Marco Rubio’s DIY Christianity

[cbayer]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/19/marco-rubio-s-diy-christianity.html

The Florida senator’s dabbling in multiple denominations shows a country more and more inclined toward a consumerist approach toward religion.


Brian Snyder/Reuters

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry

IN GOOD FAITH
04.19.1512:01 AM ET

American presidential candidates are often a good lens for looking at the state of American religion. For instance, the fact that 2012 was the first election in American history where no candidate was a mainline Protestant, after that branch’s virtual monopoly on the White House, reflected the mainline’s precipitous decline in numbers and influence over the 20th century.

While the two vice-presidential candidates were boringly Catholic, Barack Obama ran as a nondenominational, basically unchurched Christian, and Mitt Romney as a Mormon, reflecting the surge of these two very different styles of Christianity in America.

The sociologist Peter Berger once quipped that if Swedes are the world’s least religious people, and Indians the world’s most religious people, then America is a nation of Indians governed by Swedes. But the top Swedes, of either party, have to at least pretend to be Indians, and to be Indians in the style of the Indians. So presidential candidates provide an ideal funhouse mirror image of the state of American religion as it is actually lived.

This cycle, the recently-announced candidate Marco Rubio also provides an interesting lens through which to look at how Christianity is changing in America. Rubio is a Catholic. But Rubio is also a Catholic who dabbled in Mormonism. And Rubio is a Catholic who dabbled in Mormonism who attends Southern Baptist services with his wife.

more at link

[Historic NY]

1. He isn't Catholic, he'd be a former Catholic...

http://www.catholic.com/tracts/distinctive-beliefs-of-the-mormon-church

[cbayer]

2. I'm not following.

[DetlefK]

3. He's not the only one and it's nothing new.

People have been cherry-picking the basics of their beliefs for a long time.

On the other hand, it's hard not to cherry-pick the details of your world-view when your religion conflicts with your morals and objective facts.

[cbayer]

4. I'm a fan of cherry picking.

It makes sense to me to assess the cherries and discard the rotten ones, take the ones that are good and leave others to be evaluated later.

It's the rigidity of world views that I find most discomforting.

As for Rubio, I think he's more about playing politics than actually analyzing the cherries.

[No Vested Interest]

5. Is Rubio's wife a Southern Baptist? If so, that could account for

his attending Southern Baptist services with his wife.

Not only would I have no problem with that, it could have a most positive on his marriage and life with his wife and children.
It would show respect for his wife's beliefs; that respect would also have a beneficial effect on his children, who would see their father honoring their mother.

I'm presuming and hoping that Mrs. Rubio also attends Sunday Mass with her husband and children.

[cbayer]

6. I had similar thoughts about this.

I don't see this DIY religion as such a bad thing.

Three of my kids, both atheists, have married into families of strong religious belief. One into a catholic family, one into an evangelical family and one into a muslim family. Watching them negotiate this has been fascinating.

There are compromises to be made and discussion to be had that can be really positive, and it is likely preferable to just proceeding lockstep in the tradition in which you were raised.