I have several large homeschooling families in my church who oppose contraception on principle, and have made huge economic sacrifices to have a half-dozen to a dozen kids while the wife stays home to do homeschooling. (In other words, this isn't just a Catholic issue — lots of the most conservative Protestant evangelicals in the homeschooling movement oppose contraception as a matter of principle.) Not one of those families ever, even one time, criticized me for disagreeing with them, even though one of those men is an elder. They understand that the sphere of the family involves personal choices into which the institutional church should enter only rarely — the elders don't run my home, I do, and God will hold me directly accountable for how I run it.
Rick Santorum never said he wanted to ban birth control. He said he didn't choose to use birth control, and believed it enabled wildly promiscuous sex.
Nobody can deny the obvious truth that birth control enabled the “sexual revolution.” Go read Time Magazine's cover story on the Pill if you won't listen to a conservative saying that. As for the first point, it's none of my business how many children somebody else’s family chooses to have, and Rick Santorum never said he wanted to restrict access to birth control.
The same bravery and willingness to stand up for his moral convictions that attracted conservative Christian voters are what attracted liberal fire from the left.
Romans 13:3-4 says civil rulers are supposed to be a terror to evildoers: “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.”
You can know a lot about somebody by who their enemies are. Santorum attracted (mostly) the right enemies. That's not a problem in my book.
A very eloquent and persuasive post.
You are avoiding discussing the problem statement. Rick Santorum said that as President he was going to do what no other President before him has done, and that is to talk about why contraception is "not okay". THAT is the problem. Had he just said he's Catholic and personally agrees with the church there would not have been much of an issue. Had he joked about it like O'Reilly and you suggest and said "hey, Ive got 7 kids so I don't know much about it", there wouldn't have been much of a problem. Where Santorum screwed up is by outright saying one of the things he would do as President is talk about why contraception is "not okay"
Here is the quote which is the one that was on video and got him in so much trouble:
One of the things I will talk about that no President has talked about before is I think the dangers of contraception in this country, the whole sexual libertine idea. Many in the Christian faith have said, 'Well, that’s okay. Contraception’s okay.' It’s not okay because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.
Santorum never walked that back. No, he wasn't ever talking about banning contraception, but he did want to talk about, as President, why it was "not okay". I'm sorry, but that isn't the President's job. The public is never going to elect a candidate who says these sorts of things at this time. Who knows what the future holds, maybe some virus will kill half the public and society will find a pressing need to have many more babies. If that happens, Santorum's views might make him electable. But right now, no, not a chance. He should never have said that.