America<\/em>. What this means for his politics he explains at another point in the interview:<\/p>\nI would say that Catholicism has made me a little softer in my politics. Since becoming Christian, I\u2019ve tried harder to be charitable, deleting first drafts that aren\u2019t charitable. I don\u2019t know if I always succeed, but I didn\u2019t do much of that at all before my conversion. I think Catholicism influences a lot of what I do. You know, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a Catholic answer to the way tax policies should be. But I do think that the flourishing of families is a very important focus of my politics, and that does influence the way I come at everything from taxes and higher education to health care and the life issues<\/p>\n
It has also changed my position on the death penalty. I do think opposition to the death penalty is rationally correct, but I don\u2019t think it would be my position if I hadn\u2019t become a Catholic. I was pro-life with respect to abortion before I became a Catholic, but I was not pro-life with respect to the death penalty. With that aside, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s changed many of my positions, but it\u2019s changed the way I think about a number of issues.<\/p>\n
There is some tension between American conservatives and Catholicism on the death penalty and immigration, he goes on to say. I think there\u2019s a greater tension than that, especially as American conservatism has been infected by libertarianism, but that\u2019s a subject for another time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI aspire to put \u2018Catholic\u2019 before \u2018conservative\u2019 in my life,\u201d explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he explains at another point in the interview: I would say that Catholicism has made me a little softer in my politics. Since becoming Christian, I\u2019ve tried harder to be charitable, deleting first drafts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1863,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism-public-life","category-conservatism"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""I aspire to put 'Catholic' before 'conservative' in my life," explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he\" \/>\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.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""I aspire to put 'Catholic' before 'conservative' in my life," explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"David Mills\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-14T14:39:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-15T04:40:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Mills\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Mills\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/\",\"name\":\"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-14T14:39:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-15T04:40:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7\"},\"description\":\"\\\"I aspire to put 'Catholic' before 'conservative' in my life,\\\" explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/\",\"name\":\"David Mills\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7\",\"name\":\"David Mills\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/author\/dmills\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru","description":"\"I aspire to put 'Catholic' before 'conservative' in my life,\" explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he","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.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru","og_description":"\"I aspire to put 'Catholic' before 'conservative' in my life,\" explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/","og_site_name":"David Mills","article_published_time":"2014-07-14T14:39:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-07-15T04:40:19+00:00","author":"David Mills","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Mills","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/","name":"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-14T14:39:05+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-15T04:40:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7"},"description":"\"I aspire to put 'Catholic' before 'conservative' in my life,\" explains Ramesh Ponnuru, interviewed in\u00a0America. What this means for his politics he","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/2014\/07\/the-catholic-and-conservative-ramesh-ponnuru\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Catholic and Conservative Ramesh Ponnuru"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/","name":"David Mills","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/#\/schema\/person\/5f2a56234185b5e0c643a1fc41257ac7","name":"David Mills","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/author\/dmills\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1863"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidmills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}