Albert Pujols, whose real name is José Alberto Pujols Alcántara, was born and mostly raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. When Pujols was 16, his family immigrated to the United States, eventually settling in Independence, Missouri.
One might assume, given that Pujols is from the Dominican Republic, that he is a Catholic. But surprisingly, this isn't the case. Pujols is a Southern Baptist,[1] and boy is he proud of it. Not only does Pujols credit God for his success in baseball, he seems to center his life around God and Jesus. Pujols is known to use his position as a famous baseball player to evangelize, saying:
The kids look at me, 'Ah, you're my hero.' I want to teach those kids. 'Hey listen, God is my hero. He died on the cross for my sins, and He's the one. That's how I wanna live — like Him and I want you guys to do the same thing.'[2]
Pujols' foundation–The Pujols Family Foundation, whose mission is to raise awareness and assist families that have children with Down Syndrome–has a slogan of "Faith, Family, Others." Pujols addresses why faith is the first word in their slogan, saying:
The answer simply is because our faith in Jesus Christ is the central point of our individual lives, our marriage, family and Foundation. Take Jesus Christ and faith in Him out of the equation and all those other things would not exist.[3]
Politically non-political
Pujols tries to stay out of politics, but being quite famous–and religious…and Hispanic–gets him sucked in from time to time.
Pujols was honored and spoke at a Glenn Beck rally in 2010. The rally, called "Restoring Honor" was billed and sold to Pujols (who was given a "Badge of Merit") as "non-political," and Pujols said he wouldn't attend it if it was political.[4] However, anyone who knows anything about Glenn Beck (who is credited with starting the Tea Party and is perhaps one of America's most outspoken conservatives) knows that anything he does has political undertones.
Even though the event was "non-political," it was protested by civil rights activists, some of which were baseball fans. One carried a sign that read:
I had a dream baseball wasn't political.[5]
One might assume that because of his religiosity as well as appearing at a Glenn Beck rally would make Pujols a conservative, but his ethnicity had him on the other side of the fence. When Arizona passed its infamous anti-immigration law, SB1070, Pujols weighed in with Democrats and liberals, saying:
I'm opposed to it. How are you going to tell me that, me being Hispanic, if you stop me and I don't have my ID, you're going to arrest me? That can't be.[6]
These conflicting incidents make it difficult to classify Pujols politically. However, considering Pujols stance on SB1070 is probably race-inspired and that you don't speak at a Glenn Beck rally, as "non-political" as it might be, unless you've got something in common with Beck. That combined with the fact that Pujols is a Southern Baptist, we're calling him conservative.
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