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So let us pray. Let us move our feet. Let us march together and let us lead America in a new direction—toward that mountain top which has always been our destination. We won't get there in one year or one election. But this year is our time to take another giant step toward the country we can and should become.

Several media outlets covering the speech are careful to note that Kerry didn't mention Bush by name, but did aim his comments at "our present national leadership."

But Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, says it's clear whom Kerry was referring to, and that the speech was "beyond the bounds of acceptable discourse and a sad exploitation of scripture for political attack."

According to Time, however, it's not the first time Kerry has made these comments: "In a speech at a Mississippi church on March 7, he said Bush does not practice the 'compassionate conservatism' he preaches, and quoted James 2: 14, 'What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?'"

It's also worth noting that Kerry gave his speech at a Baptist church in St. Louis, even though he'd told Time, "I certainly intend to take Communion and continue to go to Mass as a Catholic" in that city. But the Catholic archbishop of that city, Raymond Burke, has publicly warned the candidate "not to present himself for Communion" because of his votes supporting abortion.

More religion and politics:

• GOP pressing cultural issues | From gays to guns to the rights of the unborn, Republicans are staging a series of cultural clashes in Congress in the run-up to the fall elections, seeking political advantage as much as legislative accomplishment (Associated Press)
  
  
• As legislators haggle, some churches lose faith in measure | The Republican administration is concerned with trying to remove a state budget provision, passed by the House and Senate, that would prohibit -based initiative spending unless it is approved by the General Assembly (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Americans fighting their own holy war | If there's one essential truth about the United States these days, it is that the principal divide in the country is no longer between rich and poor, or even black and white, but between the devout and the unbelievers (Alex Massie, The Scotsman)
  
  
• Bill could criminalize Scriptures, say bishops | Portions of the Bible are in danger of being condemned as hate literature, say religious groups opposed to changes in the Criminal Code to be debated next week by the Senate (CanWest News Service/Calgary Herald)
  
  
• Is Bush the holiest of them all? Verily, no | Many presidents have openly held strong religious beliefs (Amity Shlaes, Los Angeles Times)
  
  

Life ethics:

• Courts to hear 3 abortion-ban challenges | A historic legal battle over abortion begins in courtrooms coast to coast Monday as three federal judges take up requests to derail the first substantial congressional limitation on abortion since the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision (Associated Press)
  
  
• An assault on Roe? | Opponents take incremental steps against abortion (Time)
  
  
• Harm to fetuses becomes issue in Utah and elsewhere | State courts, not federal, are where the vast majority of the country's violent-crime cases are handled (The New York Times)
  
  
• Abortion war reignites in US | Laws to outlaw late terminations and give a foetus rights raise fears of an outright ban (Sunday Herald, Glasgow)
  
  

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March (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48