The Religion and Political Views of Ann Curry

Ann Curry was born in the U.S. Territory of Guam and grew up in Ashland, Oregon after spending time as a small child in Sesebo, Japan.

Curry's mother, a Japanese woman, was raised a Buddhist. But after immigrating to the U.S., she was unable to find a Buddhist temple and converted to Catholicism.[1] Growing up, Curry would explain Catholic ritual and protocol during Mass for her mother as she did not speak English well and knew no Latin.[2]

However, Curry once described herself as a "fallen Catholic" during a a taping of The Today Show about the Catholic Church sex scandal.[3] So what are her spiritual views now?

It's difficult to say, as she is a journalist who would likely consider it a conflict of interest and a show of bias to reveal any strong views. But she has mentioned praying for victims of war and violence that she has encountered during her travels as a reporter,[4] so we can assume she didn't fall into agnosticism or atheism.

Curry has been the subject of criticism by conservatives and Christians. For example, her interview of evangelical conservative Kirk Cameron, in which Curry suggested some might view his statements on homosexuality as "hate speech," drew fire from Christians.[5] We're crossing the line into politics here, so let's just…

Get into politics

Curry is a famous journalist. She's interviewed dozens of high-profile politicians from both sides of the aisle; she's interviewed foreign dictators; she's traveled to war-torn locales. But it would be rather unprofessional of her to disclose any of her political views.

Of course, the media and its many talking heads are often accused of bias. Curry is not immune. She's mostly accused of a liberal bias by conservatives,[6] who credit her with saying things like:

You see, you can save the environment! It is possible![7]

And:

You know, there are some American Indians who feel that Thanksgiving should be a day of mourning, not a day of celebration because of what happened to their people.[8]

However, I'm concerned about the slant of these folks, who cry bias while their prose drips with conservative ideology.

Still, it's not too far-fetched. While media outlets' bread and butter is taking public figures' sound bites out of context in the name of sensationalism, Curry defended a quote by Obama that was being run through the ringer by Republicans in 2012. Obama said the economy was doing "fine" and, guess what, she lectured conservative daughter of Senator John McCain, Meghan McCain, for taking it out of context.[9]

Ok, so maybe she's a bit left of center. But I'd say Curry does a fairly good job of keeping her views to herself.