Behind the Red Curtain: Alex Pelosi Leaves Blue States for Cultural Learnings (mocks religion?)

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Wednesday, January 17, 2007 | Joe Garofoli

[meg88]

Alexandra Pelosi doesn't like to say she's a "lapsed" Catholic. Because when she does, her mom, recently appointed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, tends to take it as a "failure that she couldn't keep me in the church." That position looks especially bad lately, after the elder Pelosi stressed her devout Catholicism during swearing-in ceremonies this month.

Alexandra, a 36-year-old documentary filmmaker, prefers to say that Catholicism "didn't stick. I always try to tell my mother that I believe in God, but I don't believe in church. But that offends her. Parents take it personally when you reject something they gave you."

Still, Pelosi returned to the church recently when she became a new mother -- and to report her latest HBO documentary, "A Friend of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi."

The filmmaker says she was unnerved by what she saw.

Pelosi was already in an introspective mood, re-examining her own spirituality as she approached parenthood.

"If you go to church in the red states, you have a nice service. They play good music, you have a real sense of community and then they invite you to go to a Colorado marriage amendment meeting or a Florida marriage amendment meeting," Pelosi says. "And you go, because all your friends go.

"The gays have not done enough to mobilize themselves for their own political action," says Pelosi, who is pro-gay rights. "They are being defeated in the courts in America because they have not done enough to get their point across.

"And that's what democracy is. You get enough people out there to show your point of view, and you win."

[Chi-townChief]

Pelosi forgets to mention that she is an even more devout abortionist.

[N. Theknow]

Wonder how the "elder" Peloser defines "devout Catholic?"

Insisting on Last Rights before aborting an unborn child?

[joebuck]

"Learning about that divide was a shock to the woman who spent her childhood in progressive Catholic schools. "We were taught just to accept people, that was just a given," Pelosi says. "I don't ever remember being told at Convent of the Sacred Heart that gay was wrong."

Obviously, the bible is nowhere to be found at these "progressive Catholic schools."

[EagleUSA]

Obviously, the bible is nowhere to be found at these "progressive Catholic schools."
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Soon to be replaced with the Communist Manifesto....

[meg88]

[Mr. Jeeves]

I always try to tell my mother that I believe in God, but I don't believe in church. But that offends her.

It offends her because the church is a useful political tool...and God isn't. ;)

[RexBeach]

Does this mean that "progressive(whatever that means) Catholic schools" do not condemn abortion and tell students that being gay is all right?

Did the Sisters of the Sacred Heart really tell Pelosi's daughter this?

[Frank_2001]

I noticed an interesting remark-Pelosi alleges that no one at the Convent of the Sacred Heart ever told her that homosexuality and abortion are wrong. If this is true, then those nuns were NOT doing their job. I think a thorough review of Catholic religious education on all levels, is in order. She is also VERY unclear about exactly why her baby needs to be baptized, in case anyone missed that....

[meg88]

Was she going to school in the Tenderloin district?

[albie]

Sounds like her daughter is as full of shi$ as her Mom. Wonder how many abortions Nancy had before spilling out an accident? Also, how many martinis did she have to pour down her husband's throat before the dreaded moment of conception?

[MNlurker]

With her last line, thank God we're a Republic.

[caisson71]

Pelosi? A practicing Catholic? That's a contradiction but i suspect some "church officials" are willing to overlook that like they overlook Ted Kennedy, etc.

[cookcounty]

"If you go to church in the red states, you have a nice service. They play good music, you have a real sense of community and then they invite you to go to a Colorado marriage amendment meeting or a Florida marriage amendment meeting," Pelosi says. "And you go, because all your friends go."

Funny. I've been in Colorado going to a conservative church with music and a great sense of community for 2 years and nobody ever mentioned any Colorado Marriage Amendment meeting. .....But I did vote on the issue, and Ms. Pelosi would not have been happy about it.

Before Colorado, I lived in Illinois where I went to a similar church (though larger, 1,000 per Sunday in attendance). We all had family mailboxes at church, but the church made a ruling against using the boxes for political pamphleting. Politics were rarely discussed, and then only vaguely, and the pastor usually forgot to remind us to vote on the Sunday before elections. Yet, knowing the congregation, I'm sure we had 90% turn-out, and we probably voted 90% conservative Republican.

I think the vaunted "Evangelical political machine" is in fact pretty much a pussy cat which in the imagination of the the secular Dems is a ravenous beast (Most Dems learn what they know of evangelicalism through the hopelessly fractured prism of "TV preachers", which even evangelicals rarely watch). People vote because it's their responsibility as citizens and they vote a certain way because of their convictions. I'm not sure "organizing" pushes things up more than 1 or 2%.

[lilylangtree]

Gag!

[Unam Sanctam]

"The gays have not done enough to mobilize themselves for their own political action," says Pelosi, who is pro-gay rights. "They are being defeated in the courts in America because they have not done enough to get their point across.

Give me a freakin' break. We live in a society where the elite, the media, the school system, the entertainers, pump out pro-homosexualist propaganda 24/7. Maybe, just maybe, people in a free society have a right to have different views on homosexuality, including that it is immoral. Which is in fact, what the Catholic Church teaches.

[The Great RJ]

No one can call themselves a socialist and be a true Catholic...Pius X

[Theresawithanh]

That particular statement you included in your post caught my eye and raised the same response! Gimme a break, spawn of Pelosi!

As a previous poster said, I have been a member of many conservative church congregations where politics were never discussed from the pulpit, but I would say probably 90% of us voted Republican.

[subterfuge]

I always try to tell my mother that I believe in God, but I don't believe in church. But that offends her.

Hogwash!!!

[srmorton]

I am what I would call a devout Christian, but I accept people as they are. What I do not do is approve of their actions or lifestyle if it is contrary to the Word of God. In other words, you hate the sin and love the sinner. What better place is there for a sinner to be than in God's house? Hopefully, they will become convicted of their sin, whatever it is, and repent before it's too late.

In God's eyes, sin is sin and one sin is no worse than another. Unfortunately, many sinful actions are now so acceptable in society that our popular culture no longer considers them to be wrong - it's just a "lifestyle choice" or a "woman's reproductive health issue". If Christians reject those who have made these choices instead of receiving them into our fellowship in a loving and forgiving manner, they will feel even more justified in rejecting organized religion and we will miss the opportunity to witness to (not browbeat) them.