{"id":23214,"date":"2024-07-05T08:43:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T12:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=23214"},"modified":"2024-07-05T08:43:54","modified_gmt":"2024-07-05T12:43:54","slug":"rfk-jr-denies-claim-that-he-was-ever-an-atheist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/07\/rfk-jr-denies-claim-that-he-was-ever-an-atheist","title":{"rendered":"RFK, Jr. Denies Claim That He Was Ever an Atheist"},"content":{"rendered":"
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lev radin \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the country discusses the aftermath of the first presidential debate between former president Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden, Independent candidate RFK, Jr. continues to seek more evangelical support by clarifying his religious convictions. Appearing on \u201cSocrates in the City<\/a>\u201d with host Eric Metaxas, RFK, Jr. denied a claim by Metaxas that he had once been an atheist. \u201cI was never an atheist ever. I was raised in a deeply religious family, and I integrated that,\u201d he said. Kennedy was raised Catholic like his famous uncle, former president John F. Kennedy Jr. and his father, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. After his father was famously assassinated in 1968 during his presidential bid, RFK, Jr. became addicted to heroin at 15. The addiction deteriorated any sense of faith or self-control he had. \u201cTo me, most of the demoralizing feature of addiction was my incapacity to keep contracts with myself. I would tell myself at 9 o’clock in the morning, I’m never going to do that again, and at 4 o’clock, I’d be doing it,\u201d he told Metaxas.<\/p>\n

In order to beat his addiction, he decided he would force himself to act like he believed in God after reading a work by Carl Jung that noted religious people are able to overcome addiction more ably than others. He decided to take Jung\u2019s advice and \u201cfake it till you make it.\u201d So, he began to live his life as if he believed. \u201cIn other words, if you start doing what you’re supposed to do, then you will then see an evidence, a tangible, undeniable evidence of God’s presence in life. And so I started doing that. I just said, ‘Oh, that’s what I’m going to do.’ And I started pretending that, you know, … that God was there watching the whole time, everything I did in life was a test.\u201d When asked if he was still pretending he believes that God exists, he said no, implying but not explicitly saying his belief is real.<\/p>\n

RFK Jr.\u2019s ability to appeal to evangelicals still remains on shaky ground, especially given his unclear support of abortion. His website<\/a> quotes him saying, \u201cMy stance is that every abortion is a tragedy, but I\u2019ve spent my life advocating for bodily autonomy and bodily independence. And I don\u2019t think the government is the right entity to be telling women what they should be doing with their bodies.\u201d He had previously appeared to support<\/a> a 15-week federal abortion ban before walking it back. In an appearance on \u201cThe Sage Steele Show,\u201d he appeared to support full-term abortions. Later, he walked back that position during a different interview with Shane McGillis and Matt McCusker, saying researching the issue had changed his mind. \u201cMy position on abortion was that it should always be a woman’s choice right up to the very end,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the ninth month, you’re basically killing a child, right? My presumption was that […] no woman is going to deliberately carry a child for nine months then two days before it’s born, abort it. Who would do that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the country discusses the aftermath of the first presidential debate between former president Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden, Independent candidate RFK, Jr. continues to seek more evangelical support by clarifying his religious convictions. Appearing on \u201cSocrates in the City\u201d with host Eric Metaxas, RFK, Jr. denied a claim by Metaxas that he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":23220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRFK, Jr. Denies Claim That He Was Ever an Atheist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Independent candidate RFK, Jr. continues to seek more evangelical support by clarifying his religious convictions.\" \/>\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\/news\/2024\/07\/rfk-jr-denies-claim-that-he-was-ever-an-atheist\" \/>\n<meta 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