Sen. Kerry talks about link between career, faith [View all]

[Mass]

Shocking - A MA newspaper has something positive to write about Senator Kerry. It seems that, after a week-end in the Emirates, Kerry gave an address to Gordon College.

I am generally not a big fan of these speeches (this is not something that would be acceptable in France, where faith does not mix well with public discourse), but I like what I am reading here.

http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1862283691/Sen-Kerry-talks-about-link-between-career-faith
The words "politics and religion" don't naturally conjure an image of a left-leaning senator from Massachusetts.

Nonetheless, U.S. Sen. John Kerry delivered an engaging and effective speech yesterday at Gordon College on how his Christian faith has informed his political career as a senior member of the U.S. Congress.

"I don't usually talk about faith. It's not something every audience wants to digest or is able to digest, but I believe the call of Jesus and every religious leader is the call to service," Kerry told a few hundred students, faculty and other onlookers as he delivered the inaugural Richard F. Gross Distinguished Lecture inside the chapel at the Christian college. "I like to think that my entire career is an extension of my faith."
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"I believe more and more with each trip I make to the Middle East, that there is much more we hold in common than that which divides us," said Kerry, who arrived in Wenham one day after meeting with foreign leaders in Dubai as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. "We don't have to agree on everything to get along, but we must agree that faith may be worth dying for, but not worth killing for."
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In a surprise hardball question at the end of the program, Gordon President Michael Lindsay asked Kerry how he reconciles his Christian faith with his support to allow women the choice to legally have an abortion.

"I passionately believe that courts and government should not be making that decision," Kerry said, even while adding that he thinks life begins at conception. "I don't think my faith is inconsistent at all with that. I believe it is inappropriate for me to make that decision for my wife, daughter or somebody else."

http://hamilton-wenham.patch.com/articles/kerry-brings-message-of-christian-tolerance-to-gordon-college

Kerry to Gordon Students: Christians Should Support Universal Health Care
U.S. Sen. John Kerry made the inaugural address at the Richard L. Gross Distinguished Lecture Series at Gordon College in Wenham on Monday.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, just off the airplane from a meeting with Muslim leaders in Dubai, told the students at Gordon College on Monday that there is more in all religions worldwide that unites rather than divides people of faith.

Kerry, a Democrat, said there are lots of pitfalls to debating faith issues during a presidential year, in a direct reference to the conservative Christian agenda that has dominated the last few Republican presidential primaries.

“The more I learn, the more I know that all religions live by universal values,” Kerry told students who packed the A.J. Gordon Memorial Chapel at the Christian college.
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Kerry, the decorated Navy veteran who opposed the Vietnam War, quoted St. Augustine in saying that war should never be waged except as a last resort and then with restraint.

“Faith may be worth dying for, but it is not worth killing for,” he said.
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