Catholic Converts Like JD Vance Are Reshaping Republican Politics

The New York Times ^ | Aug. 14, 2024, 5:02 a.m. ET | Matthew Schmitz

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Despite institutional decline and internal conflict, Catholicism retains a surprising resonance in American life — especially in certain elite circles. It has emerged as the largest and perhaps the most vibrant religious group at many top universities. It claims six of the nine Supreme Court justices as adherents. It continues to win high-profile converts, and its social teaching exerts an influence (often unacknowledged) on public debates, inspiring political thinkers who seek to challenge both the cultural left and the laissez-faire right.

The Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism after attending Yale Law School, exemplifies this phenomenon. When he was baptized into the church in 2019, he joined an influential group of conservative converts, including the legal scholars Erika Bachiochi and Adrian Vermeule, the political scientist Darel Paul, the Times Opinion columnist Ross Douthat, the theologian R.R. Reno and the writer and editor Sohrab Ahmari, one of my colleagues at the online magazine Compact. (I am also a convert to Catholicism, and I work or have worked with many of these figures.)

Such thinkers disagree, sometimes sharply, on important matters, not least the value of populism and the merits of Donald Trump. But all share a combination of social conservatism and a willingness to question many of the free-market orthodoxies of the pre-Trump Republican Party. In doing so, they can claim justification from Catholic social teaching, a body of thought that insists on a traditional understanding of the family while embracing a living wage and trade unions as means of promoting “the common good.” See, for example, Mr. Vance in 2019: “My views on public policy and what the optimal...”

[E. Pluribus Unum]

...they can claim justification from Catholic social teaching, a body of thought that insists on a traditional understanding of the family while embracing a living wage and trade unions as means of promoting “the common good.”

I catch a whiff of "Social Justice" AKA Communism from Mr. Schmitz.

[nickcarraway]

Well, remember FBI said Catholics are the number one source of terrorism in the United States.

[lizma2]

Morality is their enemy.

[Macoozie]

“Catholicism retains a surprising resonance in American life”

Article lost any meaning after such a stupid statement.

[Nebr FAL owner]

Gotta wonder how many Concentration camp type gulag s the staff of the New York Times is planning to make excuses for? Enquiring minds want to know!🤔

[Rockingham]

This is not Catholic doctrine as I learned it in a K-12 Catholic education.

[No name given]

So do I.

[roving]

I won’t have anything to do with the Catholicism. They preach a different gospel.

[vpintheak]

Any semblance of faith in our Creator surprises secular leftists. They’re so smart they don’t need that stuff, you know...
Even though they need it bad.

[MayflowerMadam]

“They preach a different gospel.”

They preach no gospel.

[Campion]

You guys are a hoot. I’ll bet my lunch money neither of you have ever even cracked open an exposition of the Faith written by an actual Catholic.

[Campion]

Why don't you read the following and get back to us: Evangelical is not Enough, Thomas Howard; Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic, David Currie; Spirit and Forms of Protestantism, Louis Bouyer.

Opinions that can't withstand a challenge aren't well thought out opinions.

[amihow]

If we ae changing the Party, then take advantage of the fact that now that we are back to the Seventies oon th issue of abortion, do what we should have done fifty plus years ago and promote it just an oppssition to abortion, but an entire culture of life where the reasons to choose abortion are met with solutions to those problems. Yes, some small groups like Birthright have made great efforts to remedy the causes,but more iis needed and we can do it.

[Sir_Humphrey]

Why read when there’s knee jerk talking points to get out there. /s

[irishjuggler]

“Sed licet nos aut angelus de caelo evangelizet vobis praeterquam quod evangelizavimus vobis anathema sit.” Galatians 1:8

[irishjuggler]

“Ross Douthat”

Ross often points out that rather than either of the classic craddle/convert paradigms he falls in the rarely mentioned 3rd category of joining up as a child/teen.

[Mr. Blond]

And how much is his HINDU wife influencing Vance?

[MayflowerMadam]

The Bible is enough.

[Campion]

That would be the same Bible that says "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor"?

If you're going to insult and accuse your neighbor in public, justice and charity demand that you hear his side of the story.

[Cronos]

Sigh, that is false. The Gospel preached at every Catholic mass is the Gospel of Christ who is our high priest at every mass. It has been that way since the church was founded at Pentecost in 33 AD.