Austin Ruse

Austin Ruse
Ruse in 2009
EducationUniversity of Missouri
OccupationsPolitical activist, journalist, author
TitlePresident, Center for Family and Human Rights
SpouseCathy Cleaver Ruse

Austin Ruse is an American conservative political activist, journalist and author. He is the president of a nonprofit NGO, Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM), which is in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council . The group holds anti-abortion and anti-LGBT views.

Career

After graduating from the University of Missouri, Ruse moved to Washington D.C. where he began work with American Film Magazine, run by the American Film Institute. He moved to New York for AFI and opened their first New York office in Greenwich Village. From there he went to work --- in order --- with The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, Fortune Magazine and Forbes. In was in these years that he was recruited to join the nascent UN lobby group then known as the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, the name of which was eventually changed to the Center for Family & Human Rights.

In July 2013, Ruse was identified as a convener of a Groundswell coalition meeting among conservative activists and journalists.

Books

Littles Suffering Souls: Children Whose Short Lives Point Us to Christ (Tan Books, 2017) tells the story of three children who suffered greatly, died young, and brought many people to the faith. Included among the three children is Margaret Leo, the daughter of Leonard Leo.

Fake Science: Exposing the Left’s Skewed Statistics, Fuzzy Facts, and Dodgy Data (Regnery, 2017) where Ruse explores various scientific claims of the political left.

The Catholic Case for Trump (Regnery, 2020) in which Ruse argues that Catholics can in good conscience vote the Trump.

Under Siege: No Finer Time to be a Faithful Catholic (Crisis Books, 2021) in which Ruse argues that Catholic should embrace the current cultural and political challenges.

Not Just for Kings: Cultivating a 500-Year Vision for Your Family in which Ruse argues that everyday people can emulate nobles and kings in protecting and projecting their families through the ages, will be published by Sophia Institute Press on September 15, 2026.

Journalism

Ruse was a founding columnist at The Catholic Thing and is currently a bi-weekly columnist at Crisis Magazine.

Ruse was a regular contributor to the media outlet Breitbart and was instrumental in encouraging Steve Bannon to get involved with Vatican reporting, which paved the way for the establishment of Breitbart's Rome bureau.

Education

Ruse earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri

Awards and honors

In 2004, Ruse and his wife were awarded the John Paul II Award for Advancing the culture of life from the Institute for the Psychological Sciences.

Ruse received an Honorary Doctorate from Franciscan University of Stuebenville in 2003

Views and controversies

Ruse stated that the "hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities... should all be taken out and shot" while hosting a radio talk show on American Family Radio in March 2014. Monsignor Anthony Frontiero of the St. Joseph Cathedral in Manchester, New Hampshire, resigned from the board of C-FAM because of Ruse's comments. The next day on the same radio program, he described Democrats "get[ting] into the ballot box" as "really dumb ... low-information voters."

After the fallout from his comments, AFR removed Ruse from their airwaves, stated that his views were "un-Christian", and scrubbed all of Ruse's shows from their online archives. Ruse also deactivated his Twitter account. Ruse stated on C-FAM's website later that week in which he said he regretted using the phrase "taken out and shot".

In 2020, Ruse criticized George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, stating that Floyd's history of drug abuse led directly to his death. Following intervention from one of his publishers, he deleted the tweet. However, he later defended the original remark.

Anti-lgbt views

Ruse has published dozens of columns critical of the LGBT movement. He has criticized the movement for targeting school-age children.

Radical homosexuals... are coming for your daughter and your son and your grandchildren. They don't have any children of their own. They are deliberately barren. So, they have set their sights on yours, your innocent girls and boys.

— Austin Ruse addressing his followers in 2016

At the UN, Ruse and his group opposed the Human Rights Council's decision to investigate violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Ruse told the CPAC conference that year, the issue was not violence against LBGTs but rather an attempt to place "sexual orientation and gender identity" as new categories of non-discrimination in international law. The Advocate has described Ruse as "fanatically anti-gay", stating that he has supported legislation in Russia to keep homosexual propaganda away from school children. He has argued that most Americans would like to see a similar approach in the US.

Ruse is a longtime critic of Jesuit priest James Martin for his pro-lgbt advocacy. Writer Michael Sean Winters described Ruse's attacks as "vulgar and childish".

Support for Donald Trump

Ruse supported Trump through all three of his runs for president. He has argued that Trump "more closely adheres to Catholic social teaching than Joe Biden".

In 2020, Ruse was charged with mocking the stutter of a 13-year-old child appearing during the 2020 Democratic Convention on Twitter, something Ruse vehemently denies. The charge was later retracted. During the same controversy, he claimed that Joe Biden never had a stutter. One of C-FAM's board members resigned over the incident.

Personal life

Raised Methodist, Ruse converted to Catholicism. He is a supernumerary member of Opus Dei, a personal prelature of the Catholic Church.

References

  1. ↑ Joyce, Kathryn (2009). Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-1070-9.
  2. ↑ https://esango.un.org/civilsociety/showProfileDetail.do?method=showProfileDetails&profileCode=622217
  3. ↑ "Hate Map: DC" splcenter.org
  4. 1 2 3 "Could Austin Ruse's Violent Rhetoric Endanger C-FAM's Status with the UN?". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  5. ↑ https://www.catholic.com/profile/austin-ruse
  6. ↑ Corn, David (July 25, 2013). "Inside Groundswell: Read the Memos of the New Right-Wing Strategy Group Planning a "30 Front War"". Mother Jones. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  7. ↑ Ruse, Austin (2017). Littlest Suffering Souls: Children Whose Short Lives Point Us to Christ. TAN Books. ISBN 978-1505108392
  8. ↑ Ruse, Austin (17 July 2017). Fake Science: Exposing the Left's Skewed Statistics, Fuzzy Facts, and Dodgy Data. Regnery. ISBN 978-1621575948.
  9. ↑ "The Catholic Case for Trump -". Regnery Publishing. Retrieved 2021-04-12.
  10. ↑ Crisis Publications ISBN 978-1644130346
  11. ↑ https://sophiainstitute.com/product/not-just-for-kings
  12. ↑ https://crisismagazine.com/author/austin-ruse
  13. ↑ https://www.thecatholicthing.org/author/austin-ruse/
  14. ↑ "Steve Bannon is 'a good Catholic,' Charlie Rose said on '60 minutes.' Was he right?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  15. ↑ https://www.catholic.com/profile/austin-ruse
  16. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrs2hW9dXBE
  17. ↑ "IPS Honors Pro-Life Couple". Arlington Catholic Herald. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
  18. ↑ https://franciscan.edu/fact-book/
  19. 1 2 Shadee Ashtari,"Catholic Group Leader Calls For Liberal Academics To Be 'Taken Out And Shot'", Huffington Post, March 13, 2014; retrieved March 14, 2014.
  20. ↑ John Gehring, The Francis Effect: A Radical Pope's Challenge to the American Catholic Church, New York, 2015 (chapter 2, p. 26)
  21. ↑ "Statement by Austin Ruse". Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. 2014-03-14. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  22. 1 2 Ruse, Austin (1 October 2021). "Leaving Twitter". Crisis Magazine. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  23. ↑ "Trump Gives Haters a Prominent Spot at the United Nations". 2017-03-21.
  24. ↑ "Anti-LGBT Roundup of Events and Activities 6.26.17". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  25. ↑ Wulfhorst, Ellen (15 March 2017). "US sends pro-family group to UN fuelling fears over LGBT rights". Reuters.
  26. ↑ Winters, Michael Sean (2017-09-08). "Fr. James Martin's works will outlast recent, childish Twitter attacks". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  27. ↑ Mucha, Sarah (18 July 2020). "Joe Biden is a man of faith. That could help him win over some White evangelicals". KTEN. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  28. ↑ Dreher, Rod (21 August 2020). "Brayden Harrington, Hero". The American Conservative. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  29. ↑ Gifford, Storm (22 August 2020). "Trump-loving author Austin Ruse claims Joe Biden never had stutter". NY Daily News. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  30. ↑ "Austin Ruse – Former Methodist". The Coming Home Network. Retrieved January 20, 2019.
  31. ↑ "Opus Dei's Influence on the U.S. Judiciary". 21 March 2019.
  32. ↑ "Faith and the City: Opus Dei Assumes Responsibility for St. Agnes Church". National Catholic Register. 15 June 2016. Retrieved 2020-08-28.