Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." I transcribed part of the interview from what was played today on the Laura Ingraham show which I had recorded.
GS: You’re a Catholic, how do you reconcile your political positions on abortion, on gay rights, on the death penalty. There opposed to the positions of the Catholic Church – how do you reconcile that:
AS: That’s easy, I never had one sleepless night over it
GS: So do I.
AS: Because it makes no difference to me I represent the people of California. The people of California not all of them are Catholics. So therefore I do not bring in my religion into this whole thing. As a matter of fact religion should have no effect on politics. If you make a decision it should not be based on religious beliefs it should be based on what is it and how can you represent the people of California the best possible way. We have a combination, we have Jews, we have Christians, we have Hindus, we have Buddhists, all kinds of different religions here and they say there is a 140 some religions in this state and I have to represent all of them and make the decisions based on what’s best for the state.
GS: So your faith plays no role in the forming of your political philosophy?
AS: Not for me, there are people who do it and for me I do not make decisions based on what has, what I have learned through my Bible studies, what I have learned through my religious classes in schools or when I went to Sunday school in Austria.
I guess Arnold doesn’t have to channel John Kerry since John Kerry is still alive (I am not speaking politically here), but it is a pretty close simulation of the distorted reasoning we heard on the campaign trail this year. This idea that politician have to be morally schizophrenic in a democracy. That there moral values must be locked up in one part of their brain so as to not contaminate their political actions. If we had to program Star Trek robots with this philosophy they would go into paradox meltdown as soon as you hit the on switch. With this type of logic you could not represent anyone because it is very rare (if it ever happens) to have issues where there is a one hundred percent concurrence. In almost every instance you are making a decision that goes against what some group of people believe. What is worse though is not that politicians say such nonsense, but that they can usually say it with the majority not blinking an eye or screaming in pain from a sprain due to to twisted logic.
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Why is Arnonld still Catholic?!
I can honestly say I have never been enamored with him. The man is the Republican version of Obama: one good speech at a convention and all of a sudden he’s the next rising star in his party.
Arthur, Arnold is still “Catholic” because he is married to a Kennedy, and it is an iron-clad condition for marrying into Camelot that one put on CINO garb. It’s a foul display of contempt for believing Catholics. Perhaps worst of all is being subjected to the indignity of being told that the most important Truth in all the universe, indeed the only Truth, is unworthy of a place in our public lives.
But so has it ever been in American life. Only Catholics must publicly disavow the efficacy of their faith in order to survive in office, or even to get there.
“…for me I do not make decisions based on what has, what I have learned…”
Maybe he should go see a doctor who doesn’t base HIS decisions on what he has learned either.
I hope the Bishop of Sacramento gives Arnold the same treatment as former Catholic governor Gray Davis.
For the first time in history, the state’s republican party has endorsed Arnold for reelection prior to the primary.
I hope the Bishop of Sacramento gives Arnold the same treatment as former Catholic governor Gray Davis.
I thought Arnold still belonged to a parish in LA (I’m sure he still owns one or more homes in that diocese). If that’s the case, it would be Cardinal Mahony’s job to discipline him, not Bishop Weigand. As for Mahony disciplining him, Arnold’s probably more likely to become a Franciscan friar in the meantime.
I don’t think they do “Sunday school” in Austria. Religious ed takes place during the regular public school day. The first thing he said about religious classees in schools was probably more accurate, but it may not have sounded “American enough”.
ann
I watched it and the facial expression said it all. Total disdain as he was saying “bible studies” and “religious classes”. Later he spoke with great reverence all the things he learned in the gym, which he did bring to politics.
In his 1977 biography, he wrote of his early rejection of the faith, and subsequent chapters revealed no conversion from atheism:
My friends started asking why [went to church]. I had never given it much thought one way or the other. It was a rule at home: we went to church. Helmut Knaur, sort of an intellectual among the bodybuilders, gave me a book called Pfaffenspielgel, which was about priests, their lives, how horrible they were, and how they’d altered the history of the religion.
Reading that turned me completely around. Karl and Helmut and I discussed it in the gym. Helmut insisted that if I achieved something in life, I shouldn’t thank God for it, I should thank myself. I shouldn’t ask God for help, I should help myself…These were wild ideas for someone as young as I was. But they made perfect sense. I announced to my family that I would no longer go to church, that I didn’t believe in it and didn’t have time to waste on it. (from “Arnold: Education of a Bodybuilder”)
I sure would like to read his conversion story.
“Helmut Knaur, sort of an intellectual among the bodybuilders, gave me a book called Pfaffenspielgel, which was about priests, their lives, how horrible they were, and how they’d altered the history of the religion.”
Now we see what passes for intellect “among the bodybuilders”. I tell you, those steroids really mess you up.
Yes, Arnold does still belong to the Diocese of LA as did his predecessor Gray Davis while in office. Nevertheless, the Bishop of Sacramento did refuse communion to Gray Davis and supported a Sacramento priest’s decision to deny Gray Davis a PR event at a local Catholic orphanage. I hope the Bishop of Sacramento gives Arnold equal treatment.
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