Under fire for misrepresenting Catholic Social Teaching before his speach at Georgetown, Congressman Ryan aimed to debunk the “urban legend” that he is follower of Ayn Rand in an interview at The National Review.

“I reject her philosophy,” Ryan says firmly. “It’s an atheist philosophy. It reduces human interactions down to mere contracts and it is antithetical to my worldview. If somebody is going to try to paste a person’s view on epistemology to me, then give me Thomas Aquinas,” who believed that man needs divine help in the pursuit of knowledge. “Don’t give me Ayn Rand,” he says.

According to TNR, “These Rand-related slams, Ryan says, are inaccurate and part of an effort on the left to paint him as a cold-hearted Objectivist.”

Well, there is this Ryan Campaign video.  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1191939045695

We report, you decide.  But do so quickly, before it’s scrubbed.

So, sometime between 2009 and 2012 Congressman Ryan underwent a massive conversion from the individualism of Ayn Rand, to whatever he understands Aquinas, Benedict and Catholic Social Doctrine to mean.  (He brought solidarity into his lexicon since the Georgetown faculty letter observed that Pope Benedict argues that it must be linked with subsidarity.)

Curiously, his policies are unchanged.  Surely, a conversion of that magnitude surely would result in some difference.

Aside from scrubbing this video, will he scrub a policy or two?

Vincent Miller

 

Vincent Miller is Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton. He is the author of Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture.