that priests have with most parishioners--which is more contact at Sunday Mass rather than at other times. With only about 10-15 percent of parishioners do you have a higher level of relationship than that."

The center has a nuts-and-berries sort of reputation, with a lot of campus-ministry types in attendance. It is sometimes picketed by pro-life activists because it is Kerry's home church. But it isn't all that unusual; similar intellectual, liberal-leaning Catholic centers full of pro-choice Catholics dot the American landscape, especially in university towns.

Ardis says Kerry is committed to the social justice work of the center, including a Wednesday night dinner for 200 homeless people, a food pantry and a tutoring program for inner-city children. Kerry once participated in a 20-mile walk for hunger sponsored by the church, and he has served the homeless at least once on a Wednesday night, Ardis says. "If we look at his track record, it is reaching out to the most needy of society," says Ardis.

A December 2003 interview with the Interfaith Alliance probably comes closest to reflecting the candidate's true sensibility. In it, Kerry called his faith "your guidepost, your sort of moral compass, your sustaining force if you will, in everything that you do. But...maybe it's a little bit the New Englander in me or something--you wear it in your heart and in your soul, not necessarily on your sleeve....There are all the lessons of a lifetime of my relationship as a person of faith, but not something that I think you ought to push at people every single day in the secular world."

Of course, an evangelical Christian, such as President Bush, wouldn't put it quite like that. Evangelicals are more comfortable describing a personal conversion experience, a moment when they came to "know Jesus." It's not as if Catholics (or even non-evangelical Protestants) mind talking about their spiritual journey when asked. It's just that sharing one's personal testimony is simply not done in those circles. The average Catholic of Kerry's generation, or any other generation, would probably wince at the thought of talking publicly about a "personal relationship" with Jesus.

Yet Catholics (and non-evangelical Protestants) do have a connection with Jesus. Kerry accesses it through his relationship with Mary, the mother of Jesus, when he prays the rosary. Like all Catholics, he makes an intense physical connection to Jesus' body and blood during Communion. The liturgy, meanwhile, binds Catholics to tradition, and through its sacred beauty allows the worshipper to drift into a meditative union with God.

But you won't ever hear Kerry saying he's "feeling blessed by the Lord" on a particular day or talk about God using him as an "instrument."

How has his Catholicism affected his political approach? Had he been a Catholic raised in, say, the 1940s, it would have likely meant that John Kerry's positions would reflect those of the Church. Many conservative Catholics believe Vatican II unleashed the phenomenon of the "cafeteria Catholic," those who embrace Catholicism but not all its teachings.

Michele Dillon, a University of New Hampshire sociologist and Catholicism expert, says majorities of American Catholics disagree with church teaching against birth control (93%), divorce (65%), married priests (60%) and female priests (60%). Even on abortion, at least two-thirds of American Catholics are in some sense pro-choice, Dillon says.

Teresa Heinz Kerry calls herself pro-choice, but in June told Barbara Walters that she considers abortion a "dreadful reality." Perhaps Kerry has been influenced by his wife. In a July interview in Iowa, he said, to the surprise of some observers: "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception." Still, he remains pro-choice, the position that has landed him in trouble with the Catholic Church. Some bishops have argued that his position on abortion is so immoral he should be denied Communion.

All during the spring, bishops in Colorado Springs, St. Louis, Nebraska, Orlando, Newark, Trenton, and Camden publicly announced they would deny Communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians in their dioceses--most notably, of course, Kerry. Media coverage was intense. As a result, Kerry has decided to take Communion in liberal Catholic centers around the country, with photographers trailing him at every stop.

Kerry never publicly commented on the controversy, though he hasn't shied from criticism of the Vatican in the past. Last July the Vatican issued a document opposing legal recognition for gay unions and urging Catholic politicians to hew to that position. This prompted Kerry to criticize the Vatican. "I believe in the church and I care about it enormously," he said. "But I think that it's important to not have the church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in America."

Throughout the abortion controversy, Kerry's critics are saying, in effect, he's a "bad Catholic." But that doesn't mean he'll be viewed that way by the majority of American Catholics. "John Kerry is as good a Catholic as other American Catholics are themselves," Dillon told Beliefnet. "He would be an outlier if he were pro-life, pro-death penalty and anti-labor."

And there are some aspects of Catholic teaching that Kerry embraces fully. In his autobiography, A Call to Service, he writes that "being an American Catholic at this particular moment in history has three particular implications...The first two follow directly from the two great commandments set forth in the Scriptures: our obligations to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The first commandment means we must believe that there are absolute standards of right and wrong. They may not always be that clear, but they exist, and it is our duty to honor them as best we can.

"The second commandment means that our commitment to equal rights and social justice, here and around the world, is not simply a matter of political fashion or economic and social theory but a direct command from God..."

The third facet, he said, is the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state--a tradition made clear by President Kennedy. "He helped make religious affiliation a non-issue in American politics," Kerry wrote. "It should stay that way."

In an Indianapolis speech in June to members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Kerry talked about his belief that politicians honor God by helping others through government policies. "I am running for president because it's time to turn the words into deeds and faith into action," Kerry said. "Scripture tells us there is a time to break down and a time to build up. This is our time to break down divisions and build up unity."

In A Call to Service, Kerry wrote that he believes the Bible calls for practicing social justice and equal rights. He also criticized religious opposition to gay rights. "I believe that this and every other form of discrimination is opposed to the spirit of the Bible," he wrote.

Though it's not clear what effect it's had on him, Kerry's spiritual biography added a new chapter during the campaign when he discovered for the first time that his grandfather was an Austrian Jew named Fritz Kohn who converted to Catholicism with his wife, Ida Lowe, then changed his name to Frederick Kerry and moved to the United States. Though he was a successful and well-known businessman in Brookline, Mass., Frederick Kerry eventually lost three fortunes--and committed suicide in 1921. John Kerry apparently knew none of this history when it was excavated by the Boston Globe a year ago.

Kerry has said repeatedly that he draws inspiration from his family. "My parents helped me understand at an early age that we are all put on this earth for something greater than ourselves," Kerry said on the campaign trail in early July.

Kerry will never be the kind of glad-handing guy who grabs a voter's hand and says he'll pray for them. He is, however, a devout Catholic who has never apparently had a crisis of faith. Yet a June 2004 Time magazine poll found that only 7 percent of voters described Kerry as a "man of strong religious faith." A Pew Center poll indicated that only a quarter knew he's Catholic. Numerous other polls show that Americans who attend church regularly are overwhelmingly pro-Bush.

Kerry is now wrestling with how and when to discuss his faith. His campaign staff has reluctantly concluded that remaining silent will merely allow the Republicans to define him as a secular Democrat out of the mainstream. About two months ago, Democratic consultants including Mike McCurry, President Clinton's former spokesman, met with senior Kerry officials to press their case that Kerry had to find his religious voice. McCurry told Beliefnet: "They said, 'It's very hard for Kerry to do. It's just not a comfortable thing for him to address."

He has sympathy for Kerry's discomfort. "If you ask a Catholic in the Northeast to talk about his faith, he might say, 'Huh? What is this, Catechism?' Kerry is exactly in that category."

But Kerry appears to be finding his footing. A campaign ad released on July 26 directly tackled the faith issue. In it, Kerry says the following: "In Vietnam I think most of the time I wore a rosary around my neck when we went into battle. So I believe. I still believe."

Then he seemed to nail it during his acceptance speech on July 29: "And let me say it plainly: in this campaign, we welcome people of faith. ... I don’t wear my own faith on my sleeve. But faith has given me values and hope to live by, from Vietnam to this day."

And now, voters will see if Kerry can keep up the faith drumbeat. He may not wear a rosary around his neck on the campaign trail, but he'll probably wear his religion on his sleeve.

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted November 08, 2004 11:26 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Surprise, I did read the article and also visited the site. Quite a site it is too as a rallying point for those who do not believe as their church teaches or as the bible directs but still want to wrap themselves up in the name of a church.

Kerry can't find his voice on his Catholic religion because he is a phony and in direct opposition to some of the most fundamental positions of the Catholic church and the bible.

I don't give a flip about Kerry's religious beliefs, lack thereof or Kerry's relationship to the Catholic church. It is only an issue because Kerry made it an issue in his campaign by attempting to cloak himself in the mantle of Catholicism while at the very same time rejecting the basic tenets of the Catholic church.

Similarly, I don't give a flip about beliefnet.com either. There are many churches and church related sites and groups preaching a different gospel than the churches they attempt to attach themselves to.

All the rationalization in the world and fog the left attempts to lay down will not change the basic fact that Kerry is an apostate Catholic and a hypocrite who talks out of every side of his mouth on religious issues as they relate to the church he's attempted to wrap around himself.

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KarenSD
unregistered
posted November 08, 2004 02:00 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Mirandee~

Thank you for lettin' me know you liked that map. I thought it rather apropos.

Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes... all in good humor, you know.

Best,
KarenSD

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