Lean Left

The New York Times, once again, acts as if conservatives hold the keys to religion. The article above is a front page article entitled Kerry, Candidate and Catholic, Creates Uneasiness for Church and sub headlined:

Vatican officials are debating a response to a candidate who professes Catholicism, but takes stands contrary to church teaching.

The first page is dedicated to opponents of Kerry highlighting the two areas — stem cell research and abortion — where Kerry differs on Catholic teaching. It isn’t until the second page that we are given even a hint that Kerry is much closer to the Church’s teachings than the RNC platform, and even then, its oblique.

The senator is aligned with his church on many social justice issues, including immigration, poverty, health care and the death penalty. But he diverges on the litmus issues, like abortion and stem cell research, that animate church conservatives and many in the hierarchy.

And even then, the article makes it appear as if Catholics think less of social justice and the death penalty than abortion because conservatives think of that issue as a “litmus” test. That impression is further reinforced by the fact that they quote no members of a liberal church organizations, and several members of conservative church organizations — including the far right Opes Dei.

This entire article reads like an Opus Dei press release. it paints Kerry as someone out of touch with Catholicism because he does not adhere to the conservative interpretation that Opus Dei does. Worse, it gives the impression that the important issues in the Church are not social justice, poverty prevention and the death penalty but abortion and stem cell research. It validates the conservative notion of what the Catholic Church should be without even hinting that there are millions of Catholics — including a significant portion of the hierarchy — that disagree with that emphasis. It biased against both Kerry and non reactionary Church members. This isn’t journalism — its editorializing.