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07/16/2004: Why Kerry is reticent about religion....
Melanie Matson, over at Just a Bump in the Beltway gives us an insight into why Sen. Kerry isn't as "in yer face" about his Catholicism as Bush is about his religion:
This has been making me nuts for a while and I'm glad to have a chance to address it. John Kerry is a "cradle" Catholic. For folks outside the Roman church, there are some things about us taught at our mother's knees that you don't know about us. One of the most important is that you don't talk about your faith. In Catholic circles, humility is a virtue, one notably lacking at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. One doesn't make either claims or assumptions about one's own faith or the faith of others. God will sort it all out.Having myself been born and raised a pre-Vatican II Catholic, I can verify this (though, dammit, now I'm miffed that I didn't come to this insight independently. Oh well, you can't be on top of the game all the time, though I wish I could be on top of it more than once every couple decades or so).
Kerry has the additional burden of having the experience of a pre Vatican II America, which was still (and is slightly to this day) anti-Catholic in the popular culture. No wonder he is reticent to talk about his faith.
And then their is the secular press, which trumpets John Edward's sit-in-the-front-pew Methodism while not knowing what to make of Kerry's Eucharist every week Catholicism. Hey, secular journos: they aren't different things. Lord, you guys cover religion badly.
Len on 07.16.04 @ 12:02 PM CST
