UPDATE BELOW
Rick Santorum shot off his mouth again and again he was using blanks. In speaking about the separation of church and state on "This Week" with moderator, George Stephanopoulos, Santorum managed to make a fool of himself with this idiotic statement:
"I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state are absolute," he told 'This Week' host George Stephanopoulos. "The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country...to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up."
A couple of things: First, our Constitution, which people like Santorum and the crazies in the Tea Party so revere, prohibits religious organizations from having any influence or involvement in the promulgation of laws and the operation of the state.
Second, Little Ricky is either a fool or has no memory function, since The Reverend Pat Robertson and The Reverend Jesse Jackson both ran for president, and clergy have served in the US House of Representative. As far back as I can remember, clergy of all denominations have streamed in and out of the White House as honored guests and advisors to many presidents--The Reverend Billy Graham was a dear friend of President Nixon and all presidents going back to, I believe, President Eisenhower.
Third, every session of Congress begins with a benediction from some faith, and clergy are always present at presidential inaugurations. Our money has the motto "In God We Trust" on it, and the Pledge of Allegiance has had "...one nation under God..." added to it, a change from the original. We are one of the most religiously saturated western democracies on the planet, and yet Little Ricky isn't happy. The US is so thoroughly soaked in religious dogma that a whopping 43% of our population does not accept Evolution as settled science. Only one other country, Turkey, does worse on this. Yup. The most technologically advanced country in the world still holds beliefs that belong in the pre-Darwinian 18th century. And this whole separation of church and state makes Little Ricky nauseous.
What seems to be the bug up Santorum's sanctuary is the fact that religion, especially the Catholic religion, is not allowed to make policy and pass laws [hello contraception!] that affect all Americans, even people who have no religion.
Santorum deserves nothing but mockery and ridicule from all thinking Americans who understand that keeping all religions out of government ensures freedom for all religions.
Our Founding Fathers, whom Santorum would vomit on, understood this better than he does, and, apparently, Santorum is too religiously crazed to understand any of the statements made by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.
George Washington:
The name of Jesus Christ is not mentioned even once in the vast collection of Washington's published letters. He refers to Providence in numerous letters, but he used the term as a synonym for Destiny or Fate. Bishop White, who knew him well for many years, wrote after Washington's death that he had never heard him express an opinion on any religious subject. He added that although Washington was "serious and attentive" in church, he never saw him kneel in prayer.
Washington had the inestimable faculty of being able to say nothing. He said nothing about religion -- nothing very definite -- and as a deist was willing to let people think whatever they pleased. As he never discussed religion at all, and went to church only occasionally, he was considered by most people to be a quietly religious man. It was somewhat of a shock, therefore, to the people of Philadelphia, when the reverend Dr. Abercrombie, Washington's pastor, criticised him from the pulpit. He told him that as President, he should not belong to a church unless he could set a good example to others. He reminded Washington that he never took communion, and in short, that his example was bad.
Washington listened to these reproaches in silence, and never went to that church again. His only comment was that he did not wish to annoy Dr. Abercrombie by his presence.
John Adams:
"The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly monopolized learning. And ever since the Reformation, when or where has existed a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE INQUIRY? The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence, the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced, propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will swarm about your eyes and hand, and fly into your face and eyes." --- John Adams, letter to John Taylor
Thomas Jefferson:
"The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800.
"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for their purpose." --- Thomas Jefferson, to Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814
"Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth." --- Thomas Jefferson, from "Notes on Virginia"
"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." --- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787
"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one. But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the priests." --- Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1803
James Madison:
"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not." --- James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." --- James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
Ronald Reagan, to whom Santorum has compared himself, proudly proclaimed that “we establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate.”
UPDATE
"...at a campaign event on the eve of the Michigan primary, the former Pennsylvania senator described his vision for the role of religion in public life.
"I'm for separation of church and state," he said on Monday. "The state has no business telling the church what to do."
Which is it, Little Ricky? Do you mean what you say and say what you mean? Or are you trying to outpander Mittens?
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