We Need a President, Not a Pope
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I understand Rick Santorum running for president as a former senator, and as someone with both law and political science degrees.
What's less clear to me is this whole "Christian Crusader/Don Quixote tilting at windmills" persona. That's what it looks like - Rick Santorum out to slay imaginary or misidentified dragons to win the hearts of the fair Desdemona, as played by the religious right.
Last Sunday Santorum decried the separation of church and state, exclaiming, "What kind of country do we live in that says only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up."
"Evangelical Christians" love to play that persecution card, but can anyone seriously believe that atheists are overrepresented in "the public square"? When's the last time you heard a serious presidential candidate say that he or she didn't believe in God? When's the last time you heard a serious candidate for any public office say that?
Recently Santorum passed judgment on President Obama's "agenda," saying, "It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your jobs. It's about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible - a different theology." He later backpedaled, saying that he believed the president was a Christian of a "different stripe."
Santorum's recent remarks were not his first foray into judging Obama's Christian credentials. When asked in 2008 if he believed that Obama was a sincere liberal Christian, Santorum responded that he didn't believe there was such a thing.
He added, "To take what is plainly written and say that 'I don't agree with that, therefore I don't have to pay attention to it,' means you're not what you say you are. You're a liberal something, but you're not a Christian."
That's an amazing statement.
The idea that liberal ideology and Christianity are mutually exclusive might come as a shock to legions of better credentialed Christians than Rick Santorum. If the liberation theology, the raising up of the dispossessed, as practiced by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa, is out of step with contemporary conservative Christian theology, that's hardly something to brag about. Then there's that "what's plainly written" part.
Some people speak derisively about "smorgasbord Christians," people who pick and choose what they believe from the Bible. But the fact is that we all do it. There is just too much in the book for which there is no rational interpretation, verses that even the most ardent fundamentalists ignore.
For instance, we don't submit our rebellious sons to elders to be stoned to death. We frown on buying people, whether they come from our country or another. It's acceptable now to wear clothes made of more than one fabric and to eat shellfish. It seems the biblical laws we pay the most attention to are the ones that nine-tenths of us were already predisposed to abide by - and they're useful primarily for the exclusion of the other tenth.
Nobody lives in accordance to a literal interpretation of the Bible, and nobody has an exclusive claim to the correct interpretation of the book. We should be chary of using it to pass judgment on others.
Of course, there's more at work here. The religious right, which has significant misgivings with regard to Romney, Gingrich and Paul, is an invaluable block for a candidate in pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination - which helps explain how Santorum can admit that his religious aspersions distract from more pressing concerns in one breath, and then double down on them in the next. But he does this too easily for it to be purely political calculation.
So how do those of us whose faith he judges as specious, at best, regard the new self-anointed defender of the faith?
Rick Santorum is Christian, as best as he is given to understand it. If that sounds like damning by faint praise, I would submit that it is how I regard my own faith and that of any other person who is drawn to faith - any faith. Ultimately, that relation to a higher power, that journey to an understanding of faith, is a personal one.
I appreciate anyone who seeks The Divine. I am wary of anyone who speaks for The Divine.
We need jobs. We need to revive the middle class. We need a president, not a pope.
Kevin Smith lives in Aberdeen. Contact him at kevinasmith@ gmx.com.
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Comments
SH59 1 year, 2 months ago
"We need a president, not a pope." Great article, thank you Kevin.
bufordsplay 1 year, 2 months ago
I really don't care what Obama believes unless it affects the future of our country. The fact that the Obamas sat it Rev. Wright's church listening to that bigoted, hate filled rhetoric for twenty years should have disqualified him from the White House in the eyes of the voters. The fact that it did not shows that the core of his supporters are dispicable human beings. The rest are just ignorant of who he and his wife are. Either way they must be defeated or this country is going to experience things we never thought we would. Youre right Mr. Smith, we do need a President because we certainly have not had one in the past three years.
dustyrhoades 1 year, 2 months ago
Good piece, Kevin.
I'm actually glad Santorum's gotten his turn as the ABM (anybody but Mitt) frontrunner. He's done as much to help Obama as the improving economy, because he absolutely cannot stay on message. Ask him a question about contraception or morality, and he's off to the races, doing the type of sanctimonious holier than thou preaching that turns off female voters, moderates and independents.
Run, Rick, Run!
Bigguy 1 year, 2 months ago
I remember watching Michael Moore on Sean Hannity(honestly I don't like either) it was on a Monday evening, Moore aske Hannity if he went to church Sunday, Hannity said that he did. Moore asked him what the sermon was on, Hannity honestly couldn't tell him anything about the sermon. That being said a lot of people will sit in church and not really pay attention to the preacher, doesn't mean they are not "true Christians".
bufordsplay 1 year, 2 months ago
harleyman your response is typical of a Liberal. Instead of addressing what I said with a rational retort based on facts, You call me a loonie.If you had to prove that Obama is not an anti American radical and I was to prove the case that he is, your road would be much more difficult than mine. Remember,the British called Churchill crazy when he was warning of the intentions of the Germans in the 1930s.
bufordsplay 1 year, 2 months ago
Bigguy, Thats a pretty lame defence. How about the fact that he idolized Farrakhan?
jimt 1 year, 2 months ago
Something weird happened in Michigan. Santorum did much better among fundamentalist evangelical Protestants than he did among Catholics, which is his faith. I find it weird because three years ago Santorum addressed the flock of the Ave Maria University in Florida, where he stated: “We look at the shape of mainline protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.” He saying that Protestants are not really Christians anymore. There is tape of this. Why Romney's SuperPac did not blanket the airwaves with this 24/7 in the days before the primary is a mystery to me.
Mythreekids 1 year, 2 months ago
I listen daily to the rhetoric of both sides and those somewhere in between. I find a lot of it significantly similar to that rhetoric for decades of Strom Thurman..a leading segregationist from South Carolina, who at the same time parented a daughter who just happened to be from a black mother...grossly hypocritical. Of course, the secret was kept for the most part until his death. My greatest imagination goes to how history will reflect on this time in our lives 30 years down the road. What secrets will be revealed of those who spew all the garbage. The one thing I understand about my faith is that Christ never forced his way in. He allowed followers to choose. Is that so hard to understand. I believe people choose to eat pork, they choose to drink alcohol, they choose to use drugs. They choose to go to church or not to go. I respect those who choose to exercise their rights to choose what they believe, what they do in their personal lives, etc. Rush Limbaugh has chosen to exhibit characteristics that I abhor. But I have to respect his right to choose.
dustyrhoades 1 year, 2 months ago
Well what we really have is a thoecracy in power now, one Barry Soetero aka Barrack Hussein Obama who predicates what will be the new morality-gay marriage, government sponsored birth control, ad nauseam...the new morality of eco marxism, where profit and capitalism are evilllread people read! The Republicans are the liberals! Reallly!
by dustyrhoades
bufordsplay 1 year, 2 months ago
Harleyman nothing ever came of it because the press ignored it. Everybody around this man is a radical which means he shares their views. Obama has never even mentioned Van Jones by name even though he worked in Obama's White House. Jones is an admitted Communist who has called for the violent overthrow of the Government and is also a 9/11 truther. William Ayers told an undercover F.B.I. agent that if he and his followers ever got control of the Government that they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people who could not be "re-educated". I could go on and on. If these are people that Obama agrees with and supports and you support him then what does that say about you?
bufordsplay 1 year, 2 months ago
The fact is you can't argue with such stuff because its indefensible, thats my point. I have never cared where the man is from. He nor his wife should be any where near the White House.
bufordsplay 1 year, 2 months ago
As far as the Republicans beating the Rev Wright issue to death, they did so because Obama's assertion that he was not aware of Wright's views was beyond disbelief. He titled one of his book after one of his sermons.
dustyrhoades 1 year, 2 months ago
bufords: That horse is dead since 2008, you should really stop beating it.
nothingspecial 1 year, 2 months ago
Kevin Smith, I think an important point that Mr. Santorum's speeches bring up absent all the political twisting of the left, is that there is a threshold between holding Christian values and truly being able to call one's self a Christian which is pretty basic. For most Christians that threshold is the belief that Abortion is right or wrong.
Love that great line you used up there too that can be applied to practically any politician from either side these days:
____Crusader/Don Quixote tilting at windmills persona. That's what it looks like - ___ __ out to slay imaginary or misidentified dragons to win the hearts of the fair Desdemona, as played by the ___.
fugitiveguy 1 year, 2 months ago
"The fact that the Obamas sat it Rev. Wright's church listening to that bigoted, hate filled rhetoric for twenty years should have disqualified him from the White House in the eyes of the voters."
If he had been a conservative listening to a preacher talking the same smack about one of many protected groups, 2 Sundays and he would have been history. The libs would have had a cow. Can you imagine the whining and hand wringing that would have taken place. It would have been on the news 24/7.
fugitiveguy 1 year, 2 months ago
" bufords: That horse is dead since 2008, you should really stop beating it."
From those who will beat the dead horse named Bush long after he is just a pile of assorted bones.
SH59 1 year, 2 months ago
Going back to the article "We need jobs. We need to revive the middle class. We need a president, not a pope." hits the nail on the head. Kevin Smith was right on.
fugitiveguy 1 year, 2 months ago
I'm not sure we really need a president, I mean things have gone fairly well for the past 3 years.
jimt 1 year, 2 months ago
Methinks that once The Pilot's site monitors take a look at the wit and wisdom (sic) of bannertowing he will soon be joining Prometheus, among others, in the "blocked" fraternity.
dustyrhoades 1 year, 2 months ago
Nah, they've pulled out. This place is like Deadwood in that HBO show now.
Thatcher 1 year, 2 months ago
fugitiveguy-- When you argue with folks who say, "That horse is dead since 2008, you should really stop beating it," just remember these are the same folks who repeat that the debate on man-made global warming (or anything else) "is over." Really? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/8786565/War-of-words-over-global-warming-as-Nobel-laureate-resigns-in-protest.html. This business of (by fiat) saying "the debate is over" is hilarious, and comes almost entirely from liberals who do not want to talk about anything which differs from their world-view. Especially facts about the good Rev. Wright...a guy who Obama barely knows. Stop beating that dead horse, fugitiveguy.
JustThinking 1 year, 2 months ago
I still say, it IS a great idea to split the USA right down the middle! To the west coast goes the liberal dem.'s! And to the east coast live the Conservative God loving decent people!!!! Great idea! Ah peace, peace at last!
jimt 1 year, 2 months ago
I would not lose a moment of sleep if the redist of the red states chose to leave the Union. No war this time, let's just say good-bye to: Utah, Idaho, TEXAS, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The other red states are somewhat pinkish, so they should stay in the Union, for now.
Arestorer 1 year, 2 months ago
So, should someone who claims to be a devout Christian, even consider the job of President of the United States ???
jimt 1 year, 2 months ago
I take back what I said about Nebraska, it can stay.
Arestorer 1 year, 2 months ago
I believe we do need a President, to run the country. That is the job,its not a Ministry..That being said, I am for a Christian being President...But they have to give to Caesar,what is Caesars.(or something to that effect) "Seperation of Church and State"
AFCHIEF 1 year, 2 months ago
Unfortunatley we currently have in the White House. Golfer In Command, Beer Summit in Command, Vacationer In Command, Campaigner in Command, anything but a leader!!!
geoffcutler 1 year, 2 months ago
"We need a President..." Boy...do we ever!
marathonman 1 year, 2 months ago
It is very hard to try to read the comments of those on the left attempting to justify what this Pres has done to the country and then avoiding the direction we are headed. You quote stats and quotes that are in a context to support your opinions. If Obama is re-elected, we will be on the downslope headed for hell. Most of you make me sick with your support without opening your eyes to the decline of the World's first true democracy. I do find that our Congress is running amuck and needs to be reigned in by a true conservative who will hold spending to an minimum, reform Welfare, amend Social Security as a catch all, balance the budget, put people back into a position where they determine their own futures without being able to fall back on go'mint support without limits. We have a society now that seems to be more dependent than self reliant. Unless or until we restore values, self determination and spend no more than we make - we are doomed.
Arestorer 1 year, 2 months ago
The Election is for President, not Dictator...Why do some of you keep thinking that one man can make the changes you talk about....He will still have to deal with Congress and the House. I believe this is where most of our problem lie...These are the ones we should be getting rid of...
Courseaire 1 year, 2 months ago
Arestorer - Right on Bro!!!
JER 1 year, 2 months ago
Arestorer: I agree.
JER 1 year, 2 months ago
geoffcutler: got any recommendations? I didn't think so.
JER 1 year, 2 months ago
AFCHIEF and wdd101st: Re George W. Bush...I guess you heard that the guy who was his celebrity look-a-like just died. When George read the news, he went to his local mortuary and turned himself in.
geoffcutler 1 year, 2 months ago
Not your business, JER, just not what we have.
visigrad 1 year, 2 months ago
This kind of leftist venom is the reason I NEVER BUY this rag.....
JER 1 year, 2 months ago
geoffcutler: "Not your business, JER, just not what we have." So my conclusion..."I didn't think so." was correct. You have no idea who of the fearsome foursome you can possibly justify voting for. I'll assume that you are in the camp that is expecting a "saviour" to jump in at the last minute and save the day for the rapidly dissolving Republican party. Your "ANYBODY BUT OBAMA" stance tells me that you are all talk about your concern for this country. If you think that ANYONE would be an improvement, you are simply a zombie following orders from your handlers. I had at least given you more credit than that.