Why I Like Stephen Colbert
"There's a phrase we live by in America -- 'In God We Trust'. It's right there where Jesus would have wanted it -- on our money."
So opens a segment of The Colbert Report in which Stephen Colbert recites the Nicene Creed, in its entirety. That's certainly not something you hear on television every night.
As Cynthia points out, Stephen Colbert is not your normal comedian. Here's Colbert, in his own words.
I love my Church, and I'm a Catholic who was raised by intellectuals, who were very devout. I was raised to believe that you could question the Church and still be a Catholic. What is worthy of satire is the misuse of religion for destructive or political gains. That's totally different from the Word, the blood, the body and the Christ. His kingdom is not of this earth.
We're, you know, very devout and, you know, I still go to church and, you know, my children are being raised in the Catholic Church. And I was actually my daughters' catechist last year for First Communion, which was a great opportunity to speak very simply and plainly about your faith without anybody saying, 'Yeah, but do you believe that stuff?' which happens a lot in what I do.
I have a wife who loves me, and I am oddly normative. I go to church. I would say that there would be plenty of Catholics in the world who would think of me as not that observant, but for the world I move in professionally, I seem monastic.
(Quotes from the Time Out New York, NPR, and the New York Times.)