Rick Santorum is no Jack Kennedy.
And he wants everyone to know it.
(And the Millennial hordes won't even get that reference...oh well.)
I remember when I was a kid and Monty Python's "Every Sperm is Sacred" came out (in their movie The Meaning of Life). Back then, it was Catholics who were the oppressive religious extremists who wanted to take away everyone else's freedom. Back then, "Every Sperm is Sacred" was new and brave criticism of a powerful institution people had previously feared to criticize. It was a blow for freedom. (And feminism. Back when ordinary people actually understood and cared about feminism.) Back then...it actually applied. (As did their portrayal of Protestants. ;) And wow have Protestants changed since then!)
(BTW, Harry Potter fans, the clip is also a great time capsule of the image of England's Catholic north that was current as of the '80s. Because that's what the north of England actually *was* like when the Pythons were kids in the '40s. And when George Orwell wrote about it in the '30s.)
And then came the Protestant evangelicals. The most extreme of them (such as the Quiverfull movement) were so extreme that...well, read The Handmaid's Tale. When they began growing in numbers and people began paying them more attention, that is the world it seemed to Margaret Atwood that they wanted to create. (And well...that is the world the Dominionists want to create. According to the several Dominionists I know personally. And have observed sincerely arguing about whether it's stoning or burning that they should ultimately enshrine in law. Honestly? Decent, ordinary evangelicals need to disavow this movement.)
American Catholics meanwhile moved toward acceptance.
They became mainline.
And now comes Rick Santorum to ruin their image once again.
My father, in surprise: "Why, he's an old-fashioned conservative Catholic! Like when I was young." (AKA the '40s.)
You see, folks...people like Rick Santorum ARE WHY PEOPLE WERE AFRAID OF JACK KENNEDY IN THE FIRST PLACE! IOW... This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. (Just to be clear: My father is Catholic, my mom is Protestant, and I was raised as "nothing" and remain so -- but my surname makes people assume I'm Catholic. My partner was raised Catholic and is agnostic.)
Luckily we have Stephen Colbert (who is Catholic) pushing back.
Most American Catholics are not like Rick Santorum. Most American Catholics are not vicious, evil theocrats who hate America's founding principles and want to impose their religion on everyone else.
Most American Catholics are good, decent, ordinary Americans who are just trying to live their lives like anyone else. (And...98% of whom have used artificial birth control.)
From JFK's address to the Greater Houston Minesterial Association:
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....
I would not look with favor upon a president working to subvert the First Amendment's guarantees of religious liberty.
...I want a chief executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none; who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may appropriately require of him; and whose fulfillment of his presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or obligation.
This is the kind of America I believe in, and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe.
(And the Millennial hordes won't even get that reference...oh well.)
I remember when I was a kid and Monty Python's "Every Sperm is Sacred" came out (in their movie The Meaning of Life). Back then, it was Catholics who were the oppressive religious extremists who wanted to take away everyone else's freedom. Back then, "Every Sperm is Sacred" was new and brave criticism of a powerful institution people had previously feared to criticize. It was a blow for freedom. (And feminism. Back when ordinary people actually understood and cared about feminism.) Back then...it actually applied. (As did their portrayal of Protestants. ;) And wow have Protestants changed since then!)
(BTW, Harry Potter fans, the clip is also a great time capsule of the image of England's Catholic north that was current as of the '80s. Because that's what the north of England actually *was* like when the Pythons were kids in the '40s. And when George Orwell wrote about it in the '30s.)
And then came the Protestant evangelicals. The most extreme of them (such as the Quiverfull movement) were so extreme that...well, read The Handmaid's Tale. When they began growing in numbers and people began paying them more attention, that is the world it seemed to Margaret Atwood that they wanted to create. (And well...that is the world the Dominionists want to create. According to the several Dominionists I know personally. And have observed sincerely arguing about whether it's stoning or burning that they should ultimately enshrine in law. Honestly? Decent, ordinary evangelicals need to disavow this movement.)
American Catholics meanwhile moved toward acceptance.
They became mainline.
And now comes Rick Santorum to ruin their image once again.
My father, in surprise: "Why, he's an old-fashioned conservative Catholic! Like when I was young." (AKA the '40s.)
You see, folks...people like Rick Santorum ARE WHY PEOPLE WERE AFRAID OF JACK KENNEDY IN THE FIRST PLACE! IOW... This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. (Just to be clear: My father is Catholic, my mom is Protestant, and I was raised as "nothing" and remain so -- but my surname makes people assume I'm Catholic. My partner was raised Catholic and is agnostic.)
Luckily we have Stephen Colbert (who is Catholic) pushing back.
Most American Catholics are not like Rick Santorum. Most American Catholics are not vicious, evil theocrats who hate America's founding principles and want to impose their religion on everyone else.
Most American Catholics are good, decent, ordinary Americans who are just trying to live their lives like anyone else. (And...98% of whom have used artificial birth control.)
From JFK's address to the Greater Houston Minesterial Association:
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....
I would not look with favor upon a president working to subvert the First Amendment's guarantees of religious liberty.
...I want a chief executive whose public acts are responsible to all groups and obligated to none; who can attend any ceremony, service or dinner his office may appropriately require of him; and whose fulfillment of his presidential oath is not limited or conditioned by any religious oath, ritual or obligation.
This is the kind of America I believe in, and this is the kind I fought for in the South Pacific, and the kind my brother died for in Europe.