This is exactly why a lot of folks love Rick Santorum and why many fear he’s too honest to be a succesful presidential candidate.
Rick Santorum on Sunday said President Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech pledging to keep Pope and politics separate “makes me want to throw up.”
He said on “This Week” yesterday in defense of his critique of President Kennedy’s famous (or infamous) faith speech:
“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up.”
Here’s the thing -Rick Santorum is absolutely right. Kennedy’s speech makes no sense whatsoever. You can’t separate morality from politics, can you? Of course not. From where does morality derive? Religion.
Even Barack Obama makes connections between Christianity and his economic plans quite often, even when he’s asking Georgetown to cover up the cross. (Only room for one God on the stage at a time, I guess.)
Santorum is absolutely right. The separation of church and state has been bastardized beyond all original meaning. And we’re seeing the consequences of this bastardization right now with the HHS contraceptive mandate.
The end goal of this for the left is that rights no longer derive from our Creator but from the federal government. And I know the federal government doesn’t like to cut much, but they seem more than willing to cut rights.
The problem Santorum faces is that although he’s absolutely right, it’s not something that can be explained to folks in ten second sound bytes. So his words are taken out of context and shown in the worst possible light. Seems to me, Santorum has to get better at ten second sound bytes or raise a lot more money so he can take his case straight to the American people. Trying to cram his message through the media filter in ten seconds or less is the surest way to lose.
February 28, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Santorum is a Catholic. Kennedy was, and Sebelius, Pelosi, and most modern Jesuits are "Catho-palians".
February 28, 2012 at 3:12 pm
Not only was JFK not simply quoting Jefferson, he was actively asserting his determination not to be limited by Catholic teaching. Sorry, first Anon, but I'm old enough to remember well the rampant paranoia among Protestants over the risk that a papist might become president. Kennedy campaigned heavily against his faith to overcome that.
February 28, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Anonymous; Kennedy was a disgrace to the office, when it comes to his sexual misconduct in the White House. It has recently come to light that he deflowered a teenage girl while in office.
Nice job leaving his faith out of his presidency!
February 28, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Ugh.. I think if Santorum wins the primary the conversation in this thread here is proof he will lose the election.. because Santorum supporters will be seen as crazy wonks. The whole JFK thing is blown out of proportion. You would think that JFK was advocating wild-eyed secularism which he didn't. You won't find anyone from that time saying that he was. Yet Santorum made it out like he did. Santorum unoriginally got this idea from Archbishop Chaput speech (http://bit.ly/ySIThY) in it the Archbishop says this: "John Kennedy didn’t create the trends in American life that I’ve described. But at least for Catholics, his Houston speech clearly fed them." You would think just the opposite reading Santorum remarks, and his supporters eager to defend him. People are categorizing JFK in the likes of Pelosi and Biden sheesh..
February 28, 2012 at 8:21 pm
President Kennedy was not a good Catholic.
Okay.
Outside the Holy Roman Catholic Church there is no salvation.
President Kennedy was still 100% better than the Gnostic pigs that were the other presidents.
The worst Catholic is still better than the Best Luciferian.
*
February 28, 2012 at 8:24 pm
It is unfortunate that people in the 60's and up to now did not know what a real practicing Catholic was supposed to be like. To an exaggerated degree, Rick Santorum is demonstrating what a Catholic should think and act like. We should be proud of true Catholic teaching because in the end, it always proves correct. Even if he doesn't win, Catholics will compare their faith to his because he is in the public eye. I believe he will convert some Catholics and non Catholics to the teachings of the Church.
February 29, 2012 at 3:14 am
Well, Romney wins Michigan. Time for folks to face the very sad fact that the Republican establishment has once again succeeded in forcing another neocon down our throats, as Romney is going to be the nominee for 2012. Thanks to the Republican establishment, looks like I'll be voting third-party again this year.
February 29, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Religion is man's response to the gift of Faith from God. Every individual has a different response to God. God, the Person of God must be included in the adminsitration of government for a nation to be prosperous. Divine Providence and our Creator, found in the Declaration of Independence will retun our country back into civilization.
February 29, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Leticia — So it's wrong for JFK — but OK for the priests and the church who took out insurance policies because they knew they were covering up for pedophiles. There was hardly a president who didn't have sexual indiscretions — at least they weren't with CHILDREN — all the way back to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson even old George HW Bush had a girlfriend.