The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru

Last updated on: July 15, 2014 at 12:40 am by David Mills

The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru 2014-07-15T00:40:19-04:00 David Mills

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“I aspire to put ‘Catholic’ before ‘conservative’ in my life,” explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in America. What this means for his politics he explains at another point in the interview:

I would say that Catholicism has made me a little softer in my politics. Since becoming Christian, I’ve tried harder to be charitable, deleting first drafts that aren’t charitable. I don’t know if I always succeed, but I didn’t do much of that at all before my conversion. I think Catholicism influences a lot of what I do. You know, I don’t think there’s a Catholic answer to the way tax policies should be. But I do think that the flourishing of families is a very important focus of my politics, and that does influence the way I come at everything from taxes and higher education to health care and the life issues

It has also changed my position on the death penalty. I do think opposition to the death penalty is rationally correct, but I don’t think it would be my position if I hadn’t become a Catholic. I was pro-life with respect to abortion before I became a Catholic, but I was not pro-life with respect to the death penalty. With that aside, I don’t think it’s changed many of my positions, but it’s changed the way I think about a number of issues.

There is some tension between American conservatives and Catholicism on the death penalty and immigration, he goes on to say. I think there’s a greater tension than that, especially as American conservatism has been infected by libertarianism, but that’s a subject for another time.

Catholicism & public life

Conservatism

Previous Post

July 14, 2014

Carey & the English Tar Pit

Next Post

July 15, 2014 Rand on Abortion (and on the side of evil as usual)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion & life American Life Anglican Affairs Apologetics Art and artistry Beer Capitalism's downside Catholic converts Catholic issues Catholicism & public life Catholicism in general Christianity & culture Christianity & the Jews Conservatism Conservative problems Death Do unto others Dogs Ecumenical friendship Evangelicalism Evil in the world Family Friendship Heroes How we should live Islam It's a funny old world Jews Judaism Israel Judaism justice Liberalism Life issues Marriage Mary Mass Media Modern culture good & bad Modern life as it is lived Modern Religion Mormonism People Personal reflections Politicians Protestantism Race Rand & Randiansm Secularisms Sexualities Society justice equality freedom The papacy & the pope Uncategorized Worship Writing & Language

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Song of Solomon is also called Song of Songs.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE