“Bigger than some of the minor saints”

How did I not see that coming? Stephen has the “definitive” coverage of the thwarted disturbance during the pope’s weekly audience. “Whenever anything happens to the pope, people ask me to interpret it. I’m kind of like the Pope’s pope.”

“As you all know, I’m huge in the Catholic community. I’m not saying I’m bigger than Jesus, but I think it’s fair to say I’m bigger than some of the minor saints.” The episode guide is up at NoFactZone with a link to St. Hubert of Liege, patron saint of dog bites.

Loved the reference to the hybrid jeep: “The little wheel turns by faith and the big wheel turns by the grace of God.”

In the interview with Cullen Murphy, he had a wonderful misquote of Scripture: “Render unto Caesar what it Caesars and the private sector what is the private sector’s.”

Not much to say, except that it’s been a great week of shows. Stephen’s character continues to develop and deepen and not incidentally just gets funnier all the time. It will be interesting to see whether tonight’s show, with the pope, a smattering of Latin, and Roman military dress will spark another round of “Hey, Stephen Colbert is Catholic” from the blogosphere.

“Bigger than some of the minor saints”

How did I not see that coming? Stephen has the “definitive” coverage of the thwarted disturbance during the pope’s weekly audience. “Whenever anything happens to the pope, people ask me to interpret it. I’m kind of like the Pope’s pope.”

“As you all know, I’m huge in the Catholic community. I’m not saying I’m bigger than Jesus, but I think it’s fair to say I’m bigger than some of the minor saints.” The episode guide is up at NoFactZone with a link to St. Huber of Liege, patron saint of dog bites.

Loved the reference to the hybrid jeep: “The little wheel turns by faith and the big wheel turns by the grace of God.”

In the interview with Cullen Murphy, he had a wonderful misquote of Scripture: “Render unto Caesar what it Caesars and the private sector what is the private sector’s.”

Not much to say, except that it’s been a great week of shows. Stephen’s character continues to develop and deepen and not incidentally just gets funnier all the time. It will be interesting to see whether tonight’s show, with the pope, a smattering of Latin, and Roman military dress will spark another round of “Hey, Stephen Colbert is Catholic” from the blogosphere.

Advertising faith

Silliness is a great way to point up the tendency to trivialize religion. Stephen tackled the Democrats’ predictably soft responses to questions about faith in an interview on The Situation Room, particularly Hilary’s discomfort with “advertising” her religious beliefs. His response? “Advertising your faith is easy: Jesus—now with 25% more peanuts. Was that so hard?” Ridiculous? Of course. But the perfect response to a forced and superficial discussion of faith and religion with the candidates just because someone (the media? candidates playing to the religious vote?) has decided that it should be a defining issue in the campaign. And in response to Hilary’s fluffy remark about praying to lose weight? “Senator Clinton, the Lord responds to all prayers, but sometimes his answer is donuts.” A bit of levity to remind us to keep our focus on the real issues. A leader’s faith can influence the decisions he or she makes. But the kind of faith that can do that isn’t going to be neatly packaged by the newsmongers. Other examples include Barack Obama’s consideration of just war and John Edward’s confession of being a daily sinner. Go watch the video clip.