Like Peter Schorsch, I’m incredulous that this story managed to fly under the radar throughout an entire Senate campaign — not just the media’s radar, or the blogosphere’s, but also Rubio’s opponents’. Didn’t anybody in the Charlie Crist or Kendrick Meek campaigns do an ounce of opposition research? In an age where everyone seems obsessed with their poltiicians’ religion, Marco Rubio’s sure is obscure… my totally coincidental second Catholic post of the day.
From the UK Telegraph’s blog:
The office of Marco Rubio, Florida’s Republican senator-elect, isn’t at all happy about the focus on his religious affiliation. And I’m not surprised. Consider the folllowing facts:
1. Rubio attends a Miami church affiliated to the Southern Baptist Convention, whose theology comes straight from the American Bible Belt.
2. Rubio, according to his own office, has given a substantial amount of money in charitable donations to this hardline Protestant church.
3. Rubio’s office say he is still a Roman Catholic.
4. Rubio has received the highly advantageous endorsement of a Catholic lobby group which appears to believe that he is a Catholic, as opposed to a Protestant who has abandoned the Catholic Church.
The Catholic blogger Eric Giunta, a law student from Florida, wrote a fascinating article last week about Rubio’s mysterious religious affiliation, suggesting that the Republican Party’s rising star ought not to allow himself to be represented as a Catholic if he attends and supports financially a church affiliated to a historically anti-Catholic denomination. He was following up this blog post I wrote immediately after Rubio’s victory.
Rubio’s office sent back a rather pointed response insisting that the Senator-elect is still Catholic, and furthermore:
He was baptized, confirmed and married in the Roman Catholic Church. If you find that there is a dearth of pertinent material to write about, perhaps you can focus on the many serious issues facing our nation, and the reasons why the citizens of Florida overwhelmingly elected Mr. Rubio as their next United States Senator.
Well I don’t know how overwhelming it was — he didn’t even get 50 percent. But anyway, the religion issue apparently isn’t closed just yet. Giunta offered his own rather pointed response, and as Schorsch points out, this might actually matter, both to Catholics, and to evangelicals:
…which was a follow up to this post:
Then I came across this curious article from Politics Daily which (without apparently realising that it is doing so) reveals that he has abandoned the faith of his Cuban parents.
The author of the piece seems to think that attending Christ Fellowship Church is compatible with Catholicism. It is not. The congregation believes the following about the Eucharist:
The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
That is Protestantism, pure and simple. Catholics regard the “symbolic” interpretation of the Eucharist as a serious heresy.
And Rubio certainly does not hold a very Catholic position on, say, immigration… he continues to oppose the DREAM Act, and other forms of immigration reform.
Conservatives are fond of twattling about President Obama’s religion, and these same Republicans are talking up Rubio for president. So shouldn’t his religion be relevant, too?
Ironically, if Rubio is an evangelical, it would make him more palatable to the tea party right, but perhaps a bit less palatable to fellow Hispanic voters, who overwhelming are both Catholic, and unlike Rubio, NOT Cuban-American. It will be interesting to see if this issue gets any oxygen.
UPDATE: BTW, it seems Mr. Rubio has been attending that Protestant megachurch for a decade, and making his religious donations there, not to a Catholic parish. Interestingly enough, Rubio’s political godfather, Jeb Bush, is a converted Catholic (the Bush family are Methodists, but Jeb converted when he married his wife, Columba, who is of Mexican descent.) I wonder if he and Marco go to praise and worship service together …
WTF Has Barack Obama Done So Far?
Rubio like his protector claims to be a Catholic. I really doubt Jeb’s Catholicism and Rubio’s is not much more better. They appear to be Catholic because a) it is convenient to be Catholic …
Not sure why we care. But conservatives do like to make issues…. they insist the President is Muslim, yet they still (see Sarah’s book) are complaining about his Christian minister in Chicago. It’s nonsense, but it seems to make a difference to right wing voters. Maybe Joyce Kaufman the jewish puerto rican can figure it out.
Maybe Elena Kagan can too. She eats at a Chinese Restaurant Christmas Day!
O:-)
Why should we care indeed. What church Senator Elect Rubio attends is as relevant as, well, what church President Obama attends or has attended.
It seems that the focus here is on hypocrisy; I assume it would be a bit weird to accuse a U.S. politician of heresy. Hypocrisy on the part of politicians doesn’t even qualify as a misdemeanor. No news there.
So as I was not too concerned about the Jerimiah Wright stuff with Obama, I’m not too concerned with Rubio’s ‘well is he Catholic or not’ question.
However, as the Jerimiah Wright sermons were used as evidence in the ~political- question of Mr. Obama’s patriotism, it would be fair to wonder about the political implications of Mr. Rubio’s involvement with the Christ Fellowship (and the Catholic Church too, just to be fair.)
It happens that the Southern Baptist Convention and its member churches, like the Christ Fellowship are quite messianic. That means they have a definite idea about what happens in Israel, and they openly advocate political activism based on those doctines.
Which brings me to ask again, why did Marco Rubio fly to Israel the day after officially winning the election, and who did he meet with? Perhaps someone who might raise questions during the campaign? Carrying some water for Jeb? The timing was just so odd.
Could be no news there either, but it’s a whole lot more interesting than the symbolic-or-not eucharist line.
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Face reality!. Would it have mattered to the voters whether Rubio is Catholic or Baptist?