KERRY’S “RELIGION OUTREACH” DIRECTOR IS A GEM
June 14, 2004
Mara Vanderslice has been
appointed Senator John Kerry’s Director of Religion
Outreach. Catholic League president William Donohue
finds her a curious choice:
“Here’s what we know
about John Kerry’s religious outreach person. Mara
Vanderslice was raised without any faith and didn’t
become an evangelical Christian until she attended
Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its
adherence to pacifism. When in college, Mara was
active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that
supports the convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and
openly embraces Marxism-Leninism. After graduating,
Mara spoke at rallies held by ACT-UP, the
anti-Catholic group that disrupted Mass at St.
Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989 by spitting the Eucharist
on the floor. In 2000, she practiced civil
disobedience when she took to the streets of Seattle
in a protest against the World Trade Organization. In
2002, she tried to shut down Washington, D.C. in a
protest against the IMF and the World Bank.
“At first, John Kerry was
considered too moderate for Mara, which is why she
became Howard Dean’s Religion Outreach Director. She
admits that she was a freak in the Dean campaign: her
colleagues dubbed her the ‘church lady,’ informing her
that Dean was liked precisely because he didn’t talk
about religion. ‘How in the world did you get hired?’
is how one staffer put it. Unfazed, Mara contends we
have a ‘collective commitment to protect the integrity
of God’s creation,’ specifically citing the needs of
the ‘least of these.’ Yet she supports John Kerry, a
man who has never learned of an abortion he couldn’t
justify.
“All the polls show Kerry getting whipped badly by
Bush among practicing Catholics, Protestants and Jews.
Moreover, the latest edition of Time magazine
reports that only 7 percent of likely voters think
Kerry is a man of strong religious faith. Given all
this, his choice of Mara Vanderslice as his religious
point woman is confounding. Her resume is that of a
person looking for a job working for Fidel Castro, not
John Kerry. Just wait until Catholics and Protestants
learn who this lady really is.”
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