That last quote in my post wasn't a Kerry quote. It was a quote of standard Catholic doctrine (from the 6th century). I haven't heard Kerry comment one way or another on it.

Kerry, with his pro-choice record, clearly does not adhere to his Catholic religious dogma as much as Dubya does.


I think that he's personally as devout as Bush, or maybe moreso. He has voted against the Catholic dogma, but I think he's personally troubled about abortion. He's tried to finess it. [link|http://www.issues2000.org/Social/John_Kerry_Abortion.htm|E.g.]:

Q: If the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person?

A: I cannot tell you how deeply I respect the belief about life and when it begins. I'm a Catholic. Raised a Catholic I was an altar boy. Religion has been a huge part of my life. Helped lead me through a war. Leads me today. I can't take what is an article of faith for me and legislate it for someone who doesn't share that article of faith. But I can counsel people. I can talk reasonably about life and about responsibility. But as a president, I have to represent all the people in the nation and I have to make that judgment. You can take that position and not be pro-abortion, but you have to afford people their constitutional rights. And that means being smart about allowing people to be fully educated, to know what their options are in life, and making certain that you don't deny a poor person the right to be able to have whatever the Constitution affords them.

Source: Second Bush-Kerry Debate, in St. Louis MO Oct 8, 2004


His can't-legislate-morality is a bit of a cop-out. The government legislates morality all the time. He ends up with the right result, in my opinion, but his bringing his Catholic upbringing into it weakens his argument rather than strengthening it (as Catholic doctrine is strongly anti-abortion).

How does that stack up againts Bush's professed beliefs? Compare the above with Bush's [link|http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010809-2.html|triangulating] about federal stem-cell research funding. If he really believed that "life begins at conception" and had that belief as an iron-clad guide to governing, he wouldn't have allowed federal funding even under those limited circumstances (after all, children/fetuses/embryos died to make those cell-lines possible).

In each case, they voted or acted against a simple reading of their professed beliefs, IMO.

FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.