Biden, Ryan separated by their common religion

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/biden-ryan-separated-by-their-common-religion/2012/10/09/a3759eca-126e-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html


By Melinda Henneberger,

Joe Biden’s prep team for Thursday’s vice presidential debate with his fellow Catholic Paul Ryan has asked him to just this once resist the temptation to explain himself on the abortion issue. There are dangers in that thicket, and he mustn’t wander off into a disquisition on the various views of when life begins. (The plan instead? Stock answer, pivot. What could go wrong?)

Plenty, of course. And with the momentum in Romney-Ryan’s favor, America’s first Catholic vice president is under even more pressure than the man who wants to become the second.

Both not only practice their common faith but have been shaped in important ways by it. “My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my faith,’’ Biden said in his book “Promises to Keep.’’ The vice president, whose mother once counseled him to put off any decision about the priesthood until after he’d gone on some dates, brought the rosary he prays with daily to the Situation Room as the Navy SEALs closed in on Osama bin Laden. He never misses Mass. His trip planners regularly scout for parishes where there’d be no big fuss over him — and no risk of him being denied Communion over his pro-choice politics.

Ryan, a former altar boy, is just as serious in his practice, and on the day his vice presidential nomination was announced he was introduced by Mitt Romney as such: “A faithful Catholic, Paul believes in the worth and dignity of every human life.” The congressman and his wife, Janna, send their kids to their parish school in Janesville, Wis., and he has many friends in the clergy, including Cardinal Tim Dolan of New York.

more at link

[MADem]

1. I doubt the Ryans are true "practicing" Catholics.

They'd have nine kids, at least, if they were.

I find it astounding how some of the most "cafeteria" of this religious group can be, nonetheless, so rigid when it comes to the rights of others.

It's also amusing that Ryan's worship at the altar of Ayn Rand is so incompatible with the teachings of his faith, yet he doesn't even have a clue as to the incongruity of his situation.

[cbayer]

2. IMHO, Ryan has used his catholicism to achieve certain political constituencies, but

has not embraced it to form his personal ethic.

He strikes me as the least sincere player in the current race.

[MADem]

3. Very well said--perfect articulation of his POV, I think! nt