As the country discusses the aftermath of the first presidential debate between former president Donald Trump and current president Joe Biden, Independent candidate RFK, Jr. continues to seek more evangelical support by clarifying his religious convictions. Appearing on “Socrates in the City” with host Eric Metaxas, RFK, Jr. denied a claim by Metaxas that he had once been an atheist. “I was never an atheist ever. I was raised in a deeply religious family, and I integrated that,” he said. Kennedy was raised Catholic like his famous uncle, former president John F. Kennedy Jr. and his father, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. After his father was famously assassinated in 1968 during his presidential bid, RFK, Jr. became addicted to heroin at 15. The addiction deteriorated any sense of faith or self-control he had. “To me, most of the demoralizing feature of addiction was my incapacity to keep contracts with myself. I would tell myself at 9 o’clock in the morning, I’m never going to do that again, and at 4 o’clock, I’d be doing it,” he told Metaxas.

In order to beat his addiction, he decided he would force himself to act like he believed in God after reading a work by Carl Jung that noted religious people are able to overcome addiction more ably than others. He decided to take Jung’s advice and “fake it till you make it.” So, he began to live his life as if he believed. “In other words, if you start doing what you’re supposed to do, then you will then see an evidence, a tangible, undeniable evidence of God’s presence in life. And so I started doing that. I just said, ‘Oh, that’s what I’m going to do.’ And I started pretending that, you know, … that God was there watching the whole time, everything I did in life was a test.” When asked if he was still pretending he believes that God exists, he said no, implying but not explicitly saying his belief is real.

RFK Jr.’s ability to appeal to evangelicals still remains on shaky ground, especially given his unclear support of abortion. His website quotes him saying, “My stance is that every abortion is a tragedy, but I’ve spent my life advocating for bodily autonomy and bodily independence. And I don’t think the government is the right entity to be telling women what they should be doing with their bodies.” He had previously appeared to support a 15-week federal abortion ban before walking it back. In an appearance on “The Sage Steele Show,” he appeared to support full-term abortions. Later, he walked back that position during a different interview with Shane McGillis and Matt McCusker, saying researching the issue had changed his mind. “My position on abortion was that it should always be a woman’s choice right up to the very end,” he said. “In the ninth month, you’re basically killing a child, right? My presumption was that […] no woman is going to deliberately carry a child for nine months then two days before it’s born, abort it. Who would do that?”