Catholic League president William Donohue commented on Senator John Kerry’s acceptance speech last night:
“Not too long ago, people of faith constituted the heart and soul of both the Republican and Democratic parties. But to show how things have changed, consider that last night Kerry said, ‘we welcome people of faith. America is not us and them.’ It used to be the other way around—people of faith were the core of the Democratic Party who welcomed non-believers to the table. Now it’s been reversed. Kerry’s use of the words ‘us’ and ‘them’ is even more striking: he literally aligned the most active Democrats with the faithless and then tagged the faithful as the outsiders.
“There are other problems with Kerry’s speech as well. Never once did he say how religion has guided his life, yet he now is running two TV ads—one in English and one in Spanish—that tout his religious commitment. For example, the former ad says he was an altar boy, thought about becoming a priest and wore a rosary around his neck while serving in Vietnam. Similarly, his website’s biography prominently lists his active membership in the Catholic Church. And just recently he told CNN’s Larry King that his religion is ‘the bedrock’ of his life. Which begs the question of whether Kerry is playing politics with his religion.
“Maybe the omission is a better reflection of who he really is. While one of his friends growing up, Daniel Barbiero, says Kerry was religious, this is contradicted by his friends Maxwell King and David Thorne (the brother of Julia Thorne, Kerry’s first wife). In any event, we do know that in Kerry’s marriage to Thorne, an Episcopalian, he did not insist that his children be raised Catholic (in direct contradiction to Catholic Church teaching). And we also know that he married Teresa Heinz before receiving an annulment of his first marriage.
“No matter, Kerry has now divided America into two camps—the ‘us’ and the ‘them.’ To make matters worse, it is reported that he wrote this speech himself. Now all he has to do is explain this to the 90 percent of Americans who believe in God.”
