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Catholics and Political Responsibility

Kerry and the Future of American Religion

by Thomas C. Reeves
July 11, 2004

As reprinted from the History News Network. Thomas C. Reeves is Senior Fellow at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.

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The Southern Baptist Convention recently endorsed a proposed federal amendment to ban homosexual marriage. The 8,500 representatives of the nation's largest Protestant denomination defeated a similar proposal to urge parents to pull their children out of public schools, but not before proponents called the schools "officially Godless," cited data on sexually transmitted diseases, and noted the presence of "2,000 homosexual clubs in our middle schools and high schools."

During the debate on the Constitutional amendment, President Bush addressed the convention via video and backed the proposal. The resolution passed without debate. Convention members also urged Southern Baptists to "vote in accordance with biblical values," expressed pride and support of the American military, and praised the late President Reagan for his "strong belief in the Bible and its answers."

A few days earlier, the presumptive Democratic candidate, John Kerry, appointed his Director of Religion Outreach. Mara Vanderslice, 29, attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its pacifism. There, according to the Catholic League, she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, "a group that supports the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and openly embraces Marxism-Leninism." Vanderslice has spoken at rallies held by ACT-UP, the anti-Catholic group that in 1989 disrupted Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral by spitting the Eucharist on the floor. In 2000 she was one of the protestors in Seattle that rocked the city during a meeting of the World Trade Organization. In 2002, she joined the effort to shut down the nation's capitol in a protest against the International Monitory Fund and the World Bank. Earlier in the current campaign, Vanderslice was Howard Dean's Religion Outreach Director. The Catholic League commented, "Her resume is that of a person looking for a job working for Fidel Castro, not John Kerry."

The Catholic League also reported that Kerry was taking advice from leftist priest Father Robert Drinan. In 1997, Drinan was forced to retract a New York Times op-ed piece he wrote defending President Clinton's veto of a ban on partial-birth abortion. Drinan is part of Kerry's "kitchen Cabinet" on religious matters.

On June 21, Kerry condemned the President's policy of banning federal funding for stem cell research, attributing the ban to "fear" and claiming that the Administration was hampering scientific progress. (The President's budget increases for federal research and development have increased 44% since he took office.) The Senator apparently has no respect for religious reservations about creating life in order to destroy it.

In the influential magazine First Things, political scientists Louis Bolce and Gerald De Maio published the results of a secularism study they created from a published compilation of congressional roll-call votes over the past decade. The issues included abortion, homosexuality, savings accounts that could be used for religious schools, and the like. Senators were rated on their hostility to traditional religious values. A ten on this scale indicated that the senator had a perfect secularist score. The average Democratic score was 8.9; the average GOP score was 0.95. Kerry scored a perfect 10.

The two sides of the Culture War in America could not be seen more clearly. And if Kerry wins in November, his administration's treatment of Christian churches appears to be predictable. Yes, Kerry himself is a Catholic, but in an earlier blog I described the sort of Catholic he is. Kerry is a bona fide liberal who flaunts Church teaching on abortion (and perhaps on marriage) and sports an overall voting record to the left of Ted Kennedy. That means that his hostility toward American churches, except for a few of the most liberal and compliant, is almost certain.

Beholden to teachers unions, Kerry opposes school vouchers, which have aided many Christian schools. And we can expect a sharp reversal of Bush's "faith-based" innovations. In accordance with the wishes of the Left, the effort to isolate Christianity completely from the public square would be intensified. President Kerry's nominees for the Supreme Court would not likely have much sympathy toward positions advanced by the Southern Baptist Convention.

But so what? Isn't this a secular nation already, and wouldn't these actions by Kerry meet with widespread approval? They would certainly be celebrated on the Left, but what about the majority of Americans? In a stunning article by Samuel P. Huntington, published in the June 16 issue of the Wall Street Journal, the distinguished Political Scientist rejected the argument that the United States is or ever was a secular nation. Citing immigration data and recent polls, Huntington wrote, "In general, the level of religious commitment of countries varies inversely with their level of economic development: People in poor countries are highly religious; those in rich countries are not. America is the glaring exception." He concluded, "While a precise judgment is impossible, at the start of the 21st century the U.S. was probably becoming more rather than less Christian in its religious composition."

While many Christian voters have no idea what Kerry and his supporters have in mind for America's churches, the public seems to understand the Senator's general view of religion. A recent poll by Time magazine revealed that only 7% of Americans think Kerry is a man of strong religious faith. New York Times columnist David Brooks commented, "It's mind-boggling. Can't Democratic strategists read the data? Religious involvement is a much more powerful predictor of how someone will vote than income, education, gender or any other social and demographic category save race." Being perceived to be a Bible-reading Baptist, Bill Clinton won a great many evangelical votes.

The approach of the Left toward Christianity was firmly established in 1789, in France. When the Left took over the Democratic Party in 1972, the assault proceeded on the national level in this country. Kerry appears prepared to follow the historic pattern.

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