Santorum: Satan has taken over America (2008 speech)

[ajb]

If Santorum is the nominee, he'll have to spend a great deal of time this fall talking about why contraception is sinful, why homosexuality is equivalent to bestiality, and why the Episcopalian Church is a minion of Satan.
Personally, I think that could be kind of entertaining. But Republicans should be sure that that's what they really want.

[ajb]

"Santorum to Mainline Protestants: You Are Satan’s Spawn"

He said nothing of the sort. He really said "secularism in mainline churches is rising", and while that's the pot calling the kettle black, it is wholly non-offensive.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/santorum-satan-systematically-destroying-america

"He [the Father of Lies] was successful. He attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions. 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 you say "what could be the impact of academia falling?" Well, I would have the argument that the other structures that I'm going to talk about here had root of their destruction because of academia. Because what academia does is educate the elites in our society, educates the leaders in our society, particularly at the college level. And they were the first to fall.

And so what we saw this domino effect, once the colleges fell and those who were being education in our institutions, the next was the church. Now you’d say, ‘wait, the Catholic Church’? No. We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course 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. So they attacked mainline Protestantism, they attacked the Church, and what better way to go after smart people who also believe they’re pious to use both vanity and pride to also go after the Church."

[ajb]

Well, if you look at where the episcopalians are going and where the UMC is going and where the ELCA is going - how could you draw a different conclusion from Santorum?

I'm an ex-evangelical myself, and this talk is nothing strange. I left because of concerns that my denomination would carry down the exact same path, and it's already started to do the same. Left and sided with the whore of Babylon.

As for not appealing to evangelicals - this will solidify them, especially in the south (Baptists especially), who see things exactly the same way as Santorum. Same with the folks who are the conservatives in their respective denominations, particularly the lutherans.

The folks whom he's aiming at front and centre are the folks who have felt particularly dispossessed even by their own church. Instead of Rick saying - you folks don't matter - this is a direct shout out to them.

All of this makes perfect sense as a strategy in a Republican primary. But he'll have to talk about this stuff in a general election if he's the candidate.

The real problem in that context, I think, is the arrogance and presumptuousness, the claim that he knows what makes someone a real Christian, and that ordinary Americans aren't smart enough to figure it out for themselves.