Santorum: ?I Almost Threw Up? After Reading JFK Speech on Church, State

By Siobhan Hughes

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said he ?almost threw up? after reading President John F. Kennedy?s 1960 speech on the separation of church and state.

?I don?t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,? Mr. Santorum said on ?This Week? on ABC News. ?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.?

President Kennedy, who faced voters who were wary of his Catholic religion, said in Sept. 12, 1960 speech during the presidential campaign, that his religion would not be a factor in his leadership.? In his remarks, JFK 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.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish?where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source?where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials?and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

Mr. Santorum, who is also a Catholic, said on ABC that ?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.? He added on NBC?s ?Meet the Press? that ?the idea that people of faith have to keep it a private affair ? my goodness, what does that mean? The only place that ? the only thing you?re allowed to bring to the public square is secular ideas or things that are not motivated by faith??

On ABC, Mr. Santorum said that the First Amendment ?means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square.? Kennedy for the first time articulated the vision saying, ?No. Faith is not allowed in the public square.??

?To say that people of faith have no role in the public square ? you bet that makes you throw up,? Mr. Santorum said. ?What kind of country do we live in that says only people of nonfaith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up, and it should be make every American ? you were seeing from a president someone who is now trying to tell people of faith that you will do what the government says; we are going to impose our values on you; not that you can?t come into the public square and argue against it, but now we?re going to turn around and say we?re going to impose our values from the government on people of faith which, of course, is the next logical step when people of faith ? at least according to John Kennedy ? have no role in the public square.?

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/02/26/santorum-i-almost-threw-up-after-reading-jfk-speech-on-church-state/?mod=WSJBlog

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