Santorum on Separation of Church and State

Rick Santorum has had his day in the sun and may very well flame out on Super Tuesday. So I might as well get my licks in before that.

Famously, he has rejected John F. Kennedy's assurance that he believed in absolute separation of church and state and said the idea "makes me want to throw up."

As countless people have pointed out, Santorum is being unfair to Kennedy. He fails to take into account the very real anti-Catholic bigotry that existed at the time, especially in the Bible Belt, and many people's very real fears that if they elected a Catholic, the Pope would dictate policy. Imagine the sort of assurance people would want before electing a Muslim today!

Second, it is significant what Santorum did not say. He did not actually go to the opposite extreme from Kennedy. He did not say that he would always obey the Pope if elected, and that a vote for Santorum is a vote for the Pope. Presumably, he recognized that most people are still uneasy with the prospect of the Pope setting policy for the U.S.*

Or, as this columnist remarks, "[T]he pope, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, all the Methodist and Episcopal bishops, rabbis Orthodox and otherwise, and peaceful imams everywhere have the right to be heard. But none of them has the right, as arbiters of their faith, to compel the president of the United States to make public policy conform to religious doctrine."

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*Republicans do, however, go out of their way to assure voters that they will let the Prime Minster of Israel set our Middle East policy.