Rick Santorum Doesn't Understand The Separation Of Chuch And State

After Rick Santorum's disastrous performance at the CNN GOP debate in Phoenix, Arizona, a video surfaced of him expressing his disgust with John F. Kennedy's famous address that he gave to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a group of Protestant ministers, about the role of his faith will play in his bid to become President. During the 1960 presidential election, many protestants questioned whether Kennedy's Roman Catholic faith could make decisions free from any input by the Catholic Church.

Before I get to the video of Rick Santorum's comments, I would like present the speech that Rick Santorum is referring to. Watch the clip below: 

You can read the transcript of Kennedy's speech here.

Rick Santorum gave a speech at the St. Thomas More College of Liberal Arts’ Symposium on Catholic Statesmanship and you can watch a brief clip of that speech below: 

A few days ago, Rick Santnorum was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos in which he was asked about why he strongly disagreed with J.F.K's speech: 

Here's the specific quote from J.F.K's speech that Rick Santorum has problems with:

“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,” 

Rick Santorum's comments reveals why he isn't fit to be president because he believes that that religion should have an influence or involvement in the operation of the state but that "the state has no business telling the church what to do."  He fails to understand that religion oversteps its bounds when it attempts to tell their members who to vote for or forms a relationship with government in which it involved or has influence on the day to day administration of our government.

In a previous article, I explained the why the Founding Fathers did not allow religion to play a role administration of the affairs of the people: 

While the Founding Fathers wanted religion to play a role in public life, they also wanted to prevent the federal government from endorsing a specific denomination or sect. They also wanted people to vote for candidates running for Congress or President to focus on a candidate's values and not their religion. That  is  why the Founding Fathers specifically forbid religion as a litmus test in the Constitution.It was intended that a person's faith was never a factor in considering someone for elected office or as a requirement to hold a job in the federal government. 

Why did the Founding Fathers focus on values rather than religion when drafting the Constitution? 

The reason is because the Founding Fathers were purposely trying to avoid the mistake that Old Europe had made in that there was one religion had the endorsement of the Government at the exclusion of all other religions. In fact, England herself has suffered a wave of political instability as Catholic and Protestants fought to place a  Protestant or Catholic King or Queen on the throne. 

As a result,  the Founding Fathers understood many countries with a religiously pluralistic society, such as England, have struggled to unite their people of different faiths. The solution in Europe was to force unity through governmental endorsement of a particular religion. In other words, they thought religious unity could come from forced conformity to a particular faith. However, that created political and social instability.

The Founding Father had a different yet radical and novel solution to governing a religiously diverse society was to unite people based on common values shared by all faiths rather than uniting people based on a common religion. That is why America was and still is a politically and socially stable country.

Given that Rick Santorum is a Catholic, it amazes me that he wanted to throw up over a single but important line in J.F.K's speech given the fact that in the early period of American history, many states passed religiously bigoted laws simply because the majority of Americans at that time believed that Catholics were not Christians. 

The reasons why we need an absolute separation of church and state can clearly be seen today because we face those very problems that J.F.K warned about. For example, our government for many years have been trying to tell churches to do things that are contrary to its religious beliefs whether it be adoption, marriage or birth control. 

Furthermore, JFK's speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association also warned people about the dangers of  voters refusing to vote for a candidate simply because that candidate belongs to a different religion:

"For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been, and may someday be again, a Jew--or a Quaker--or a Unitarian--or a Baptist...Today I may be the victim--but tomorrow it may be you--until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril."

In the previous election and current presidential elections, we have seen religious leaders telling their members not to vote for a candidate because of his faith and we have seen people admitting that the will not vote for a candidate because of the religion they belong to. Yet, Rick Santorum believes that voters can look beyond a candidate's religion but fails to understand why they should.

J.F.K clearly understood this from European history and early American history that religion has a place in American life but it cannot tell politicians what to do nor who the American people should vote for. Rick Santorum apparently doesn't understand that concept which is why he doesn't understand why Kennedy said what he said in that speech in 1960. 

Kennedy was a devout Catholic talking to a large audience of Baptists who were suspicious of having a Catholic president who might simply obey the orders of the Church. As a result, Kennedy simply reiterated what Thomas Jefferson told the Danbury Baptists in response to a letter they sent to the newly elected President Jefferson. 

Rick Santorum is expected to and should have understood Kennedy's message, but he doesn't. In contrast, Mitt Romney understands J.F.K's speech much better than Rick Santorum because in his speech at the George Bush Presidential Library, he tells American people this: 

"Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion – rather, we welcome our nation's symphony of faith."

While I admire Rick Santorum's deep commitment to his Catholic faith, he doesn't have the proper perspective and he has a limited view as well as understanding about the proper roles of government and religion should play in American life. Mitt Romney has a broader and comprehensive view because he understands that our country was created on a foundation of common values that unites us as a people regardless of their faith and will govern our country on that basis. 

As a result, Mitt Romney is the best choice that voters can make in this election.