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Weblog returns
From Thursday to Sunday, full-time religion reporters from newspapers and other mainstream media outlets gathered in Washington D.C. for their annual conference. You might have thought, then, that perhaps religion news articles would have slackened a bit over the weekend. Wrong! If anything, the last few days have been busier than ever with religion news. Not huge religion news, necessarily, but just a lot of it.

Kerry cranks up the God talk
That didn't take long. The Kerry camp officially brought on Clinton White House press secretary Mike McCurry—who has been taken Amy Sullivan's seat as the most prominent voice on Democrats and religion—and now the Democratic candidate can't stop talking about faith.

Thursday's speech to the National Baptist Convention was one of the most religious speeches Kerry has ever given. He spoke of "Amazing Grace" (saying it was his father's favorite hymn) and John Newton's decision to "give his life to God." He said that the importance of Brown v. Board of Education was that it was when the nation "finally acknowledged God's truth that we are each made in His image and likeness—that separate but equal is not just unequal—but immoral." And, as many papers pointed out, he said that Bush is one of the bad guys in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. "For four years, George W. Bush may have talked about compassion, but he's walked right by. He's seen people in need, but he's crossed over to the other side of the street." There were loads of other biblical citations as well: "The Bible tells us that we must sometimes see through a glass darkly. But on every issue, from Iraq to health care, from jobs to education to America's role in the world, the choice is clear." Here's one of the most Scripture-laden parts of his speech (or, for that matter, in any speech given by any candidate in this election):

Your dedication and your service live out the teaching of the Scripture: "It is not enough, my brother, to say you have faith, when there are no deeds … Faith without works is dead." As you know, my friends, we are taught to walk by faith not by sight.

And when we look around us—when we look around neighborhoods and towns and cities all across this country, we see faith to be lived out, and so many deeds to be done.

As it's said, faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. [Hebrews 11:1] And we all know, you can't separate faith from substance.

We see jobs to be created. We see families to house. We see violence to stop. We see children to teach—and children to care for. We see too many people without health care and too many people of color suffering and dying from diseases like AIDS and cancer and diabetes.

We look at what is happening in America today and forget to ask: Where are the deeds? Where is the substance in our faith?

But Kerry has used religious language in speaking to black denominations before. What's really notable this week is his use of Scripture in the Democrats' weekly radio address, which aired September 11:

"In the days that followed, we saw an outpouring of love as people across America and around the world asked themselves, 'What can I do to help?' How can I, as the Scripture says, help repair the breach? Isaiah 58:12. … I know that for those who lost loved ones that day, the past three years have been almost unbearable. Their courage and faith have been tested in a way they never imagined. But day after day, they have held on. And day after day, they and we have found hope and comfort and strength by the quiet grace of God. We are one America in our prayers for those who were taken from us on September 11th and for their families."

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September (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48