He was raised in a mainline Protestant home, the loyal son of a free-thinking father who didn’t believe in hell.
He says televangelists are “potentially dangerous,” shuns Bible-thumpers and gets hate mail from fundamentalists. He believes that homosexuality isn’t a matter of personal choice alone and that the emotions of romantic love cannot be fully controlled.
He is, of course, that notorious religious liberal-Rush Hudson Limbaugh III.
“I must be honest. . . . There are people who are disappointed that I am not as devoted as they would like me to be,” said Limbaugh in his first interview with a Christian magazine. “They are disappointed that I don’t use my program to promote whatever they think the Christian agenda is.”
A stained-glass image of “St. Limbaugh” graces the new issue of The Door, a Christian humor magazine. Editors pursued the political right’s hottest superstar for a year.
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Limbaugh said his faith is important to him-up to a point.
“I don’t look at the radio as a pulpit,” he said.
Nevertheless, the 20 million or so listeners to his weekday radio show include legions of conservatives who call him a prophet. But some hear gaps in his gospel.
“Although Limbaugh considers himself a Christian, he is not as eager as many evangelicals to discuss . . . people’s need for Christ,” writes journalist Doug LeBlanc in Moody Magazine. “He admits an almost slavish devotion to his career. His two marriages have failed, and he has no children. Limbaugh’s commitment to family values is stronger in theory than in practice.”
Part of the problem is that Limbaugh is an entertainer and social commentator and his persona changes between commercials.
The bottom line: Anyone who claims “talent on loan from God” and says that his views are “the epitome of morality and virtue” can expect religious leaders to ask questions.
Limbaugh relishes his super-hero role, even when on religious ground.
But Limbaugh is always serious when discussing the faith of his Methodist father.
“My father . . . was a scholar of the Bible. There were parts of it he didn’t believe,” Limbaugh told The Door. “He didn’t believe in hell. He didn’t believe that a God who is capable of love and (capable of the) creation would tempt humanity with the ability to conceive things that weren’t true.”
Limbaugh has given few clues as to what parts of the Bible he considers irrelevant, and he constantly defends biblical concepts of right and wrong.