Santorum Barfs into the Wind

by Edd Doerr

Campaigning in Michigan on 2/26, Rick Santorum, in an evident fit of desperation, slammed John F. Kennedy's 9/12/60 speech to the Ministerial Association of Greater Houston defending religious freedom and church-state separation. Rick said that JFK's speech "makes me throw up." He added that "I don't believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute."

Here is what Kennedy said: "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. . . . where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials. . . . "

There have been some who have questioned Kennedy's sincerity. However, my colleague Paul Blanshard, with whom I co-wrote a column in The Humanist back when Paul Kurtz was editor, told me that shortly after taking office Kennedy invited him to meet with Kennedy and adviser Ted Sorensen in the White House to discuss Kennedy's decision not to include religious private schools in his proposed education legislation. Blanshard told me that he was convinced that Kennedy meant exactly what he said. Only after Kennedy's assassination was Lyndon Johnson, in 1965, able to get education aid passed. Unfortunately, although Johnson had the votes in Congress to exclude church schools from the legislation, he gave in to pressure from the Catholic bishops.

So Santorum is barfing into a strong headwind. However, his shooting off his piehole should serve to alert voters to the very real threats to religious freedom and church-state separation that have been escalating dangerously of late, such as the efforts by Republican lawmakers and governors to role back women's religious freedom and rights of conscience, and their relentless drive to defund public education and divert public funds to discriminatory sectarian private schools through school vouchers or tuition tax credits.

(The Kennedy quotes and many others may be found in the book Great Quotations on Religious Freedom, compiled by Al Menendez and myself (Prometheus Books, 2002, 250 pages, available for $10 from me at Box 6656, Silver Spring, Md 20916).