Monday, September 8, 2008

Biden on Religion in Politics

Sen. Joe Biden talks about abortion and his faith on Meet the Press.



Sen. Joe Biden: I know when it begins for me. It is a personal and private issue. For me as a Roman Catholic I'm prepared to accept the teaching of my church. But let me tell you, there are a lot of people of great confessional faiths, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others, who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They're intently as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views. I'm prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception, but that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally, maybe even more devout than I am, seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society...

Sen. Joe Biden: ...what I've voted against is curtailing the right, criminalizing abortion. I've voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view, that it's a moment of conception. ... How am I going out to tell you or anyone else, that you must insist upon my view that is based on a matter of faith, and that's the reason I haven't. This is a matter between a person's God, however they believe in God, their doctor and themselves, and what we're going to be doing is make sure that we reduce considerably the number of abortions that take place by providing the care, the assistance and the encouragement for people to be able to carry to term and to raise their children.

This is an attitude I wish more religious people had. Biden is religious, but he does not want to impose those beliefs on anyone else, because he knows everyone has their own beliefs and are entitled to them.

If more religious people thought like this, I would have no problem at all with them.

But I do have a problem, because too many of them do not respect differing beliefs and want to impose their religious views on everyone else.

This is the biggest difference I see between the two parties competing for the White House. One assumes their beliefs are the best and seeks to impose them on everyone, while the other recognizes that their faith is not the only or best one.

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for this post! Not that my mind needed to be swayed, but it's nice to see my choice reinforced!

Anonymous said...

Do you live in Germany or the USA? Scoutle says Germany. My wife and I are going to Germany to impose our beliefs on others ;)

Anonymous said...

By the way Germany is a great country. The European Cup was great... except for all the honking from the Russians(when they won their game) in the town I was in this summer.

DB said...

I only wish Obama said this when he was asked. He looked like an ass on the issue with his response. Biden is spot on. Then again, anyone who is voting against Obama on that issue alone doesn't need to hear what Biden said...it won't make a difference.

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