c. 2004 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Sen. John Kerry’s increasing comfort with talking about faith on the stump has helped solidify his support among Catholics and undecided voters, top campaign advisers said Monday (Oct. 25).

Kerry, a Massachusetts Catholic who in recent weeks has shed his reluctance to speak publicly about his faith, has overtaken President Bush with a 50 percent to 43 percent lead among white Catholics, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. In early October, Bush led Kerry 49 percent to 33 percent, according to Pew.

Mike McCurry, a senior adviser to the Kerry campaign, said that support among Catholics will also translate into support among undecided voters _ a shift that could be the margin of victory in a handful of crucial battleground states.

McCurry said Kerry consulted with fellow Catholics after the Democratic convention to shape his message about how faith informs his policy. While Kerry said at the convention that “I don’t wear my religion on my sleeve,” the candidate now understands, McCurry said, that undecided voters want to know how his character would shape his presidency.

“He understands that for a lot of people this is a blank, and the blank needs to be filled in,” said McCurry, a Methodist who teaches Sunday School and was press secretary for President Clinton.

On Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Kerry invoked Scripture to issue a pointed rebuke of President Bush, accusing him of failing a “moral obligation … to the forgotten and to those who live in the shadows.”

Kerry also responded to Catholic critics who accuse him of ignoring church teaching by supporting abortion rights. “I love my church, I respect the bishops, but I respectfully disagree,” Kerry said in the speech, which centered on faith and values. “My task, as I see it, is not to write every doctrine into law. That is not possible or right in a pluralistic society. But my faith does give me values to live by and apply to the decisions I make.”

On recent Sundays, Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., have stumped for votes at traditionally Democratic black churches, invoking lyrics from “Amazing Grace” and quoting Scripture.

At the same time, Bush has used his campaign stops to rally support among his conservative evangelical base.

While some have criticized Kerry for not addressing the faith question earlier in the campaign, McCurry said the speech _ just nine days before the Nov. 2 election _ would help shape Kerry’s image among sought-after undecided voters.

“It was a long time in coming because it had to be a speech that would be very personal and reflect a lot of the senator’s thinking,” McCurry said. “It had to be very personal and something that would be from the heart.”

To shape the speech, Kerry consulted with an informal group of fellow Catholics, including the Rev. Leo O’Donovan, former president of Georgetown University, and Victoria Reggie, wife of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.

He also discussed the issue with Tony Campolo, founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, said McCurry.

O’Donovan said Kerry’s discussion of faith will extend beyond Catholics and appeal to “Americans across the spectrum.” The speech, while late in the campaign, was better late than never, O’Donovan said.

“I know that he’s wanted to speak about this for a good while and he’s intended to speak about it,” said O’Donovan, an old family friend. “When is the ideal time? That’s really a question for God.”

A spokesperson from the Bush-Cheney campaign was not immediately available for comment.

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