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Article: Pursuing Kerry: the elusive candidate.
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- August 24, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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COMPLAINTS ABOUT John Kerry's "religion problem" are of a piece with complaints about his personality. Kerry is emotionally cool and rhetorically uninspiring. He does not emote religious feeling--or much of any feeling. Political commentator Clarence Page observed that Kerry shows "an almost painful reluctance" to talk about his religion (Newsday, January 13). When pressed, Kerry will mention that he served as an altar boy, considered becoming a priest and wore a rosary around his neck in Vietnam, but in the next breath explain that New Englanders "tend to be more personal in our faith and not throw it at people."
The problem, if it is one, is a matter of style ...