{"id":5119,"date":"2010-10-24T18:58:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-24T18:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/sam-brownback-catholic.html"},"modified":"2010-10-24T18:58:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-24T18:58:16","slug":"sam-brownback-catholic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/sam-brownback-catholic.html","title":{"rendered":"Sam Brownback, Catholic"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"BROWNBACK_ME_10810_CGO_002F_10-24-2010_SA1I1C10.standalone.prod_affiliate.81.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>
\nAfter 16 years in Congress (including a failed run for the White House), Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback is running for governor of Kansas. The Kansas City Star<\/a> has a lengthy look at his life, which included converting to Catholicism a few years ago: <\/p>\n

\nBrownback’s faith endears him to his conservative base and frightens some of his liberal critics. He makes no apologies.<\/p>\n

“I want to make it to heaven and be as good an influence on others as I can in that process,” he says.<\/p>\n

Raised Methodist, Brownback turned evangelical before converting to Catholicism in 2002 under the guidance of John McCloskey, a priest affiliated with the conservative Opus Dei organization.<\/p>\n

Reading the Bible is a daily habit. Brownback also likes to read older religious thinkers. The third and fourth century Desert Fathers are a favorite. They were a group of early Christian monks who retreated to the Sahara to get closer to God.<\/p>\n

One “spent 40 years in a cave and then wrote about his mental struggles,” Brownback says. “I’ll read anything by a guy who spent 40 years in a cave. It is a fabulous set of thoughts about what goes on in the mind.”<\/p>\n

Democrats, however, cite a few controversial aspects of Brownback’s faith, what one Holland campaign staffer called his “weird factor.”<\/p>\n

In Washington he once lived at the C Street home operated by the Fellowship, an obscure religious group with strong ties to Washington insiders.<\/p>\n

He also worked with Kansas City-based preacher Lou Engle. Engle has called on Christians to pray for “God, the avenger of blood” to heal the “sins” of abortion and homosexuality. Brownback appeared at a 2007 Engle rally and briefly lived with Engle in a District of Columbia apartment after his own apartment burned.<\/p>\n

Since then, however, Brownback says he disagrees with much of what Engle says.<\/p>\n

Many Democrats worry a Brownback administration will push aggressive anti-abortion legislation while gutting public education and environmental and business regulations.<\/p>\n

But Brownback insists moderate and liberal voters have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n

“I am pro life. I will sign pro life bills,” he acknowledged. “But what people are interested in is what we can do to create jobs, grow the economy and keep our costs under control.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest at the link.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 16 years in Congress (including a failed run for the White House), Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback is running for governor of Kansas. The Kansas City Star has a lengthy look at his life, which included converting to Catholicism a few years ago: Brownback’s faith endears him to his conservative base and frightens some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\nSam Brownback, Catholic - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/sam-brownback-catholic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sam Brownback, Catholic - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After 16 years in Congress (including a failed run for the White House), Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback is running for governor of Kansas. The Kansas City Star has a lengthy look at his life, which included converting to Catholicism a few years ago: Brownback’s faith endears him to his conservative base and frightens some…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/sam-brownback-catholic.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-24T18:58:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/10\/BROWNBACK_ME_10810_CGO_002F_10-24-2010_SA1I1C10.standalone.prod_affiliate.81-thumb-425x283-18786.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jmcgee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sam Brownback, Catholic - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/10\/sam-brownback-catholic.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sam Brownback, Catholic - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"After 16 years in Congress (including a failed run for the White House), Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback is running for governor of Kansas. 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