Rick Santorum: ‘The Highest Freedoms’ Not Necessarily ‘Right For Society’

Rick Santorum, clearly intending to run for president again in 2016, had a few thoughts about liberals and how their ideas are wrong for America.

A poll this week from Iowa finds that the GOP is hoping to repeat 2012 all over again. Mitt Romney topped the list of politicians Iowa voters hope to elect in 2016 — despite the fact that he lost in 2012, by nearly five million votes.

The rest of the list of usual suspects garnered low numbers in this week’s Iowa poll too, including Rick Santorum, who came in with less than six percent.

But numbers and facts have never stood in Santorum’s way.

In an interview with Vocativ this week, Santorum decided to spread a few lies, and to do what he does best: attack the left and secular society.

Talking about his production company’s latest religious right Christian film, “One Generation Away,” Santorum lied, claiming that children are not allowed to pray in school, and schools are prohibited from teaching the Bible. Both those claims are false, as Right Wing Watch notes:

In reality, students have a constitutionally protected right to pray in school, as long as that prayer is not school-sponsored. In addition, schools are allowed to teach about the Bible and its impact on history.

Vocativ calls Santorum’s film “brazen,” and describes how it explores the Hobby Lobby case, and “bakers in Oregon who decline to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.”

And there are cheerleaders in Texas who defy authority and paint signs with biblical messages on them for football games. All of them are depicted as being unjustly persecuted. For example, after the bakers refuse to whip up a cake for a lesbian couple, they’re removed from referral lists and ultimately the cake shop is forced to close.

(Vocativ gets it wrong — the Oregon cake shop wasn’t “forced to close,” of course. Sweet Cakes by Melissa chose to close up shop and go online, after a judge found they had violated Oregon law and the civil rights of a same-sex couple who merely wanted a cake for their wedding. Vocativ also gets the prayer in school issue and the Bible issue wrong, by agreeing with Santourm in the interview.)

In the rest of Vocativ’s interview with Santorum, he comes out attacking liberals. “They believe their freedoms are the highest freedoms, but that doesn’t mean they’re right for society.”

In every situation, familiar conservatives like Mike Huckabee and Tony Perkins—the leader of the Family Research Council, which is considered an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center—are rolled out to indict religious discrimination. These crusaders are pitted against the usual liberal suspects: a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and a couple of professors.

We spoke with Santorum about what religious freedom actually means.

Does One Generation Away advocate for a particular point of view?
No question. We come down on one side.

So why bother putting the ACLU lawyer or the liberal professor in the film at all?
It’s important for Christians—because the movie is being shown in churches—it’s important for them to see why people want to change America.

Did you find their arguments compelling?
The answer to that is no. They believe their freedoms are the highest freedoms, but that doesn’t mean they’re right for society.

So what’s the goal of One Generation Away?
To bring awareness. Religious liberty is one of the things that, if you get it wrong, it leads to all kinds of other problems down the road. And I think right now we’re getting it wrong. Look at the civil rights movement. That was brought about by the church. But now people say the church is on the wrong side, so let’s shut the church up. That’s wrong. Having a moral compass is good for America.

Here’s the trailer for Santorum’s film:

 

Image: Santorum speaking at NOM’s March For Marriage Rally, June3 19, 2014. Photo by Elvert Barnes via Flickr