AMERICAN RELIGIOUS RIGHT INCREASINGLY CATHOLIC

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings BY: Pastor Hal Mayer

American Religious Right Increasingly Catholic · March 19, 2012

“In the past two decades, the American religious Right has become increasingly Catholic.”

While Catholic writers have become the intellectual leaders in universities, the press, the courts, what is news is that these Catholic thinkers have found strong influence in the politics of American evangelical Protestants. Catholic intellectuals now shape the discussion and conservative arguments on a wide range of issues.
“Often these arguments have identifiable Thomistic or Jesuitical sources, but most of the time they enter the mainstream of political dialogue as simply ‘conservative.’”

Thomisic and Jesuit thinking use natural law in political arguments to defend marriage between a man and a woman, contraceptive and abortion policy, etc.
Moreover, Catholic politicians now have a strong appeal within evangelical circles and among other religious conservatives, and are attracting broad support from them, particularly from the evangelical Protestant religious right.

One example is Rick Santorum, a Roman Catholic, who more often quotes natural law than the Bible. “Santorum has been quite forthright about the fact that he does not look to the Bible for guidance, he relies… on the guidance of the Church.”

Gingrich, who became a Roman Catholic after leaving the House of Representatives in 1999, is also attracting evangelical Protestants.

Their political style is more appealing to conservative Protestants than even Catholics. The Catholic Bishop’s involvement in the controversy on contraception also has much more support from evangelical voters than from Catholics voters.
“In political terms, the evangelical Protestant Right has become Catholicized. They do not see Catholicism as a religion very different from their own because it leads to the same positions on the battlefield…”

If Santorum gets the Republican nomination, which is looking increasingly less likely, would he rely on the Catholic Church and its bishops for political guidance? Given that the Bishops continually ply the halls of Congress lobbying among the nation’s leaders; it is likely that they would have some considerable influence on a Santorum presidency. Ditto for a Gingrich presidency. “Regardless of what happens next, the rise of first Gingrich and now Santorum as the candidate of choice for the Religious Right is a profound sign of how Catholic the American religious right has become.”

American politics have become considerably more conservative and more clearly aligned with Roman Catholicism.

“[The Papacy] is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men… Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution. Great Controversy, page 581

The Catholicization of the American Right