WASHINGTON -- News broke Thursday that U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was baptized as a Mormon at age 8, when his family lived in Las Vegas. A few years later, he converted to Catholicism.
Yet Rubio’s religious profile is even more complicated than that, given his close ties to an evangelical church in Miami.
It’s a mix — a “faith journey,” as his office put it — that has some wondering whether the rising Republican is trying to be all things to all people, and what other surprises may be in his past.
He’s a practicing Catholic but enjoys the sermons of a Southern Baptist-affiliated church, his office said, adding he has long crossed into both faiths.
The revelation that Rubio, 40, was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints drew quick comparisons to another Mormon, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In just over a year in office, Rubio has vaulted to the top of the shortlist of running mates.
Pundits questioned whether two Mormons can share a ticket, overlooking that Rubio belonged to the faith for only a few years as a child. Still, the never-before-told history caused a stir. Rubio’s “Mormon surprise,” read a banner on CNN.
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