{"id":3077,"date":"2009-09-03T15:10:13","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T15:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html"},"modified":"2009-09-03T15:10:13","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T15:10:13","slug":"the-subversive-faith-of-stephe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html","title":{"rendered":"The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"stephen_feist.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/import\/stephen_feist.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" class=\"mt-image-center\" style=\"text-align: center;margin: 0 auto 20px\" \/><\/span>It&#8217;s not news that Stephen Colbert is a Catholic. He&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/images.google.com\/imgres?imgurl=http:\/\/saintluke.files.wordpress.com\/2008\/08\/wrightcolbert.jpg&amp;imgrefurl=http:\/\/saintluke.wordpress.com\/category\/n-t-wright\/&amp;usg=__wL-SboZkDSifceQn9c6p4G9QTtg=&amp;h=438&amp;w=505&amp;sz=150&amp;hl=en&amp;start=10&amp;tbnid=n2_757Iocnyl3M:&amp;tbnh=113&amp;tbnw=130&amp;prev=\/images%3Fq%3Dstephen%2Bcolbert%2Bjesus%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff\" target=\"_blank\">admitted as much<\/a> on his Comedy Channel show, &#8220;The Colbert Report.&#8221; (Besides, even with the best hairstylists in television at your disposal, you can&#8217;t fake that precisely parted, altar-boy-grown-up hair-do.)<br \/>\nBut in  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/news\/story\/29956798\/stephen_colbert_on_deconstructing_the_news_religion_and_the_colbert_nation\/5\" target=\"_blank\">an interview in the current Rolling Stone<\/a>, Colbert gives us a rare glimpse of his beliefs. As a Catholic believer, Colbert regards himself as  &#8220;highly variable in [his] devotion,&#8221; he tells interviewer Neil Strauss. &#8220;From &#8230; a strictly Catholic adherent point of view, I&#8217;m first to say that I talk a good game, but I don&#8217;t know how good I am about it in practice,&#8221; Colbert admits.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\nThe right-wingers Colbert parodies so severely on &#8220;The Colbert Report&#8221; might scent in Colbert&#8217;s modesty a hint of &#8220;cafeteria Catholicism.&#8221; Atheist-lefty fans, for their part, might be encouraged by his tepid claim to be &#8220;moved&#8221; by the words of Christ&#8211;not guided or undone by them. But Colbert is apparently faithful enough, and regular enough in attendance, to be a Sunday School teacher at his church. Though it strains the imagination and makes one wonder if they sell tickets, Colbert confirms that he teaches catechism to 7-year-old candidates for First Communion. Neither side in the culture war can take much comfort in the picture.<br \/>\nIt makes sense, though, that Colbert has a deeply-planted faith, or that he shares it with a large conservative base. Just as his haircut&#8217;s authenticity must be rooted in serving at the early weekday Mass, Colbert couldn&#8217;t rake the right as expertly as he does without an intimacy with, and an affection for, their core beliefs.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/tv\/colbert-report\/2069604\" target=\"_top\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/tv\/colbert-report\/2069604\/584x85_belief.gif\" alt=\"The Colbert Report\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not news that Stephen Colbert is a Catholic. He&#8217;s admitted as much on his Comedy Channel show, &#8220;The Colbert Report.&#8221; (Besides, even with the best hairstylists in television at your disposal, you can&#8217;t fake that precisely parted, altar-boy-grown-up hair-do.) But in an interview in the current Rolling Stone, Colbert gives us a rare glimpse&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,12,4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-politics","category-pop-culture","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert<\/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\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s not news that Stephen Colbert is a Catholic. He&#8217;s admitted as much on his Comedy Channel show, &#8220;The Colbert Report.&#8221; (Besides, even with the best hairstylists in television at your disposal, you can&#8217;t fake that precisely parted, altar-boy-grown-up hair-do.) But in an interview in the current Rolling Stone, Colbert gives us a rare glimpse&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-03T15:10:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/stephen_feist.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul O&#039;Donnell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert","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\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert","og_description":"It&#8217;s not news that Stephen Colbert is a Catholic. He&#8217;s admitted as much on his Comedy Channel show, &#8220;The Colbert Report.&#8221; (Besides, even with the best hairstylists in television at your disposal, you can&#8217;t fake that precisely parted, altar-boy-grown-up hair-do.) But in an interview in the current Rolling Stone, Colbert gives us a rare glimpse&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2009-09-03T15:10:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/stephen_feist.jpg"}],"author":"Paul O'Donnell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html","name":"The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/stephen_feist.jpg","datePublished":"2009-09-03T15:10:13+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-03T15:10:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/a59300d59ee976fd192c2fce579ee2b9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/stephen_feist.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/stephen_feist.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2009\/09\/the-subversive-faith-of-stephe.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Subversive Faith of Stephen Colbert"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/a59300d59ee976fd192c2fce579ee2b9","name":"Paul O'Donnell","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/bdd\/bdd9d0254f1398197f333149ab55e3f1x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/bdd\/bdd9d0254f1398197f333149ab55e3f1x96.jpg","caption":"Paul O'Donnell"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/podonnell"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}