In an interview with New York magazine that covered all ground but the national parkland being barricaded by the Obama administration, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took umbrage to a reporter’s vibe that his views on religion — specifically on the existence of Satan — were ‘weird’.
The devout Catholic matter-of-factly affirmed his belief in heaven and hell to the interviewer, Jennifer Senior, herself a non-believer, and after a bit of banter about their contrasting views, Scalia leaned in to whisper that he even believed in the devil. That prompted a leading question from Senior that such a belief must be ‘terribly frightening’.
“You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God!” Scalia retorted. “Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil!”
According to a recent survey, 57 percent of Americans believe in the existence of the devil, including just half of those between the ages of 18 and 29. Commentator Jeffrey Goldberg intimated that the interview was indicative of that stark cultural contrast:
You want red-blue divide? Read @JenSeniorNY‘s conversation about the Devil with Antonin Scalia: http://t.co/wUcc6nUuOC
— Jeffrey Goldberg (@JeffreyGoldberg) October 7, 2013
Scalia has been ruffled on the subject of his faith in the past. In a 2006 Boston Herald story, it was reported that he flicked his hand under his chin in response to a reporter’s question about whether or not lawyers doubt his impartiality on matters of church and state given his dedicated faith. He wrote a letter to the editor in a subsequent edition of the newspaper to clarify the meaning of the gesture, which the reporter interpreted as obscene and Scalia explained to her as a Sicilian motion indicating ‘I couldn’t care less’.
Apart from issues of religion, the 77-year-old associate justice opined to Senior on modern culture, the society inhabited by his grandchildren, and what appeared to be Facebook, though he didn’t refer to it by name.
“I don’t know why anyone would like to be ‘friended’ on the network,” Scalia said. “I mean, what kind of a narcissistic society is it that people want to put out there, This is my life, and this is what I did yesterday? I mean … good grief. Doesn’t that strike you as strange? I think it’s strange.”
Read the full exchange between Scalia and Senior — part of a rich, worthwhile interview — at New York.
