Progressive Revival

Progressive Revival

Palin and the Ex-Catholic Factor

posted by Paul Raushenbush | 4:37pm Sunday August 31, 2008

Steve Waldman just posted some new news – at least for me.  That Governer Palin was a Roman Catholic before she was an Evangelical

He writes:

Have we ever had an ex-Catholic on a major presidential ticket? I can’t think of any.

Palin was Baptised as a Cahtolic and later became an evangelical Protestant. This will thrill evangelicals (quite a few of which are ex-Catholics) but I wonder how Catholics will feel about it. It’s unclear when in her life she left the Catholic Church.

The traditional Catholics who might normally be the ones who be more irked about such apostasy are thrilled because Palin is so pro-life, as God-o-Meter reports.. The liberal Catholics won’t care because they’re voting Democratic anyway. The riddle is those centrist Catholics – the key swing bloc – who have stuck with the Catholic church through great difficulties out of loyalty and cultural affinity. Will they view her as a person of great conscience who lives her convictions – or a traitor?



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Comments read comments(6)
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James

posted August 31, 2008 at 6:26 pm


Very interesting development. Which VP is more savory to a Catholic? A practicing Catholic liberal who is pro-choice, or a former Catholic turned Evangelical who is pro-life?



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Reader John

posted August 31, 2008 at 9:48 pm


Ummm. Am I missing something? I believe her parents left the Catholic Church for Pentecostalism when she was relatively young. Is she not as blameless as one born into a Protestant family?



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elmo

posted September 1, 2008 at 1:12 am


I don’t think this matters at all to Catholics whether liberal/conservative/independent or some combination thereof.



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Scruffy

posted September 1, 2008 at 6:31 pm


I don’t know, have we ever had a “Holy Roller” as V.P. before? I am an ex-Catholic and an ex-Pentecostal. Neither one has made me qualified to be Vice President of anything.
Let’s leave “Church” out of it and rely on “Faith”. I have more faith in Obama than McCain and that is the only thing that matters.



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Katharine Walker

posted September 2, 2008 at 4:03 pm


Politics is a secular occupation all the way. A person’s faith may influence their character. Character is important. The specifics of a person’s belief system should never influence how they uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and the laws and citizens thereof. The questions we need to ask ourselves about all of the candidates have to do with how well they are qualified to discharge their secular duties. We can all turn to our respective belief systems to inquire about our faith.
Katharine



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Eric Steiner

posted September 6, 2008 at 11:27 am


Palin is a self-described evangelical. In case you don’t know, evangelical are right wing, mean spirited, ultraconservatives, who get their religion from morbidly obese television preachers, people like billy graham and his successors. These folks think they will be saved if they send some money to a television preacher who lives a wealthy life style by promoting a scam. give me a break. Can this air head who graduated from an unacredited college, never had a real job until becoming governor, vidictively fired the three people, never traveled outside the US, and lies repeatedly, serve as vp. no way no how never.



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