Religious Liberty and Protecting the Earth

On Thursday evening, JK addressed “a room of 200 guests at the fifth annual religious liberty dinner staged in the historic Caucus Room located in the Russell Senate office building.” John Smith of ANN filed a report about the event, noting “Senator John Kerry rallied behind a bill designed to protect the rights of people of faith, including Sabbath-keepers, in the workplace.”

“We all uphold the right to practice what we believe as a matter of religious freedom. The ability to be able to do that is a crucial part of our national identity; [it] is what we hold up to other nations and it’s what we take great pride in,” Kerry told the gathering.

“If this bill goes through,” Kerry said, “it will be a major success for religious liberty. I think it’s a hallmark of where we are as a nation—in codifying people’s ability to truly and freely practice their religions.”

[...]

Senator Kerry praised the efforts of the coalition of different religions and philosophies represented in the Caucus Room. He received enthusiastic applause when he said, “That is why I support so passionately the Workplace Religious Freedom Act and have done since I introduced it in 1996. It is time for us to get [it] through the United States Congress.”

“This effort is now supported by Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sikh and other faith organizations and writing this into law is a bit of a balancing act. That balance can be found and should be found,” the 2004 presidential candidate continued.

Senator Kerry also took the opportunity to link his concerns about the environment with the evening’s religious freedom theme. “Every faith shares a commonality, a universality of principle. All share a fundamental respect for the earth itself, of creation and what it is.” He then quoted 1 Corinthians 10:26 to remind his audience that ‘The earth is the Lord’s, And everything in it.’

“Yes, we have dominion of it,” Kerry added, “but dominion assumes responsibility. Our capacity to think gives us a greater capacity …to make choices. God gave us responsibility to make those choices wisely and with love for our fellow human beings.”

He moved on to address man’s moral obligation in environmental matters, regardless of party affiliation. “It’s not left or right, liberal or conservative. It’s just plain common sense and it’s certainly in keeping with any responsible interpretation of …the scriptures, the Torah, [or] the Koran. [We must] do a better job of meeting our responsibilities to protect creation itself.”

That’s a point which JK has made repeatedly throughout interviews and Q&A sessions associated with the book tour for This Moment on Earth. Beachmom has a quote from a bloggers conference call with JK which underlines this same point, in her dailykos diary, “Moral leadership needed to stop global warming: Q & A with the Kerrys”. <!-more-> Best Buddies Bike Challenge

On Saturday (which wasn’t ideal weather for outdoor activities), JK biked 96 miles in the 2007 Volvo Best Buddies Challenge from the JFK library to Hyannisport. Team Kerry helped contribute to an overall total of $2,248,793. Check out the route. h/t to Wicked Smaht Thoughts blog for the route map.

Massachusetts Democratic Convention

From the bike event, JK zipped over to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention and gave a rip-roaring speech. Charley on the MTA put up some audio of JK’s speech and noted:

The red meat in Kerry’s speech happens about 2:30 through part 4. Delicious.

You can check it out at BlueMassGroup here.

As one attendee noted in an online chat:

The Senator threw out gobs of red meat for the people. It was indeed, as Charley said, delicious. Damn all that fire and the man rode 90 miles in the same day.

Actually it was 96 miles but who’s counting?

sco at .08 acres has a nice roundup of blog coverage of the convention here.