BuzzFeed wins the prize for one of the most unexpected political revelations of the campaign season:
[Sen. Marco] Rubio was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his family at around the age of eight, and remained active in the faith for a number of years during his early youth, family members told BuzzFeed.
Rubio spokesman Alex Conant confirmed the story to BuzzFeed, and said Rubio returned to the Catholic church a few years later with his family, receiving his first communion on Christmas day in 1984 at the age of 13.
The revelation adds a new dimension to Rubio’s already-nuanced religious history—and could complicate his political future at a time when many Republicans see him as the odds-on favorite for the 2012 vice presidential nod.
BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins speculates that Rubio’s religious history might knock him off Romney’s VP short list. As much as the bias against Mormons persists in some Republican circles, it’s hard to imagine spending a few years as a Mormon as a child would hurt his chances of getting the vice presidential nomination.
Though, oddly enough, Rubio’s office seems to be worried it might. It looks like they were concerned enough to preemptively pass the story to a friendly Miami Herald blogger, shortly after BuzzFeed contacted them for comment:
A sign that Rubio’s aides see the story as potentially damaging: BuzzFeed’s inquiries appear to have sent them into frantic damage-control mode, and after email inquiries from BuzzFeed — but minutes before Conant responded with a phone call this morning — a brief item appeared on the blog of the Miami Herald mentioning the senator’s religous past. Conant said Rubio planned to discuss his time as a Mormon in his forthcoming book.
Meanwhile, at HotAir, Tina Korbe sees a glaring double-standard in the Rubio story:
Meanwhile, the story calls to mind what the Media Research Center discovered some time ago: The media covers the religious views of Republican politicians in far greater detail than it ever covers the religious views of Democratic politicians. Then, after playing up those religious beliefs, the MSM accuses the Republican candidates themselves of making everything about religion.
Case in point: Obama’s childhood and adolescence received little coverage during the 2008 election, but apparently the brief childhood religion of Rubio is fair game today. Not only is it an example of how Republicans often receive more scrutiny, it also shows that prejudice against Mormons is still prevalent enough to actually make this an issue.
yes, please, can we talk about young Barack Dunham-Soetero-Obama and his formative years? growing up in a Muslim country with radical academics as parents might explain some things, if we were allowed to mention it without being called racist. n njust goes to show that the Dems will stop at nothing to make sure their guy wins. we should expect a lot more of this before we're through.
I think it's pretty clear this old game of trying to get some media fairness by pointing out their glaring double standards is not going to work, as our media is too heavily invested in this president to care about quaint ideals like decency and fairness.
Ms. Goodman's article is not clear, nor is my knowledge of Catholic theology that deep, but as I understand it, the real question is when was his "confirmation" in the Catholic Church — which I seem to remember comes before your first communion. n nI *do* know about Protestant theology — you can be baptized as an infant — and tradition is for a couple to have their first child baptized in the church they were married in, which usually is the church which the mother went to as a girl — it is also a visit to the grandparents and such. n nBut you are NOT a "member of the church." You are not old enough to make that decision — nor to handle the responsibilities of what (until 1855 in Massachusetts) was literally a voting member of town meeting. You are NOT "active in the faith" until you are a member of the church — you are a child considered not mature enough to be responsible for your actions/decisions. n nWhen you are in 7th or 8th grade, you go through a "confirmation" process where you learn about the church (both the local one and the faith), theology and whatnot — in my case it was taught by a very nice retired couple, "salt of the earth" type people. You then go to some special church service where you say you want to join the church and the congregation says it wants to accept you and then — ONLY THEN — are you a "member" of the church. n nI think the Catholics are the same way on this. n nQED, Rubio never "left" the Catholic Church — HE WAS NEVER A MEMBER OF IT AT THE TIME! n nThe same thing would be true of Obama — he could have spent his entire childhood in Mosques but it really doesn't count unless he was "confirmed" in the church first. n nOne other thing to remember here — as the media will try to twist this and they don't know this — the Catholic belief is that there is just one church with multiple branches — so you are a member of all of them. The other side, that some (not all) Protestants take is that you are a member of the specific church much like your driver's license is from a specific state, you can go to others when traveling, much like driving on an out-of-state license, you have all the rights and privileges of membership (i.e. communion) but you are not a member. (Technically, you are supposed to sign the guest book.) n nSo — from a strictly technical standpoint — this may be much ado about nothing. I went to Catholic school for two years – I was in the CYO band for several years after that — I recited the "Hail Mary's" and all the rest (blessing the hour is an educationally sound thing to do for non-theological reasons) – that does not mean that I was active in the Catholic church. n nThe LDS folk may not be happy about him leaving, but going where your parents take you when you are a child below the age of reason is considered being an obedient child, not a choice you have made….
One other thing about baptism — if Rubio was baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church, which he probably was, the media will make a big fuss about changing religions – the important thing to remember is "age of reason" (I believe Judaism has a similar concept) and that what he did before he was old enough to know what he was doing essentially doesn't count.