Travel expert Rick Steves on religion and politics

The host of the PBS television show, Rick Steves: Europe Through the Back Door, delivered an intriguing slide-show presentation to a packed house this week at Dominican University in San Rafael. He is promoting his latest book, Travel as a Political Act, that chronicles how thirty years of extensive traveling shaped his progressive world view.

Steves envisions a world with no poverty or hunger, where drug use and prostitution are legal with government controls, and where corporate interests no longer set the agenda. He says that Europeans have learned that legislating morality does not work to reduce drug abuse or end the sex trade.  Steves, a recent divorcee, joked about such hedonism. "I've got no problem with hedonism; I'm a Lutheran." Yes, he is a church-going man who seems to be a contradiction. He lobbies for the legalization of marijuana, yet also assists the Lutheran Church, ELCA, in producing films about Martin Luther and the Reformation.

In the propaganda film, "Marijuana: Time for a Discussion," produced by the liberal ACLU, Steves reveals his own enjoyment of pot smoking and testifies from the position of a traveler of Europe.

"I'm a travel writer and for me high is a place. And you know, it's just a really sweet place...sometimes it's just a place I really want to go. Oh, I don't know, I just really want to go there. And a lot of people really want to go there...There's no good reason for us not to be able to go there. I believe the adult use of marijuana for recreational use should be a civil liberty...We got to come out for marijuana and I come out for marijuana." 

He blames America's legal restrictions on fear. "Fear is for people who don't get out very much," seems to be Steves' slogan. In his mind, if a person travels extensively as he does they would draw the same conclusion on hot-button issues as he does. He seems to ignore the reality that fear/paranoia is a common side-effect of pot-smoking, that has caused long-term damage to a drug user's psyche. In an area that wants to ban McDonald's Happy Meals due to health issues associated with french fries, the legalization of marijuana is promoted, totally ignoring the bad consequences to the users' well-being.

Steves points to Mark Twain as an inspiration who expressed his own view of traveling when he wrote, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness." Steves says he connects with struggling people around the world who, from his viewpoint, live in lack due to unequal distribution of wealth. At the same time, he owns his own successful business in America where he says he would rather do business here than in Europe.

"I am really glad I run my business here in the United States rather than over there. It would be very frustrating; I think it would be demoralizing to be a business person in Europe cause it's just too cumbersome to work within all the constraints...From a businessman's point of view, it's burdensome. I"m glad I can run my business here because we have an environment for that... When I talk about what is good in Europe, a lot of people think it's America bashing. I just don't understand that. This is my home; I would live nowhere else."

Steves says he sees his business more as a calling. He lobbies in America on behalf of those in poverty around the world. When asked about our government's foreign aid, he points out that America only sends aid to countries in which it has a strategic interest. It is this imperialism that he hates about America's foreign policy when it sticks its nose in other countries' business. He is a strong believer in national sovereignty of every nation and is against global government.

Rick Steves' show that airs on PBS is popular with Americans of any political persuasion as it showcases people around the world who have similar needs, hopes, and dreams. His guidebooks are popular tools for all who can benefit from his knowledge of fascinating places to travel. However, his latest book might not be popular with conservatives whose high moral values are viewed by Steves as oppressive and closed minded. He loses half his audience with that.