Theologian finds ‘family’ in Catholic Church

		THE INTERVIEW a regular feature of The Catholic New World, is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today’s Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

Catholic New World staff writer Michelle Martin talks with Ben Stein.

Ben Stein, actor, writer and game show host, is probably best known for his deadpan delivery in movies, television shows and commercials, but he also is a lawyer, economist and one-time speechwriter for President Richard Nixon. In addition, Stein is a staunch supporter of the pro-life movement. Stein, 57, wrote about his relationship with his adopted son in “Tommy & Me: The Making of a Dad” (Simon & Schuster, 1998). He discussed his relationship with his son and his pro-life work before speaking here at the Women’s Center banquet Feb. 10.



The Catholic New World: How old is Tommy now?

Ben Stein: Fourteen blessed years. He’s a little angel.



TCNW: Even at 14? You’re lucky.

BS: No, he’s not an angel at all. He’s a devil, but I love him to pieces. There’s nothing he can do to make me stop loving him. He drives me crazy, and sometimes I don’t want to be around him. But I love him.



TCNW: What made you decide to write about your transformation into a father? Isn’t that kind of a private thing?

BS: No, I don’t think it’s a private thing. It’s a gigantic event in a person’s life to become a parent. I thought we’d had a lot of rough spots in our lives, and I thought that if I explained how we got through them to the better spots, it might encourage other fathers to stick with it and to become fathers in the first place, and also to be unafraid of becoming fathers. But I must say I might not have written it had he been 14 when I wrote it, because he really has become an incredible pain in the butt a large part of the time. But I love him like mad.

When he’s happy, that’s the happiest I ever am. If somebody called me up and said, “You have a commercial and you’ll work one day and get $100,000,” I’d be very happy, and it happens to me fairly often. But if Tommy is jumping up and down with joy and comes into my room and is happy because something good just happened to him, I’m far happier. He is everything to me.



TCNW: I’m going to switch gears a little bit, and ask why you decided to be pro-life.

BS: I had never really given it a lot of thought one way or another. I went to college in the ’60s and law school in the ’60s and was an academic in the early ’70s, and the entire culture there was pro-abortion. It never even occurred to me to be pro-life until several things happened. One was that I had a close friend in California who was very active in the pro-abortion movement, but she herself was pregnant, and she had gone to great lengths to have a music system installed so she could play music into her abdomen, to play music for her baby. I remember thinking well, if this child is capable of appreciating music in the womb, then this child is probably capable of almost every feeling human beings have. That’s one thing.

Second thing: This was in the late ’70s. We had a shooting incident in LA, where a robber had shot a woman in the abdomen, killing her baby, but she herself was not life-threateningly wounded, and the person was charged with murder. And I thought, wait a minute. Why isn’t an abortionist charged with murder every time he does an abortion in that case?

And the third thing, which was the absolute capper, although I had already been involved some in the life movement, was seeing my son. We had met his mother before we adopted him, and she was so cute, and so perky, and so vivacious, and there was this little bulge in her stomach. And then our son came—we adopted him the first day. We were there within two hours of his birth—and I thought, “My God, this little bulge is now this incredibly cute little baby, and he can’t have been that much different one month ago or two months ago or three months ago.” That was what made me decide to be pro-life: because I didn’t want anyone killing anyone like Tommy.



TCNW: Has your perspective on life issues changed since you’ve had Tommy?

BS: I’ve had an interesting experience working in the right-to-life movement, because I work in it quite a bit, and I do a lot with National Right to Life and Wanda Franz and the National Right to Life League, and I’ve noticed as I’ve gone to these events that the people in right-to-life all look happy and cheerful, and the people in NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) or Planned Parenthood all look bitter and unhappy. And I think there’s a reason for that. People in NARAL and Planned Parenthood, I think at some level their consciences realize they’re on the wrong side and they feel guilty about it, whereas I can approach right-to-life with a very full and unconflicted heart. That has made me even stronger in right-to-life. The more involved in right-to-life I am, the more I like it, and that is not always true with causes. I was involved in the anti-war movement, and the more I saw people involved in the anti-war movement, the less I liked them and the less I was convinced I was on the right side. The more I am in the right-to-life movement, and the more I see the generous hearts in the movement, the more I like it.



TCNW: Is it difficult to be in the right-to-life movement living in Hollywood?

BS: My wonderful agent once said to me that being in the right-to-life movement in a big way could end my career. I’ve already had a so-much-better career than I ever thought I’d have that even if it ended, I’d be incredibly sad and I’d have to figure out a new way to pay my bills, but I wouldn’t feel my time had been misspent. They already consider me a freak in Hollywood because I worked for Nixon and I was a big supporter of Reagan. I don’t care about those people [in Hollywood]. I care about what’s right. I’ve been incredibly, unbelievably gifted by God, beyond anything I could have imagined, and I think I have to do what I think he would want me to do. My gifts are so overwhelming, and it’s so far beyond what I deserve, given the miserable person that I am, I think if I can do this one little thing, I’m in great shape.



TCNW: Is your wife also in right-to-life?

BS: No. My wife is Protestant and I’m Jewish. She has no interest in the whole subject one way or the other. My wife is totally uninterested in causes of any kind, but she is personally the most incredibly good person I’ve ever met in my life. I’ve never known her to do an immoral thing. She is wildly extravagant, but so am I. The only other person in my family who is strongly pro-life is my nephew Jonathan.



TCNW: Does your Jewish faith play into your pro-life position?

BS: Jewish people are overwhelmingly pro-choice. I don’t call it pro-choice by the way; I don’t buy it. I call it pro-murder. I am not Orthodox, and I hardly ever go to services because the rabbi at my synagogue is a big liberal, and he always has some sneering thing to say about Bush, which I hate—because I love Bush, love him, love him. No, my Jewish faith has nothing to do with it. But I do think Jews are supposed to respect life. It says, “Thou shall not murder” in the Ten Commandments. How much clearer can you get?



TCNW: What’s next for you? You’ve been a writer, actor, game show host.

BS: Well, the game show’s been renewed for another year, and we’re hoping it will be renewed for more years after that. And I think I’ll get another TV show at least for a year or two. Then I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m hoping I can stay on TV longer—it’s a great, great job. It’s a lot of fun, it pays well. I’m a writer; I do a lot of speeches. This is one of the few speeches I do for which I don’t get paid.

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