A mini-post on Rick Santorum and the Wrongness of the Religious Right

First a quick disclaimer. I understand this post is very U.S.-centric, and that it is mainly about an American who we (hopefully) will never have to deal with in the antipodes. But upon hearing some of the stuff I comment on below, I just couldn’t help myself. The U.S. religious right are just so much more amusing than our brand of Christian crazies over here. I am however open to any suggestions people might have as to who I should turn my attentions to here in Australia, but until then, enjoy:

Rick Santorum: 53 and still needs to label his cloths...

I was reading this great article over at Al-Jazeera about the American presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. It focuses particularly on his religious views, as he so often brings them into not only his public life but also his official one, stating such things as:

Comparing gay marriage, to beastiality;

“In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing.”

Arguing for the state to be able to limit consensual sex (whether it be gay or unmarried);

“The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire. And we're seeing it in our society”

Claiming that Satan controls Academia, and has it bent for evil;

“The place where he was, in my mind, the most successful, and first successful, was in academia. He understood pride of smart people. He attacked them at their weakest, that they were in fact smarter than everybody else, and could come up with something new and different, pursue new truths, deny the existence of truth, play with it, because they're smart. And so academia, a long time ago, fell.”

And linking problems funding Social Security to the labour loss from abortions;

“The reason Social Security is in big trouble is we don't have enough workers to support the retirees. Well, a third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion, because one in three pregnancies end in abortion.”

The man has a lot to say, and it’s pretty obvious where his motivations come from.

Around about two thousand years ago it seems.

Needless to say, he is making good headway in the Republican primaries despite originally polling as a third tier nominee, and this late surge appears to be largely due to his conservatism; in particular his conservative religious views. This piece by Paul Rosenberg takes to heart some comments made by the former United States senator regarding the theology of Obama, and how Rick questions the religion he follows (they are both Christians, just different flavours). The author decided to turn Santorum’s inquisitional spotlight back on him, and promptly tears him apart as not only a hypocrite, but also a religiously motivated opportunist.

Anyhow for those interested in how the Republican race to try for president is going, I recommend you read it, but for those less interested, I will get to the true crux of this post.

The start of the article questions how much not only Rick Santorum, but also the religious right in general, actually follow their supposed religious principles. It uses the following quote from the Bible to highlight the disparity present in a lot of this conservatively based religion driven politics:

"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 
"But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."- Matthew 6:5-6

That’s right; it appears that at least in this portion of the Bible, Christians are implored to be modest and discrete in their prayers. They are told to confine it to their personal life, and perhaps not try and force it into schools for instance.

No doubt there are other sections of the Bible that take a different tack, and advocate aggressive prosthelytising. But hey, that’s the up side of having a religious text that was cobbled together over thousands of years, by many authors; you are able to pick and choose so that you can take on whatever contradictory views you like, and still feel a sense of divine authorisation.
Anyhow, that's was just a quick post to get me back into the swing of things after a long weekend of birthdays and buck's nights.
Hope you enjoyed it, see you in the comments.
MM