WASHINGTON (ABP) — President George W. Bush and Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry revealed their deep disagreements over some social issues important to religious voters — but both spoke candidly and passionately about their respective Christian faiths in the third and final debate of the election season.
At a university hall in Tempe, Ariz., Bush and his Democratic challenger squared off in a contest designed to focus on domestic issues in the third and final of their debates Oct. 13.
Bush re-emphasized his support for positions popular with conservative Christians on controversial social issues, such as same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Meanwhile, Kerry drew a contrast with Bush on those issues but also tried to explain his faith-based reasons for differing from Bush on other topics, like economic justice and health care.
When asked by the moderator, CBS News personality Bob Schieffer, about the role faith played in his life, Bush said, “Prayer and religion sustain me; I've received calmness in the storms of the presidency. I love the fact that people pray for me and my family all around the country.”
Bush, a United Methodist whom many conservative evangelicals claim as one of their own, added, “I never want to impose my religion on anybody else, but when I make decisions, I stand on principle. And the principles are derived from who I am.”
In response to the same question, Kerry, a lifelong Roman Catholic, sought to draw a line between the application of his faith to some social policies and Bush's by quoting Jesus' Great Commandment.
“I went to a church school, and I was taught that the two greatest commandments are 'Love the Lord your God with all your mind, your body, and your soul,' and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself,'” Kerry said. “And, frankly, I think we have a lot more loving of our neighbor to do in this country and on this planet.
“We have a separate and unequal school system in the United States of America. There's one for the people who have, and there's one for the people who don't have. And we're struggling with that today. The president and I have a difference of opinion about how we live out our sense of our faith.”
It was the second time in the debate that Kerry quoted Scripture. Earlier in the debate, in response to a question about his Catholicism, he combined two verses found in James 2.
“Now, my faith affects everything that I do and choose,” Kerry said. “There's a great passage of the Bible that says, 'What does it mean, my brother, to say you have faith, if there are no deeds? Faith without works is dead.' And I think that everything you do in public life has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people.
“That's why I fight against poverty, that's why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this Earth,” he continued. That's why I fight for equality and justice.”
Both Bush and Kerry have said they oppose the legalization of same-sex marriage, but Bush supports a federal constitutional amendment that would ban such unions. Kerry opposes the amendment, saying it is too drastic a step and could be used to overturn other legal arrangements and benefits he thinks same-sex couples should enjoy.
Schieffer asked the candidates about their assumptions behind their positions on gay marriage by asking them, “Do you believe homosexuality is a choice?”
“I just don't know,” Bush replied. “I do know that we have a choice to make in America, and that is to treat people with tolerance and respect and dignity. It's important that we do that. I also know [that], in a free society, people, consenting adults, can live the way they want to live. And that's to be honored.”
Bush said he supports the amendment “because I was worried that activist judges are actually defining the definition of marriage. And the surest way to protect marriage between a man and woman is to amend the Constitution. It has also the benefit of allowing citizens to participate in the process…. I'm deeply concerned that judges are making those decisions, and not the citizenry of the United States.”
Bush criticized Kerry for his 1996 vote against the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage exclusively in heterosexual terms on the federal level. “I'm concerned that that will get overturned, and if it gets overturned, then we'll end up with marriage being defined by courts,” he said. “And I don't think that's in our nation's interest.”
In response to Schieffer, Kerry invoked Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter, Mary, who is gay. “We're all God's children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was, she's being who she was born as.”
Kerry went on to criticize the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment because he believes it would go beyond defining marriage and endanger gay rights.
“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said. “But I also believe that…we're a country with a great, unbelievable Constitution, with rights that we afford people — that you can't discriminate in the workplace, you can't discriminate in the rights that you afford people. You can't disallow someone the right to visit their partner in a hospital. You have to allow people to transfer property, which is why I'm for partnership rights and so forth.”
In discussing abortion rights, Kerry said that he will not appoint federal judges who would overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that overturned state laws banning abortion.
“Now, I will not allow somebody to come in and change Roe vs. Wade,” he said. “The president has never said whether or not he would do that. But we know from the people he's tried to appoint to the court, he wants to. I will not.”
When Schieffer later pressed Bush on whether he “would like to overturn” that decision, Bush sidestepped the question. “What he's asking me is will I have a litmus test for my judges, and the answer is, “No, I will not have a litmus test,” he said. “I will pick judges who will interpret the Constitution, but I'll have no litmus test.”
In the candidates' previous debate — an Oct. 8 “town hall”-style meeting in St. Louis — an audience member asked Bush whom he would nominate if a vacancy came open on the Supreme Court. Bush did not answer the question directly, but said he would only appoint “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court. That term denotes a school of jurisprudence that only recognizes explicit rights found in the text of the Constitution itself — rather than rights interpreted in Constitution by judges.
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