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So basically, he's Joe Biden?


On Sat, Jul 23, 2016 at 9:02 AM, Eric Schwerin <eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
> wrote:

>
>
> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/22/how-tim-kaine-hillary-clinton-s-vp-defies-the-religious-stereotype.html?via=ios
>
> How Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's VP, Defies the Religious Stereotype
> [image: 160722-michaelson-vp-religion-tease]
>
> According to conventional wisdom, Hillary Clinton’s VP pick, Senator Tim
> Kaine
> <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/20/maine-sen-angus-king-to-hillary-no-pain-choose-kaine.html>,
> is the boring, safe choice: uninspiring to progressives, a white dude, but
> a competent centrist from a swing state. Kaine said so himself on *Meet
> the Press*
> <http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/sen-kaine-boring-is-the-fastest-growing-demographic-713071683576>:
> “It’s true. I am boring.”
>
> In a text message to her supporters just after 8 p.m. on Friday evening,
> Clinton wrote: "I'm thrilled to tell you this first: I've chosen Sen. Tim
> Kaine as my running mate. Welcome him to our team"
>
> Not quite. In fact, Kaine’s old-school, social-justice, Jesuit-trained
> Catholicism is a refreshing break from the usual association of religiosity
> with conservatism. As such, especially if Kaine does attract moderate
> Republicans disenchanted with the extremism of Donald Trump
> <http://www.thedailybeast.com/features/2016/donald-trump.html>, he has
> the potential to be a transformative figure.
>
> Like his potential predecessor, Joe Biden, Kaine reflects both the past
> and the future of the Catholic Church
> <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/21/can-pope-francis-unite-american-catholics.html>—but
> not the recent past. For a long time, mainstream Catholics emphasized the
> Church’s social gospel: caring for the poor, opposing war and the death
> penalty, and so on. And with the series of reforms known as “Vatican II,”
> it seemed as though the Church would keep pace with the times and moderate
> its doctrines on sexuality, gender, and birth control, while maintaining
> its basically liberal social justice outlook.
>
> That didn’t happen. Instead, the sexual revolution caused the Catholic
> Church to turn rightward, retrenching on conservative teachings on
> sexuality and gender, and placing opposition to abortion at the top of the
> Church’s American political agenda. Weirdly, Catholic teachings on life
> beginning at conception became adopted by American evangelicals (who had
> once bitterly opposed them) and the right-wing alliance between
> conservative Catholics and Protestants created the contemporary Christian
> Right
> <https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/where-did-indiana-law-come-brief-history-religious-freedom>
> .
>
> Not all Catholics went along, however. The Jesuit order, in particular,
> remained focused on service, justice, and issues of poverty, deemphasizing
> (while not opposing) issues of sexual purity. Not surprisingly, Pope
> Francis, the first Jesuit pope, has followed this pattern, much to the
> chagrin of traditionalists. While not changing Catholic dogma, he has
> spoken of the need to apologize to gay people, and has washed the feet of
> poor people around the world.
>
> That is Tim Kaine’s tradition, too. In particular, he has spoken often
> <https://charlierose.com/videos/18985> of the year he spent with Jesuit
> missionaries in Honduras, telling Charlie Rose in 2008 that “the
> transformative event in my life, next to being a husband and father, was
> this year that I spent as a missionary in Honduras, not only informing my
> views of our country, but giving me a sense of mission in life at a time
> when I lacked it. That was a powerful faith experience for me.”
>
> Since then, Kaine also has been outspoken about his faith, sometimes
> rivaling his counterpart, Governor Mike Pence, in the number of times he
> invokes it. This has not been without controversy. For example, Kaine has
> said many times that he is personally pro-life but politically
> pro-choice—in other words, that he is anti-abortion himself, as a matter of
> conscience, but believes the government should not coerce that moral view
> on women.
>
> Oddly, some have called this view
> <http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/tim-kaine-abortion-predicament-225053>
> a “predicament.” But, in fact, it is what a majority of Americans believe:
> that they personally may be against abortion, but that it’s not the state’s
> business to force those views on anyone, especially against women who
> should make such decisions for themselves. As senator, Kaine maintained a
> 100 percent rating from NARAL, and spoken many times in favor of protecting *Roe
> v. Wade—*though as governor, he backed consent restrictions and a
> “partial-birth” abortion ban. While some in the pro-choice community are
> unhappy with this ambivalence, it’s not a predicament for Kaine; it’s an
> asset.
>
> Indeed, the mirror image of Kaine’s position on abortion is his position
> on the death penalty: personal moral opposition, but a concurrent belief
> that the state should not impose a moral view on others. As governor, he
> allowed executions to proceed as sentenced. “I take an oath to uphold the
> laws of the commonwealth,” he said in 2008. “My church doesn't make me
> cross my fingers when I do.”
>
> Kaine’s Catholicism also represents the demographic future of the Catholic
> Church, and of America. His parish in Richmond is mostly non-white, and
> according to one report
> <http://www.newsweek.com/tim-kaine-vice-president-boring-480693>, Kaine
> has even sung in the mostly-black gospel choir. Both as a matter of daily
> reality and ethical commitment, Kaine’s religiosity includes a commitment
> to racial justice.
>
> More broadly, as we’ve seen with Pope Francis, the social justice
> teachings of the Church are not to be underestimated. Like Pope John Paul
> II (though not Pope Benedict) before him, Pope Francis has criticized
> untrammeled capitalism, pushed for swift action on climate change
> <http://religionnews.com/2015/06/19/pope-francis-environmental-encyclical-even-radical-appears-commentary/>,
> and personally demonstrated what concern for the marginalized looks like.
> If any of these views were to be put into practice, the results would look
> more like Bernie Sanders than Clintonomics.
>
> Now, it remains true that on some issues important to former
> Bernie-backing progressives, Kaine is a disappointment. He’s basically a
> free trader, and has often sided with Wall Street in various debates. He
> has often cozied up to financial elites, accepting a lot of gifts
> <http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/tim-kaine-virginia-veep-mcdonnell-clinton-224888#ixzz4D3g6VHrj>
> and free vacations. And, yes, he’s a fifty-something white guy.
>
> But Kaine’s quintessentially Catholic yet stereotype-defying brand of
> religious liberalism has the potential to disrupt the voting patterns and
> assumptions that most people have about religious Americans. According to
> conventional wisdom, religious Christians are supposed to look like Mike
> Pence: hardline on abortion and homosexuality, but pro-business and
> anti-social-safety-net when it comes to economic policies.
>
> A lot of Christians, though—especially non-white Christians—look more like
> Tim Kaine. The American Catholic Church, in particular, is far less white
> and far less conservative than most people think, with Hispanic Catholics (34
> percent of the U.S. Catholic population
> <http://www.prri.org/spotlight/the-one-group-pope-francis-will-largely-miss-on-u-s-tour-hispanic-catholics/%5D,>
> and growing) regularly polling to the left
> <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/21/can-pope-francis-unite-american-catholics.html>
> of non-Hispanics on a wide range of social issues
> <http://www.prri.org/spotlight/white-hispanic-catholics-disagree-on-issue-of-climate-change/>.
> They don’t get as much press, but they are the future.
>
> “There's what we are today and there is what we ought to be. I think both
> religion and politics are both about that,” Kaine said on *Charlie Rose *in
> 2008. “We can take the conditions we're in and say, shoot, that's just the
> way it's going to be. But, boy, every human being I've ever met of whatever
> background, they recognize there's a gulf between where we are
> individually, where we are as a people, as a culture, and where we ought to
> be. Politics and religion are both about … breaking out of our own
> selfishness and our own limitations and saying what is and isn't necessary.
> We can be better than that.”
>
> That is a quintessential progressive religious vision, and it is not
> something we’ve heard much on the presidential campaign trail this year, or
> most years, especially from someone who goes to mass every week. Don’t
> believe the hype that Kaine is the safe, boring choice. He could be a
> game-changer.
>
>
> Eric D. Schwerin
> eschwerin@rosemontseneca.com
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>


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Alexander Snyder Mackler
(302) 598-867