Love Quote by Paul Begala

Begala’s line is a neat little cultural burr under the saddle of America’s religious tribalism: a Catholic kid happily crashing the Protestant-themed summer camp, and remembering it with genuine affection. The intent isn’t to stage a theological debate; it’s to signal an older, almost quaint version of pluralism where boundaries existed but weren’t policed into identity warfare. “But” sets up the expected wall between Catholic and “fundamentalist,” then punctures it with the disarming verb “love.” It’s the rhetorical equivalent of admitting you enjoyed the rival team’s cookout.

The subtext is doing double duty. On one hand, it humanizes “fundamentalist friends” in a media ecosystem that often flattens them into caricature. On the other, it quietly marks Begala as culturally bilingual: a Democrat-friendly, Catholic public voice who can speak to evangelical America without sounding like he’s conducting an anthropological study. That’s a career move as much as a memory.

Context matters because “Vacation Bible School” isn’t neutral. It’s not just crafts and snack mix; it’s formation, a soft-power institution where kids absorb scripture, community norms, and an emotional style of faith. For a Catholic, attending can feel like stepping into a parallel Christian universe with different accents, different anxieties, and a different confidence about certainty. Begala’s nostalgia suggests that what felt formative wasn’t doctrine but belonging: the ease of being welcomed across lines that adults later treat as unbridgeable. The quote works because it smuggles a political longing into a personal anecdote: a reminder that coalition can start as simply being invited.