What Santorum said was, The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.
What JFK said was:
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials; and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.
I'm afraid I agree with Kennedy on that. I don't want Catholic prelates or Protestant ministers (or Islamic mullahs) operating the state.
If Kennedy's words on that make you want to throw up, then perhaps you belong in Saudi Arabia.
Kennedy’s world doesn’t exist so how do you know you believe in it?
You have catholic bishops upset at the president for this latest. They have that right. There were black Christian ministers marching against the government policies back in the 60s, gee, what was that one guy’s name?? There a a few different (very different!) Jewish American lobbies who have tried and influenced policy.
Kennedy would have been ok with religions having redress. He was only trying to bend over backwards to insist Rome wouldn’t drive his governing.
Heck, he didn’t even let the 10 commandments influence him much.