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From guest columnist Diane Petryk
JFK Would Not Approve August 28, 2024 This Sunday (8/25) the New York Times treated us with a front page, above the fold report on J.D. Vance's steps toward becoming Catholic at age 35. It was eight column inches on page one and jumped to a full page inside, without ads. The headline on page one : In Catholicism Vance Adopts a 'Resistance' Resistance to what, one might wonder. Sin? Democrats? Woke? The article, which includes no new input from Vance, does not clear that up but includes an old quote from an article he wrote in the Catholic Journal where he states that conversion to Catholicism was joining “the resistance.” The headline over the full page continuation of this story: The Ties Between Vance's Faith and His Political Values. A full page blow by blow on this topic is a bit much, unless the editors are trying to make us understand how the Republican Vice Presidential Candidate intends to work for all the people with the mission of the few. Vance says: “My basic view is that if the Republican Party, if the conservative movement stands for anything –and I'm running as a politician trying to advocate for what we should stand for – the number one thing that we should be is pro-babies and pro-families...that's what the whole thing is about.” That stands in stark contrast with what the first Catholic presidential candidate told the American people on September 12, 1960. John F. Kennedy said: “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him. “I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials; and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all. “...Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end; where all men and all churches are treated as equal; where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice... “That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of presidency in which I believe — a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group, nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office. “I want a chief executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none; who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may appropriately require of him; and whose fulfillment of his presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or obligation. “...this is the kind of America for which our forefathers died, when they fled here to escape religious test oaths that denied office to members of less favored churches; when they fought for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom; “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the church does not speak for me. “Whatever issue may come before me as president — on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject — I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressures or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.” The views of Christian nationalists are quite different. They approve of using public money on religious schools. Their Project 2025, from which Trump tries unsuccessfully to distance himself, calls for only Christians in the public sphere. Project 2025 outlines Christian Nationalists’ aim to divert taxpayer funds to churches and religious non-profits for many types of welfare assistance. And whenever they offer that assistance, it comes with the strings of strict Christian indoctrination. This has already started right here in Lansing, where an applicant for secular government funding may be diverted to a faith-based organization for vetting and “budgeting advice.” Project 2025 calls for non-Christians to be second-class citizens. Read it here: What Is Project 2025, the Conservative Plan to Remake the Federal Government? - Newsweek Author Diane Petryk can be reached at bloomplanet@gmail.com.
Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com or call or text me at 517-730-2638. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.
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