Biden would be only the second Catholic Veep ever?

[Bicoastal]

According to Wikipedia. But they don't say who the first is...anyone know?

As a Jew, I find the historical anti-Catholic bias in this country pretty confusing. You're all Christians, for fuck's sake!

EDIT: Wikipedia has now been changed to read that Biden would be the FIRST Catholic VP. He'd be the second to make it into the White House though...

[onehandle]

1. He's Catholic? That should make some heads explode at DU.

Good.

[rucky]

2. According to Tom Lehrer...

Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Muslims,
And everybody hates the Jews.

But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,
It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week.
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you.
It's only for a week, so have no fear.
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!

[LaurenG]

3. Yes he will be the 2nd Catholic veep

and it's the same as any type of hatred. People are afraid of differences and it rears it's ugly head for all to see.

As for me, I am pleased with this ticket and I could care less what religion they are, unless they try to stuff some weird belief down my throat, it's all good.

[Bicoastal]

5. Who was the first?

[LaurenG]

10. Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr

:shrug:

[book_worm]

11. Ed Muskie in 1968

[LaurenG]

12. Oops yes Humphrey's vp

edited

[book_worm]

13. He was Humphrey's running mate in '68

There have been five Dems nominated for VP:

Muskie
Eagelton
Shriver (both McGovern, but nominated anyway, Eagelton quit the ticket)
Ferarro
Biden

[LaurenG]

15. Thank you, as you can tell, my memory is off.

I totally forgot about Humphrey. :)

[DesertRat]

6. Who was the first? n/t

[LaurenG]

17. see above, book_worm had it. It was Muskie.

[treestar]

4. European history explains it

The Catholic/Protestant battles raged and were a good part of the reason for immigration to America. The Catholics were the established religion and the Protestant religions were the newer ones, and thus the Catholics persecuted them from their position of power originally. They were all Christian, but their religious disputes were deadly - they'd kill each other over religious doctrines like transubstantiation.

The Protestants who settled in America and founded it (with some exceptions - Maryland was referred to as the Catholic Colony) were then faced with massive immigration from Catholics (Irish, Italians, Eastern Europeans) in the late nineteenth century, and now it was less religious than ethnic. You see the same exact attitude today from the xenophobes who don't like the immigration from nonwhite countries.

When JFK was running, being Catholic, back then, was almost as big a deal as a black man running now.

[book_worm]

7. Let's see: Ed Muskie was Catholic (HHH in '68), both Tom Eagleton and Sarge Shriver (McGovern) were

Catholic. Ferarro was Catholic with Mondale. and now Biden, so that's technically five since both Eagleton and Shriver were nominated for VP. And we've had three Catholic Dem nominees for president: Al Smith (1928), JFK (1960), JFK (2004).

Just goes to show that Wikipedia is often undependable.

[Cirque du So-What]

8. In addressing your comment

allow me to point out that theological bones of contention are only window dressing. The true struggle is for power, and for as long as this nation has existed, those strings have been pulled by white males who belong to protestant denominations.

I would go so far as to reduce any conflict throughout history between Catholics and Protestants - from the Thirty Years War to the troubles of Northern Ireland - to economic issues, not theological ones. Of course the theological schism is exploited in any such conflict, but in the end, it all comes back to economics. That's my thesis and I'm sticking to it.

[WeDidIt]

9. It's an old Protestant thing in the US of A

Catholics, Jews, and African Americans. In the late 1800's, Mexicans got added to the list.

[DailyGrind51]

20. Mexicans suffer from both racial and anti-Catholic bias.

[kwenu]

14. I didn't know Biden was Catholic but it doesn't matter. Wiki is not reliable on its own.

[DailyGrind51]

16. As a Catholic, I get it from both Evangelicals and Atheists!

Catholic-bashing and anti-Catholicism is bigotry, clear and simple, and no different than Anti-Semitism. I know we had the priest/sexual abuse thing, but the victims and their families were also Catholics, as were the millions of church members who stopped attending services and cut their contributions in protest. And, Catholic clergy stood up against fascist dictators in Latin America and suffered martyrdom as their "reward". In my town, Father Michael Pfleger faced down local gang-bangers, drug dealers, slum landlords, liquor store owners, and anyone else threatening the residents of his neighborhood.

[book_worm]

18. The Wikipedia edit is correct and if Obama/Biden win he would be first Catholic VP

[SanchoPanza]

19. Biden would be the first.

Every Vice President has been a member of one Protestant denomination or another. As with Presidents, about half were Presbyterians or Episcopalians.

As to anti-Catholic bias, its more geographical and geneological than theological (though the latter takes its share of blame). The US began as an anti-Catholic nation, with the vast majority of citizens of the post-Colonial period having descended from Anglican (Episcopalian), Puritan (later Presbyterian and Congregationalist), Quaker, or Baptist families. Prominance depending on region, but all denominations had a varying degree of contempt for the Catholic Church. And each other. Throw in a steady stream of suppositions about the way Catholics behave compared to Protestants, and you have a fairly classic recipe of sustained strife between the various groups. Interfaith reconcilation mostly took place in the last forty years.

As for theological disputes, put yourself in the mindset of a fundamentalist for a moment and ask yourself this question: "Who would I hate more, someone who doesn't accept my worldview, or someone who is perverting it?"

It's been my experience that moderates of any religious tradition never really come to grips with that question and its implications. Sure, fundamentalists hate apostates and non-believers. But they hate heretics even more.