In addition to debating the extent of the Catholic revival in terms of numbers, there is also growing discussion on what the political effects of a more confident and orthodox Catholic Church will be.
It is now clear that Pope Leo is much more tradition-minded than his predecessor, and much of the noise about him being a radical crypto-communist is mostly clickbait by various flavors of shills. Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight, the supposed clash between the pope and President Trump was largely a media creation, based on outright falsifications or distortions of actual events.
A few Catholics fell for it, and it is telling to see which ones have admitted their fault vs those who continue to sell false narrative. I must admit that I was taken in, even to the extent of writing a post, but I wisely waited to see how things unfolded, which is something more people need to do.
The election of 2024 was significant in many ways, but for our purposes one of the most important aspects is that for the first time, a majority of American Catholics voted Republican. This is an epochal event. Historically, the Republican Party was based on northern, Protestant Yankees, a coalition of Congregational New Englanders and Free Soil Midwesterners.
Catholics identified with the Democrats, and one of the problems with this was the uneasy alliance between Irish immigrants and Southern Protestants. In the years after the Civil War, the Democrats were denounced as the party of “rum, Romany, and rebellion.”
The election of John F. Kennedy, an Irish Catholic, not only signaled growing acceptance of Catholics in American society, it also opened the door for Catholics to break from Democrats, which they did in growing numbers as abortion became one of the party’s core issues. Indeed, pro-life Democrats were once a major force in American politics but today are an endangered species.
While conservatives are glad to see their coalition strengthened, there is increasing unease among the established players about the role Catholics will play.
Back in January, First Things published “The Problem with the Evangelical Elite” by Aaron M. Renn. The titular ‘problem’ was that they have no elite to speak of. Renn contrasted this with the Catholic Church’s well-known network of universities, research centers and of course the hierarchical structure of the Church itself, which provides many opportunities for professional growth.
Renn also noted that many prominent Protestant thinkers were co-opted into the Catholic patronage system, a development he framed purely in terms of careerism. While it is certainly possible that people may enter the Church out of a desire for social advancement, this is extremely uncharitable. Prominent converts like Dr. Scott Hahn and Dr. Taylor Marshall have discussed at great length how they made the decision to enter the Church, and Vice President J.D. Vance has a book coming out on his conversion story.
Hahn’s Rome Sweet Home (co-authored with his wife Kimberly) completely disproves the notion that his conversion was a pragmatic career decision. It was actually a catastrophe, destroying his budding career as an influential Presbyterian pastor and scholar, and threatening his marriage. At the time, there was very little place for lay scholars in the Catholic establishment and one of Hahn’s achievements has been the creation of much of the network that Renn now envies.
In addition to his story and administrative efforts, Hahn has also spearheaded the development of a Catholic method for individual Bible study, attacking a known and persistent weakness among Catholics, who relied more on readings at Mass and homilies than individual interpretation and mediation.
This in turn has inspired a new generation of Catholic apologetics specifically tailored for “Bible-believing Protestants,” exemplified by Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist and other works of Dr. Brant Pitre.
In a similar vein, a few weeks ago Twitter/X was distracted by a bizarre essay (almost certainly generated at least in part by AI) warning of a crypto-Catholic conspiracy to take over the Conservative movement. Sen. Ted Cruz warmly endorsed it.
Perhaps aware that the screed might be interpreted as old-fashioned anti-Catholic bigotry, the purported author stressed that “normal Catholics” were fine, upstanding people, not at all like the radicals who regard Sola Scriptura and Dispensationalism as heresies. That is to say, all orthodox Catholics.
The obvious point of the Cruz-endorsed smear was to create a united Protestant front against nominating a Catholic as the Republican candidate for president in 2028. Vance was the primary target, but obviously Marco Rubio is also viewed as a threat.
The larger picture is that while Evangelical Christians still greatly outnumber Catholics, in political terms they punch well below their weight. Both approaches are calls for Evangelicals to establish a more hierarchical structure in order to leverage their power can gain control of conservative Christian coalition.
The problem is that Evangelical Christianity by its very nature rejects hierarchy. The Evangelical movement was a reaction against the Mainline Protestant churches, and that rejection of authority and tradition creates continual fragmentation. Indeed, there are strong career incentives to embrace heresy.
The contrast could not be more stark. While the Catholic Church still has very liberal theologians in its leadership, the people in the pews are increasingly orthodox and traditional, and the old Catholic-Democrat alliance is irrelevant in the present day. As a result, it is coalescing electorally around an agenda based on protecting the unborn, accepting innate differences between men and women, and traditional moral teaching regarding sexuality, which includes both condemning sodomy and the use of birth control and IVF.
Protestantism, by contrast, is coming apart. Almost all of the old Mainline branches are experiencing schisms. The symbolism is not lost on any student of history. After World War II, the American economy experienced considerable consolidation as small neighborhood stores and manufacturers were replaced by large national chains. Just as giants like A&P and K-Mart gained commanding market share, so did the various Protestant churches combine into massive denominations. A&P and K-Mart are long gone, and the unity of the United Methodist Church, Lutheran, Anglican and Presbyterian conglomerates is likewise a thing of the past.
Evangelical Christianity, like Puritanism, Christian Science and 1990s culture, was never an end point, but merely yet another stage in the continuing development of society. It was built upon a unique set of circumstances that no longer apply.
The Catholic Church simply endures. It is resilient, and this unique ability to survive the tumult of centuries is one of the reasons I converted, and why I think overt opposition is a grave mistake.
Chateau Lloyd 
Leave a comment