Disclaimer: The right to one's religious beliefs is a sacred aspect of our American Values.
However, when one religious sect, organization, or leader begins to trespass against the Founding Freedoms (even egregiously misquoting and misrepresenting the Founders' words and intentions), which we have enjoyed as a nation, established around a carefully crafted secular governmental structure, then it is time to ask citizens of this nation--of whatever faith or no-faith--to earnestly attempt to determine if this kind of relio-political theolotics is acceptable for the entire public.
Ask whether such intrusions should be passed over when our votes are cast for representation in civic government? If these radicals take a path of study and research and their mounted crusade becomes onerous to such parties as may want to preserve America's historic separation of church and state. Now we must reject these who may be attempting to radically co-opt government for their form of theocracy, claiming that any rejection of their erroneous attempts to religiously inject religion into government is a process of anti-Christian persecution of themselves. Calling themselves "persecuted" over their promotion of such radical ideology is an expected protective reaction and a typical defensive tactic-in itself erroneous and incorrect.
Rick Santorum is undermining the stature of the Roman Catholic Church in America and is engendering a backlash of Know Nothing blow-back reminiscent of the KKK ugly anti-Catholicism of the 1920's.
If only the more sensible American Catholic Bishops could guide Sen. Santorum back to basic truth-telling and the vital balance necessary for the preservation of universal religious tolerance--the mature attitude we have striven as a country to achieve for so many decades.
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Rick Santorum is a Christian Nationalist. He supports a "Christian" America, he, as other Christian Nationalists, refuses to accept separation of church and state, and they are bound to continue to set out to mold, force, the rest of society to conform to their peculiar and specific sense of what is morally right and wrong-both politically and religiously. They're prime backers of the Right-to-tell-you-how-to-run-your-life-for-you crowd which is mounting its church-based efforts to Christianize American society. Sen. Santorum and such groups hold a theocratic and narrow definition of Christianity and morals based in historic Fundamentalistic, Strict Catholics, and capitalistic Calvinism. This is best exposed in Sen. Santorum's blatant attack on "mainline" Protestant churches, whom Rick claims are at the end of their influence and purposes-no longer "Christian."
Many of the religious far right are strident Puritans akin to that of the John Calvin's Geneva during the fifteenth century. Another part of the "values voters block" include individuals such as Santorum, who is symptomatic of the crusading uber-Catholic conservatives who want to see Roman Catholicism made dominate in America. This group includes Ann Arbor's Tom Monaghan of Dominoes fame. Monaghan has created distinct enclaves of "pure" traditional Roman Catholic belief, such institutions as the Ava Maria University in his idyllic theoloplis Florida town, Ava Maria, east of Naples. Tom Monaghan, Ave Maria's founder, has been criticized in the press for proposing that contraceptives, abortion, and pornography be banned from the university and the town itself. In 2007, Monaghan drew criticism from Catholics both inside and outside the university when he removed theologian Joseph Fessio as provost.
Mr. Monaghan is reputed to be a member of Opus Dei and has been aligned with a number of other very conservative Catholic organizations and causes. Santorum is a close ally of ,if not a member of Opus Dei. Both Monaghan and Santorum are knights of magistral grace in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Monaghan materials here are drawn from Wikipedia).
On the Reader:
See "Opus Delusional: Santorum - God’s Avenger" - "St. Santorum Fails the Defender of Truth Test" and more on Rick Santorum and the 2012 GOP Primary.
Response to religious right use of religion in politics in "Let the government be the government & Let the church be the church".
Original.
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