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How long can the press keep up the wafer-to-wafer coverage of every time John Kerry takes communion? They've already passed the point at which anyone, aside from the Catholic officials who created this flap, cares. Their insistence on keeping the issue at the forefront of the secular media, with the argument that Kerry should be denied communion because some of his beliefs are not ones held by the Catholic church, seems to be just about as bad as anything Kerry did to be denied communion. Fortunately, according to this article at CBS, denying communion based on pro-choice stances would be against official doctrine.

I've been exposed to several sets of religious beliefs in my time, and one of the few things that they have in common is that the fulfillment of religious duties was something between a person and God. Taking sacraments, performing mitzvahs, or whatever one chooses to call it, is not a stage show, and is above all else not meant to show everyone else in the room how righteous one is. And, should a church official find one spiritually lacking, a news conference that does not include the person in question may not be the most appropriate venue to discuss the topic.

Anyway, I'm glad Kerry does not march lockstep with the positions of the Catholic church. I'm part of a generation that feels no loyalty to groups, parties, or affiliations, and I do not find this to be a character flaw. I mistrust anyone who takes a prepackaged set of beliefs--political or religious--and adheres to every last one of them without question. It's one thing to realize that a group's platform is right after introspection and research, and more power to you if that group is one you were born into. It's quite another to adhere to a prepackaged set of beliefs out of the convenience of not having to actually consider and develop one's own positions on a variety of issues. It's been my experience that any time any group has a platform that consists of a wide range of issues, at least one of those positions is going to be completely whacked. Those off-base planks do not invalidate the rest of the platform, but if every organization required every member to believe every last thing that organization stood for, only the pathologically lazy would affiliate themselves with anything at all.