Santorum: “You’re Not A Christian”

[ProSense]

Santorum: “You’re Not A Christian”

By Ed Kilgore

Defenders of Rick Santorum are very angry that anyone would suggest his “phony theology” comments about the president represented an attack on a fellow Christian’s beliefs. Turns out he was a bit more direct about it in an appearance in 2008, as reported at the time by Beliefnet founder Steve Waldman (who passed along a link to his post):

After he’d accused Obama and other Democrats of religious fraudulance for a few minutes, journalist Terry Mattingly of GetReligion.org asked whether it’s possible that rather than being fake, perhaps, Obama was sincerely reflecting a form of liberal Christianity in the tradition of Reinhold Neibuhr. Santorum surprised me by answering that yes, “I could buy that.” However, he questioned whether liberal christianity was really, well, Christian. “You’re a liberal something, but you’re not a Christian.” He continued, “When you take a salvation story and turn it into a liberation story you’ve abandoned Christiandom and I don’t think you have a right to claim it.”

In other words, Obama’s faith is fraudulant in part because liberal Christianity is. I’ve come across this sentiment before. To a degree rarely discussed, many conservative Christians truly doubt both the theological truth and the spiritual authenticity of liberal Christians.

As it happens, the Santorum appearance Waldman wrote about occurred around the same time in 2008 as the Pennsylvanian’s now famous speech at Ave Maria University when he regaled his audience with a narrative of the ongoing war for America between true Christians and Satan. He sadly concluded that mainline Protestantism, which was “gone from the world of Christianity,” had already been lost to His Infernal Majesty. Clearly, the apostasy of liberal Protestants was on his mind at that time, perhaps because of the rise to national power of Barack Obama.

- more -

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_02/santorum_youre_not_a_christian035548.php

[bullwinkle428]

1. So declareth Pope Sanitorium the First.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Did I miss the part of the Bible that spells out the selling terms in the Christian Franchise

agreement that God and Son (LLC) gave conservatives? It really would be a big benefit if we could subpeona God and Son and get Them to share the details of the deal They made. This apparent unlimited licensing arrangement apparently allows conservatives to market and interpret the Christian faith dogma exclusively and at very nice profit margins. Now they're expanding into the secular socio-economic market, too? For a God who created the universe in 7 days, he was pretty lousy with sharing the legal docs.

[Justice wanted]

3. Ole Ricky Boy should take a GOOD LONG LOOK IN THE MIRROR!

[pipi_k]

4. Little Ricky's theme song...

[Vidar]

5. I've always appreciated Nietzche's comment on the subject: " The last real Christian died

on the cross."

[VWolf]

6. Change the punctuation. "Santorum, you're not a Christian!"

At least, not MY idea of a true Christian.

[Initech]

7. Grr... I'm so fucking sick of them bringing religion into it. P

This is how Taliban style governments are created.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Reminds me of that crazy wife swap Christian lady

Remember that video where she keeps shouting "They aren't Christian!!!"

[lpbk2713]

9. Holier than thou?

If he wants to set himself up as an example of how to live I know I've got it made.

[frogmarch]

10. What’s next from Santorum?

Proposing religious heresy laws?

Snips from U.S. History Timeline 1600-1700: http://faculty.washington.edu/qtaylor/a_us_history/1600_1799_timeline.htm

1636 - HARVARD FOUNDED - In June, Roger Williams founds Providence and Rhode Island. Williams had been banished from Massachusetts for "new and dangerous opinions" calling for religious and political freedoms, including separation of church and state, not granted under the Puritan rules. Providence then becomes a haven for many other colonists fleeing religious intolerance.

1638 - Anne Hutchinson is banished from Massachusetts for nonconformist religious views that advocate personal revelation over the role of the clergy. She then travels with her family to Rhode Island.


1646 - In Massachusetts, the general court approves a law that makes religious heresy punishable by death.

~~

I’d love it if Santorum were asked in a TV interview if he’d support religious heresy laws and maybe also the hanging of “witches.”

[Jester Messiah]

12. Ugh, morons like Sanctimonium make me so glad to be an atheist. [nt]