By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Fresh off an attack on the legitimacy of public education and now surging in the polls, Republican primary candidate Rick Santorum couldn’t hold back the religious zeal. President Obama’s agenda is motivated by things not quite Christian the former senator from Pennsylvania charged in a recent campaign stop in Ohio.“It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible, a different theology,” he said. “But no less a theology.” My, my, what could the homeschooling Roman Catholic mean? Surely not the Big Lie that the President is a Muslim, an idea that served as the red meat of Tea Party attack dogs since Obama won the White House. No, perish the thought. The darling of the far right simply meant that the President was “imposing his values on the church, and I think that’s wrong.” Sure, just a philosophical and scholarly difference of opinion on health care policy and the First Amendment, coincidentally stuck smack down in the middle of a presidential campaign. Santorum even generously conceded that –wink, wink,– “if the president says he’s a Christian, he’s a Christian.”
Like a good limbo dance, one wonders how low Santorum can go in bending over backwards to appease the unappeasable right-wing fundamentalist base, and, in this year’s Republican race to the bottom campaign, that’s saying something. We thought “Idea Man” Newt Gingrich was the show stopper with his kids janitorial corps, but we then looked on wide-eyed as Constitutional scholar, Rick Perry, revealed to us that everything from public schools to Medicare is unconstitutional in his book. Couple that with his call for Texas Secession and we thought we’d seen everything. Not hardly, we now have Rick Santorum, whose presidential campaign is beginning to look like a papal conclave. All that’s missing is some shiny red satin beanies and the “smoke watch” parties around the Sistine Chapel’s chimney.
You would think that a guy with both an undergrad and law degree from Penn State could find a copy of the Constitution or maybe just a book on Thomas Jefferson. Apparently, they are as scarce around Happy Valley as babysitting jobs for former Penn State coach and accused child molester, Jerry Sandusky. Let me help out. Article IV, Paragraph three of the U.S. Constitution provides that:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
This is a new movement, as embodied by people like James Dobson or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, who call for the creation of a Christian state, who talk about attaining secular power. And they are more properly called dominionists or Christian reconstructionists, although it’s not a widespread term, but they’re certainly not traditional fundamentalists and not traditional evangelicals. They fused the language and iconography of the Christian religion with the worst forms of American nationalism and then created this sort of radical mutation, which has built alliances with powerful right-wing interests, including corporate interests, and made tremendous inroads over the last two decades into the corridors of power.
Hedges sees the effort as a Mass Movement and one he deems “the most
dangerous in American History.” The former New York Times war correspondent also sees an ominous endgame:
I mean, essentially, when you follow the logical conclusion of the ideology they preach, there really are only two options for people who do not submit to their authority. And it’s about submission, because these people claim to speak for God and not only understand the will of God, but be able to carry it out. Either you convert, or you’re exterminated. That’s what the obsession with the End Times with the Rapture, which, by the way, is not in the Bible, is about. It is about instilling — it’s, of course, a fear-based movement, and it’s about saying, ultimately, if you do not give up control to us, you will be physically eradicated by a vengeful God.
Hedges echoes the Founders in his concerns about the threat of take over of secular government by theocratic factions. No less an expert on religious factionalism than Thomas Jefferson warned us about elevating ecclesiastical law over democracy:
[If] the nature of … government [were] a subordination of the civil to the ecclesiastical power, I [would] consider it as desperate for long years to come. Their steady habits [will] exclude the advances of information, and they [will] seem exactly where they [have always been]. And there [the] clergy will always keep them if they can. [They] will follow the bark of liberty only by the help of a tow-rope. (Thomas Jefferson, to Pierrepont, Edwards, July 1801, quoted from Eyler Robert Coates, Sr., “Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government: Freedom of Religion”)
In a sense, Santorum’s comments may be spot on. Obama does come from a philosophical position far different that Santorum and his ilk. While Santorum bases his politics in Biblical revelation, Obama comes from the perspective of the rule of law and reason. As most political observers over the centuries have noted, this is a collision course with religiosity. It was James Madison who deduced the antagonism in the American context:
I must admit moreover that it may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to a usurpation on one side or the other or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them will be best guarded against by entire abstinence of the government from interference in any way whatever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order and protecting each sect against trespasses on its legal rights by others. (Letter Rev. Jasper Adams, Spring 1832).
Amen, Brother Madison. Amen.
Can fundamentalist religion and secular democracy co-exist, or are they on an inevitable collision course? What do you think?
Source: New York Times
~Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Santorum Defends ‘Phony Theology’ Remarks, Doubles Down On Religious Critique Of Obama
By Joshua Hersh
Posted: 2/19/12
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/19/santorum-phony-theology_n_1287475.html
Excerpt;
A more congenial Rick Santorum doubled down on several controversial, and religiously laden, remarks in an interview Sunday morning on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” where he defended his recent claims that prenatal testing results in abortions, that federally provided education was “anachronistic,” and that President Obama’s policies are not “based on the Bible.”
“I’ve repeatedly said I don’t question the president’s faith,” Santorum told host Bob Schieffer, denying what some have said was a signal that Santorum had challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s Christianity. “I’ve repeatedly said that I believe the president’s Christian — he says he’s Christian. But I am talking about his worldview, the way he addresses problems in this country, and they’re different than most people view it in America.”
In a speech to Tea Party conservatives on Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, Santorum had dismissed Obama’s politics as being based in “some phony theology.”
“It’s not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs,” Santorum said. “It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.”
An incredulous Bob Schieffer began his interview with Santorum Sunday by asking, “What in the world were you thinking?”
“I was talking about the radical environmentalists,” Santorum said, suggesting that they believe man should protect the earth, rather than “steward its resources.” “I think that is a phony ideal. I don’t believe that’s what we’re here to do … We’re not here to serve the earth. That is not the objective, man is the objective.”
A quick look at the recent historical background of the Catholic Church; how the conservative backlash to Vatican II and Pope John XXIII has reasserted itself in the iron fist, misogynistic structure existing today. Who can doubt that this bunch can find common cause with others hellbent on subjugating women and generally undoing the enlightenment.
http://firedoglake.com/2012/02/19/remember-vatican-ii/
Mark quotes Hedges’ book:
(emphasis added). This is the DNA of Mithaism, which was an ancient Persian, then later Roman christian-lookalike, embraced primarily by Roman rulers and soldiers.
When I checked, once upon a time, there were about 450 denominations in the land of churchianity.
They all tend to think they have the perfect truth, and are quite willing to start the perfect storm over their belief.
They even go so far as jihad against education, pontificating that it is a left wing conspiracy.
Christianity, as we know it, got its big push back in 313AD from Constantine I. At the time there were several different Christian sects all refusing to participate in the Imperial Cult (many gods) and thus subjected to sporadic and localized persecutions for treason during the previous two-three centuries.
Constantine changed all that by legalizing Christian worship as practiced by one of the small sects to which his mother belonged in 313AD and, although he never formally converted and wasn’t baptized till he died, Christianity became the official state religion of the Roman Empire.
What Constantine saw in Christianity had nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with “the Christ” (resurrected Jesus). The problem with Paganism was multiple gods. Multiple gods leads to multiple kings/emperors. One God that could be amended to include the man, Jesus, and The Holy Ghost, henceforth to be know as the Trinity (three in one – officially declared as orthodoxy in 325AD) meant one king/emperor whose job it was to ensure that God was properly worshiped in his empire and all other kings/emperors could be decreed as “pagans”.
Constantine bastardized and used Christianity to consolidate his power. Christianity became the state religion and Constantine the only legitimate ruler.
The Founding Fathers recognized all this and separated religion from the state. Fundamentalists like Santorum are simply trying to re-Constantine Christianity in order to solidify their own power over others through non-secular government. It’s a basic weakness built into Christianity starting in 313AD and continuing through 2012.
Woosty,
That is an amazing video clip. so true!
“All that’s missing is some shiny red satin beanies . . .” Actually I think I see little Ricky in the picture, way in the back . . .
http://i1.nyt.com/images/2012/02/19/world/19dolan2-span/19dolan2-span-hpMedium.jpg
Frankly, above at 9:09, makes a good point that ” I’m old enough to remember a time when Catholics were ridiculed and hated in the Protestant majority”
Really, it has seemed, that there are no two more incongruent bedfellows than Catholics and evangelicals. But we were wrong. Call it a marriage of convenience perhaps, but it’s still hard to get the mind around it. What galls me, and I have no particular religious dog in this fight, is how over the years “Christian” has been expropriated to mean evangelical. Cathoics used to try to leverage that charge,them being “the one true church” and all. That at least had some historical salience, but now the Catholics are making common cause with the snake handlers who invent a new church every time they find a vacant lot.
We all think this is not going to play well in the general election. But when I notice how absurdly shallow and transparent this country has become, I can imagine some really heavy duty marketing that could encourage a lot of folks to jump on the rapture express.
Although Pennsylvania reject Santorum as senator because they couldn’t stomach his wacko religiosity, maybe things have changed so much that’s millenialism is the new normal. Exceptionalism sure seems to be.
Madison is rolling over in his grave.
And thanks, Mark, for an excellent post.
Great stuff there, Woosty!
“you will be physically eradicated by a vengeful God”
——————————————————————-
so, ahhhh, keep your mouth shut and do what we say or fuggeddaboutit….
Ho Hum,
These Republicans and Democrats are all the same. Obama is just like Bush. I’m going to vote for the Green Party candidate to show them my revolutionary message. Yeah that’s the ticket. It’ll teach all those fools who don’t have my superior insight a good lesson.
people with real, substantial belief, have no need to IMPOSE.
Respect is so lacking in our society right now.
Why would we, as a nation, be so drawn to mirroring these fundamental movements? I can only think that it is because our elected officials have failed to uphold OUR Constitutional State of freedom…including personal freedom, to be free from oppression, slavery, which guarantees us the right to our property without trickery and deceit from a government that would have us abused by every corporation and religious bully that ever walked the face of the earth….
Abortion is what is needed ….NEEDED….because those assholes are not trustworthy towards women, young boys, other men, other countries, ….HELP! HELP! HELP!!!!!!!
Here’s the thing….oh, nevermind…..
Like a good limbo dance, one wonders how low Santorum can go in bending over backwards to appease the unappeasable right-wing fundamentalist base, …….
—————————————————————
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-4f_NMUxcY&feature=related
I am praying for an Exorcism of our entire political process……it’s making the Country sick…..
AY,
I can’t provide a direct link, but go to http://www.oursilverribbonblog.org. On the search bar put type ‘Santorum and abortion’. Scroll down to second story “Our abortion was different.”
They use all kinds of weasal words to deny it was an abortion, but bottom line is it was either give Karen Santorum antibiotics knowing it would kill the source of the infection (fetus) or she would die. My problem isn’t their choice of action, it’s that they would deny that choice to everyone else.
SwM,
I can hear the dialogue:
“We can’t have a dog that poops down the whole car. It won’t do.”
“But Mom….”
“We’ll just have to “retire” him. You know, fix him a “farm”. Something. Right now!”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57372043-503544/romney-continues-republican-line-of-attack-on-obama-over-religious-liberty/
“you will be physically eradicated by a vengeful God”
This alone is reason enough to abjure zealots. And yet for the pleasure of being threatened with divine rage, we allow these people tax exempt status.
Magic-thinking and 2012 do not mix. It will far worse in 2013, and thereafter.