Santorum: Separation Of Church And State “Makes Me Want To Throw Up”

Rick Santorum this morning said the separation of church and state, “makes me want to throw up.” Santorum, the Republican front-runner, appeared on ABC’s This Week and discussed the role of religion and government. He made the point several times, first stating that the late President John F. Kennedy‘s famous 1960 speech about religion made him want to “throw up,” and then applying the concept in a broader sense, Santrorum repeatedly used the phrase “throw up.”

Santorum was referring to a 1960 speech in which then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy eloquently outlined the role religion would play — and would not play — in his White House, specifically stating that the Pope would not hold sway over his decisions. “I am not the Catholic candidate for President,” Kennedy told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. “I am the Democratic Party candidate for President who also happens to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters – and the Church does not speak for me.”

Of course Santorum twisted Kennedy’s speech.Santorum falsely claimed that Kennedy said “people of faith have no role in the public square.” He did not. That would meant that the vast majority of Americans had no role in the public square. Of course he did not say that. He said that religion was separate from government. But why should Santorum now start paying attention to facts?

ABC News reports:

“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?” Santorum said.

“That makes me throw up and it should make every American who is seen from the president, someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says, we are going to impose our values on you, not that you can’t come to the public square and argue against it, but now we’re going to turn around and say we’re going to impose our values from the government on people of faith, which of course is the next logical step when people of faith, at least according to John Kennedy, have no role in the public square,” he said.

Santorum also said he does not believe in an America where the separation of church and state is “absolute.”

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.  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,” said Santorum. “This is the First Amendment.  The First Amendment says the free exercise of religion.  That means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square.  Kennedy for the first time articulated the vision saying, no, ‘faith is not allowed in the public square.  I will keep it separate.’  Go on and read the speech ‘I will have nothing to do with faith.  I won’t consult with people of faith.’  It was an absolutist doctrine that was foreign at the time of 1960,” he said.

 

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Think Progress notes how extreme Rick Santorum’s positions on religion and the First Amendment are:

In fact, John F. Kennedy was just one in a long lineage of U.S. presidents, founding fathers, scholars and religious icons who supported absolute separation between church and state. Even Ronald Reagan, to whom Santorum has compared himself, proudly proclaimed that “we establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate.”