If you listened to the first episode of a new podcast I’m on last week, The View from Down Here, you would have heard us yapping about the US Republican presidential primary. Well, it appears a couple of our fans — well, listeners, at least — were a bit grumpy with our only cursory nod in the direction of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who has something of a cult following among some, mostly younger, voters. I said last week, believe today and will still believe tomorrow that Ron Paul has, to steal an oft-used phrase from American politics, “no path to the nomination”.

We love our listeners, though, so in this week’s episode we look at Ron Paul and ask whether Catholics can or should be supporting the man with the reputation of being a libertarian — a label some people consider inadequate. We also discuss a blog post that discredits Rick Santorum’s Catholic credentials on account of his divergence from Church teaching — or the views of certain bishops, more accurately — on a range of subjects.

We also look at the creeping atheism that seems to be gaining some level of influence, particularly in judicial and educational circles, as atheists demand the right not to be offended by Christianity.

Please give us feedback on the show, either here on The Soapbox or over at The 15th Station website.