Sanctum Santorum

I heard Rick Santorum on "This Week" state that John F. Kennedy's speech in September of 1960 made him want to throw up.  Santorum's conclusion from Kennedy's words, 'I Believe in an America Where the Separation of Church and State is Absolute' was that JFK did not want 'people of faith' to be involved in the American political process.

I lived through the all-too-brief Kennedy era.  I was in high school when he was elected, and I remember clearly the discussions we had about the real fears many Americans harbored that the Pope would be calling the shots in the US government if a Catholic were to be elected President.  Kennedy's speech was clearly intended to allay those fears.

I can only think of two possible explanations for Santorum's comments:  either he is just plain stupid, or he is using one of the oldest political tricks in the book by putting out an intentional untruth that will get repeated often enough to lead people to believe that it's true.  Either way, that makes him unfit for the office of President in my view.

JFK's speech did not intend to imply that he would keep people of faith out of 'the public square,' as Santorum put it.  He was simply reaffirming the founding fathers' belief that there should be no state-sponsored religion, and that the decisions of government should be made by all citizens, whether they have a particular religious belief or not.  I believe that Kennedy was right on the money - the Church has no place in American politics, but its members, acting as citizens, absolutely do.

Shame on you, Rick Santorum, for playing on people's fears!