Gord's Notebook : #OWS: Echoing The Puritans Rick Santorum: "I Don't Believe in an America Where the Separation of Church and State is Absolute"

As for the Separation of church and State and the Founders of the American colonies they were against the notion of a separation or the tolerance of other religions or Christian sects besides their own .As relious historian Garry Wills in his book Head and Heart: American Chistianities,(pub. 2007) points out:

The Founders of the New England colonies did not come to America to protect any variety in religious practice, or to assert the primacy of the individual's conscience. Far from it. They came to set up the one true faith where corrupt versions of it could not intrude. The only religion recognized as authentic, as what God wills, was the Covenant of Grace, under which God's chosen were predestined to salvation, making their church a collection of "visible Saints." Those not consciously saved in this way could not be communicating members of the church, nor could they be voting members of the community. These outsiders had to attend and support the true church even if they were not full members of it . As Samuel Willard wrote in 1681 against baptists claiming that New England should be a haven for religious freedom:

I perceive they are mistaken in the design of our first planters whose business was not tolerating but were professed enemies of it, and could leave the world professing they died no libertines. Their business was to settle and ( as much as in them lay) secure religion to posterity to posterity according to that way which they believed was of God.

Rick Santorum says this speech on the Separation of Church and State by JFK made him throw up.

JFK when he was running for president there were those who feared that because JFK was Catholic that his first allegiance would be to the Pope and the Vatican rather than to America and its peoples. Santorum's belief is the direct opposite of that of JFK and this in fact should worry Americans.

JFK on the Separation of Church and State

Uploaded by JFKLF on Aug 1, 2007
Senator John F. Kennedy speaking before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas on September 12, 1960.
Copyright: Kennedy Library Foundation

Rick santorum : "I Don't Believe in an America Where the Separation and State is Absolute"

So Santorum who like JFK is a Catholic assures Americans that in his running for the presidency he will not follow in the footsteps of JFK and reassert a belief in the Separation of Church and State.
Santorum's policies once in office will in fact reflect his theological views.

In this clip Santorum sounds like the Puritans during the colonial period of American history. The Puritans did not believe in the Separation of Church and State.
The Puritans left England not in search of religious freedom but rather to set up a community which reflected Puritanism' values and where no other religion or Christian sect would be permitted. The Puritans set up a state in which only Puritans who were the visible saints that is those who have been touched by God could hold public office.
Believing that only their sect was the only truly Christian sect the Puritans treated all who belonged to other Christian sects as heretics.

As Garry Wills notes these early New Englanders persecuted other sects such as the Quakers and it was the king of England Charles II who chastised the leaders of the colony in Massachusetts for their persecution of the Quakers.

What these Pilgrims and Puritans found abhorent about England was that there was at the time an insistence upon religious tolerance. They left England because the state refused to acknowledge the puritans sect as the only true Christian sect which they believed to be a return to the Early Church .

So abortion and all forms of contraception for instance are abhorrent to him .
Since the Bible and the church up until recently have condemned homosexuality and other in his view abnormal forms of sexuality then as president he will not shy away from his extreme and militant views on these issues.
The question becomes how far would he go as president of the United States. Would he in his view merely ban gay marriage or would he simply ban homosexuality and other forms of sexual activities which do not conform to Santorum's views on what heterosexual activities are permissible and what is not.
Given Santorum's stand on abortion and contraception it follows that any act preventing fertilization is a form of murder since he claims from the moment of conception the Zygote is to be considered a person .
This position leads to a some rather strange and extremists legal issue such as laws protecting the Zygote and fetus so if a pregnant woman is murdered for instance the courts would have to view this as a double murder.
If a pregnant woman does anything which causes a miscarriage or affects the health of the child to be then she is legally responsible for a charge of murder or at least reckless endangerment.
As for any woman who becomes pregnant by being raped she has no right to have an abortion.
And as for the rapist himself he could be viewed as giving the woman a gift from God-a human life.
For instance given these sets of beliefs to go a little further the rapist has committed a more moral righteous act than if he had worn a condom during the rape or if he had simply masturbated and thereby wasted God's seed as it were.

As Kate Harding at The guardian points out :

Rick Santorum thinks pregnancy through rape is God's gift? Seriously?
Invoking God's will as a supporting argument to his position on abortion hardly fits with the constitution he claims to uphold by kate Harding, Guardian.co.uk, January 25, 2012

There is a multitude of issues which would be affected by the religious beliefs of President Santorum .

For instance given Santorum's religious beliefs if he were president we can expect even more overt Christian proselytizing in the US military and elsewhere by those who adhere to a faith to which Santorum approves.

As for the Global War on Terror if Santorum or anyone with similar views were to become president would he or they drop all pretenses as it were and simply talk about and push for polices which would not simply be against Islamic radicals and extremists but rather against Islam itself. If he believes what he says he does then he would have to act accordingly . So if the current struggle in his view is one of God and his true believers against Satan and those who are merely whether they know it or not are minions of Satan which would include all non-Christians and those Christians who in their actions have repudiated true Christianity.

As for education President Santorum would probably insist on the insertion of religion into not just the bedrooms but also the classrooms and the media in America.

see: Santorum Says Religion and Conservative Principles Are at Risk By KATHARINE Q. SEELY at new York Times, February 26,2012

Rick Santorum: Evolution Used To Promote Atheism In Schools by Doug Mataconis at Outside The Beltway February 22,2012

Santorum's Views on Sex and Religion Keep Him From Talking About the Economy by John Aloysius Farrell at national Journal, Feruary 22,2012

Rick Santorum defends comments blasting JFK over religion’s place in politics by Shira Schoenberg Boston political intelligence ,February 26,2012

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who has made his conservative stance on religious and social issues one of the centerpieces of his Republican presidential campaign, today questioned the idea of a complete separation of church and state. Santorum stood by comments he made last year when he said after reading President John F. Kennedy’s famous 1960 speech about the separation of church and state, “I almost threw up.”

Santorum said his disagreement with Kennedy came from the line in Kennedy’s speech that read, “I 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,” Santorum said today on ABC’s “This Week.’’ “The idea that the church should have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical of the objectives and vision of our country.”

Santorum’s conservative social views have come under increasing scrutiny as he has soared in the polls nationally and come to challenge former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. He has waded into battles over insurance coverage of contraception, federal support for education, and what he referred to as President Obama’s “theology” on the environment. Today, Santorum was forced to defend his views on college education and on the separation of religion and politics.