Separation of church and state, Rick Santorum blew it

Recently presidential candidate Rick Santorum commented on a speech given by the late presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in 1960.

But there was a big problem in those days. He was a Catholic, and a great many feared that a Catholic president would take orders from the Pope, and not be the true leader of the free world, but only a pawn of the Catholic Church. In a speech to the Houston Ministerial Association in 1960, Kennedy addressed this.

“But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected president, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately — in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again — not what kind of church I believe in, for that should be important only to me — but what kind of America I believe in.

“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 accept 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.”

Apparently, this speech made Santorum sick or, more precisely, he “almost threw up.” When I read the article about his reaction, I also felt physically ill, but for different reasons. He tried to retract his words a couple days later, but to me, Santorum blew it when he failed to grasp the reasons behind this landmark speech.

There is a reason why church and state must remain separate. The founding fathers got it. President Kennedy got it. Rick Santorum, his Tea Party backers and many in the religious right do not.

I do not mean this as an attack on any faith, including the Catholic faith, which both Santorum and the late president share. It is a heartfelt message to those who would supplant the very ideals this nation was founded upon and make our nation into something else.

This is a secular country. Our founding fathers saw directly what a state-run church and government could do. They wanted none of it. That is why most left those countries in the first place. They wanted this nation to be different from the European countries they left. They made sure in creating this nation that it was a country based on the principles of democracy and not a state-run theocracy, as many of those nations really were at the time. It’s a nation where anyone can practice faith without fear, and where the government is apart from it as well.

A democratic representative Republic, we are free of the oppression a theocracy brings. Yet for some strange reason, theocracy seems what Santorum means to bring to the White House. Santorum’s efforts are blunt, clumsy and deeply disturbing.

President Kennedy got it right. Santorum got it dead wrong. His extreme backers are dead wrong. This nation must never let someone like this into the highest office of this nation. Otherwise, we all stand to lose this great country to a rabid few.

Kennedy said it best: “I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office. I do not speak for my church on public matters and the church does not speak for me.”

Those very words held a great deal of truth then and they should today in the 21st century.

This is not the only issue I have with this man. His views on contraception, women’s rights, gay rights and even that of higher education all would shove years of progress into the trash bin. I find the last one particularly disturbing because he and all the others — including the president — hold college degrees.

He peddles a type of fear that has no place in U.S. politics. He uses fear and religion as political weaponry. I believe that the people of this great country are wise to him and will take steps to insure that the U.S is never a theocracy.

At least I hope so.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.