Outside View: Paradise lost

BRICK, N.J., March 1 (UPI) -- Rick Santorum recently defended a statement he made last October in which he said that after reading President John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 speech about the separation of church and state, "I almost threw up."

Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who is seeking the GOP's nomination for president, said his disagreement with Kennedy came from the line in Kennedy's speech that read, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute."

"The idea that the church should have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical of the objectives and vision of our country," Santorum said on ABC's "This Week."

The last refuge of a scoundrel is said to be patriotism. The true last refuge of a scoundrel is to introduce religion into our country's body politic.

Our country has always managed, miraculously, with tenacity, to keep the necessary distance between the two. A scoundrel, a true scoundrel, will ignore this most fundamental precept necessary for our society to remain unburdened of religious absolutism. We are witness to the consequence of this failure now in Afghanistan.

The imposition of religious belief on a democratic secular society is a treacherous undertaking. The very nature of our society demands that we exercise great caution and have the wisdom to know enough to exercise great caution, in attempting to impose so alien a concept as religious belief upon a society based upon logic and law.

Religion is the antithesis of democracy. There is no support for equality in most Western religions; there is instead a rigid hierarchy. The common faithful aren't permitted to exercise arcane ritual, only the ordained. There is no popular vote on church dogma by an electorate drawn from the flock.

Santorum has denigrated John F. Kennedy. A courageous, if utterly stupid thing for a politician to do in a country where it seems, every third street, a staggering number of high schools, dozens of major highways, the nation's principal airport, as well as the nation's space center, bear his name.

Santorum is a Roman Catholic. Kennedy was a Roman Catholic. Santorum is remarkably ignorant of the many indignities, the man he denigrates for his lack of religious fervor, suffered because of adherence to his faith.

Kennedy was attacked during his candidacy for the presidency for his supposed allegiance to the pope in Rome. Kennedy went to extraordinary lengths to dispel any fear the American electorate might have of his presumed allegiance to a pope. Kennedy did this in a remarkable speech that was typical of a man clearly possessed of the intellectual vigor necessary to hold the office of the president.

Perhaps Santorum, who has displayed no such evidence of intellectual competence, and who now says we should remain uneducated, rather than appear as snobs, should have read the speech and, more importantly, understood it.

Kennedy delivered his eloquent remarks on Sept. 12, 1960, to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a group of Protestant ministers.

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.

"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."

This in very plain terms clearly articulated and unambiguous, is what our country is.

We have become the country we are and the people we are because of these beliefs. The millions of people who came to this country from other places came here because where they came from didn't allow them to believe in these things. They suffered terribly because they did.

Santorum's tedious ignorance of what inspired the U.S. Constitution and the beliefs of those who crafted it is burdensome.

--

(Morgan Strong is a former professor of Middle Eastern history and political science. He was an adviser to CBS News' "60 Minutes" on the Middle East.)

--

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)