Posted on 02/27/2012 12:38:23 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum made some controversial remarks on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, saying former President John F. Kennedy's speech about his Catholic faith made him want to "throw up," and that President Obama is a "snob" for saying that everyone should go to college.
Kennedy said, in his Sept. 12, 1960 speech about his Catholic faith, that "the separation of church and state is absolute."
"I don't believe in America the separation of church and state is absolute," Santorum told host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country. This is the First Amendment. The First Amendment says 'free exercise of religion,' that means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith into the public square. Kennedy for the first time articulated a vision saying faith is not allowed in the public square."
"That makes you want to throw up?" Stephanopoulos interrupted to ask.
"Absolutely," Santorum replied, "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 in that says that only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up."
Santorum also tied Kennedy's ideas to the Obama administration's birth control mandate, which would require some religious institutions to provide health care coverage for birth controls even if their religious teachings are opposed to them.
The mandate, Santorum said, is government "imposing" its values on religion, "which, of course is the next logical step when people of faith, according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square."
During the show, Stephanopoulos asked Santorum to explain a comment he made on Saturday while in Michigan about Obama and education. In a speech on Saturday, Santorum said, "President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob. There are good, decent men and women who go out and work hard every day, that put their skills to test, that aren't taught by some liberal college professor."
On "This Week," Santorum, whose campaign is focused on blue collar workers, said there are many whose desires and aspirations do not include going to college. To say that college should be everyone's goal, "devalues the tremendous work of people who don't go to college and don't want to go to college," Santorum explained.
Santorum also complained about a liberal bias on college campuses. He added that conservatives are ridiculed on college campuses and he personally experienced this as a student at Penn State.
"I've gone through it. I went through it at Penn State. You talk to most kids who go to college who are conservatives and you are singled out, you are ridiculed."
Santorum also said he heard a statistic from a few years ago in which 62 percent of students who enter college with a faith commitment leave without one.
"You make it sound like there is something wrong with encouraging college education," Stephanopoulos complained.
"No, not at all," Santorum responded, "but, understand, we have some real problems on our college campuses with political correctness."
Thanks. I understand the desire to keep people from making mistakes, none of us wants to see someone get hurt (or worse, hurt someone else), by being stupid and careless. But if we clinch down and force people to do “right” we ourselves are doing “wrong.” We cannot solve that problem other than “working out our salvation” that is to say, stumbling, and realizing we need help from our Savior (I don’t mean to be preachy, but this is a site for God, too!). Anyway, we have to be willing to make some mistakes and have some mistakes be made and then remedied. We wouldn’t have civil courts if everything could be solved by being criminalized (an attempt in full force, I may add). Let’s face it, we live in a fallen world, so we’re not going to be perfect, as individuals, or as society. We have the right to choose how we live, but not how others do. They gotta learn somehow, you know?
The thing is, that I’m convinced that 99% of all issues that “social conservatives” would be solved if government got back where it should be. No government funded abortions. No tax or other incentives for same-sex couples, etc. (I don’t even understand the delineation between a “plain ole’” conservative and a “Social conservative”, except people who want more laws for their cause). I dunno, maybe I’m old fashioned, but I don’t want a huge government telling me what to do. Besides, if people aren’t worried about God, they surely aren’t worried about Government. So then we have to lock up all the non-compliers. We’re beyond the point of just having the largest prison population on the planet (by many fold, if we go by “per capita”), but we’re nearing a police state. I don’t want to pay for all those prisoners. But that’s for another thread!
“Separation of Church and state” isn’t in the US Constitution, it’s from the Soviet Constitution liberals believe in.
It may be so. However, I would very much hope that Santorum's candidacy breaks the dam on religious freedom just like Goldwater's campaign paved the way for cold-war conservatism of Reagan or Rush Limbaugh's radio program articulated the fiscal conservatism of the Gingrich revolution. Rick may lose this time, but he is raising a critical issue which the GOP cowards are afraid to talk about. And he is young. His caliber as a politician of national appeal just rose. He is a courageous man.
It is the business of government to make people behave themselves. churchgoing people are more likely to do this than non-church-going people. Our founding fathers celebrated virtue, and it is one of the purposes of a church to instill virtue.
Jeremiah was not too popular either, but he was always right.
I think it was Newt who made the first remarks about the administration ’s war on religion.
Most State criminal codes are specifically enacted to prohibit a wide range of immoral acts. If governments didn't legislate morality then nothing would be a crime.
Could be: Obama’s war on religion (other than his own) is hard to miss.
What is to Santorum’s credit is not noticing the obvious but pointing out the cowardness of JFK’s private Catholicism.
If you think that Santorum is wrong about his remarks about higher education, then you have not looked at what higher education in the United States has become. It is absurd to say that everyone, even a majority of high school graduates should go to college, but that is what Obama has been saying.
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