Mike Pence, Postmodern Evangelical Catholic Conservative
Not long ago, evangelicals and Catholics hated each other. So how can vice presidential candidate Mike Paine describe himself as an ‘evangelical Catholic’? Because he’s a product of his times.
JAY MICHAELSON
10.03.16 1:00 AM ET
When Mike Pence and Tim Kaine take the stage tomorrow night in Farmville, Virginia, the vice presidential debate will be a showdown between two very unconventional Catholics.
Kaine, as is well known, is a progressive Catholic whose focus on the church’s social gospel was sharpened during a year’s mission in Latin America. But while media coverage of Indiana Governor Mike Pence has tended to depict him as a standard right-wing conservative Christian, this label belies the complexity of his own spiritual journey.
To be sure, Pence’s views are beloved of the Christian Right, and anathema to progressives. He is perhaps the most anti-choice, anti-LGBT governor in the nation, going out of his way to find innovative ways for the state to impose conservative Christian moral views on everyone else.
But Pence is also very much a creation of the last half century of American political-religious life. Born and raised Catholic, he became a Catholic youth minister and reportedly wanted to be a priest. But according to interviews Pence has given over the years (interestingly, he has more recently declined to talk specifically about his spiritual evolution), while in college from 1978-81, he began blending his Catholicism with Evangelical Protestantism. “I made a commitment to Christ,” Pence said. “I’m a born again, evangelical Catholic.”
Interestingly, Pence’s religious evolution came at precisely the time “evangelical Catholic” ceased to be an oxymoron.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/10/03/mike-pence-postmodern-evangelical-catholic-conservative.html
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