Are you blue, red or purple? According to Deacon Charles Bobertz, it may depend on your religion.

Bobertz, a professor of theology at St. Johns University, spoke to over 180 students, faculty and community members about faith, science and politics in the Sun Room at the MU Monday evening.

Bobertz’ lecture, “Where did the bible come from?” theorized an individual’s political affiliations may be traced to the splitting of the Christian church during the Reformation and again during the Enlightenment.

“A hesitation about the truth of the enlightenment affected today’s politics,” Bobertz said.

Fundamentalist Protestants tend to vote conservative [red], while mainstream Protestants lean to the left [blue] and Catholics tend to be somewhere in between [purple] Bobertz said.

Bobertz said the differences were the result of different perspectives on God and the bible.

“For some, the bible comes from god directly,” Bobertz said. “For others it doesn’t come from God at all, [and there is] the Catholic position that the bible comes from God, but not directly.”

The event was cosponsored by the Catholic Student Community, St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church & Student Center, and Committee on Lectures (funded by GSB).

Shari Reilly, youth ministry director at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, said she recommended Bobertz because she took a college course from him.

“I found him to be an engaging lecturer and a thoughtful man,” Reilly said. “I remember his class and it’s been, shall we say, a long time.”

After hearing Bobertz’ arguments, many of the students had different reactions.

“I like how he was able to explain many different christian interpretations of the bible,” said Cristopher Grow, a member of the Catholic Student Community and sophomore in construction engineering. “He related it in a way that wasn’t trying to convert anybody.

Kaylee Smith, an open option sophomore, who said she was non-denominational, disagreed.

“I almost feel like he was trying to convert people to Catholicism and make them stray away from any type of other denomination”.

Bobertz’ lecture was a part of Msgr. James A. Supple Lecture Series. The next lecture in the series is “A Pope Named Francis and his Witness to Love” by Anne Clifford, Supple Chair member in Catholic Studies at Iowa State, will be on Monday, Nov 10th.