Rick Santorum: Über-Religious but Lacks Humanity
Presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, thinks contraception is a danger to the country. He apparently feels the same about federal aid for the disabled. And the government should place limits on our wants and passions, he says. After all, gay sex is the same as incest or “man-on-dog” sex.
Other candidates bait the extreme right with nutty social issues but as Maureen Dowd points out, they do it “because it’s good politics; Santorum sincerely means it. His political philosophy is infused with his über-Catholicism but lacks humanity.”
Santorum wants to cut back on federal aid for the disabled. Instead, family, friends and neighbors can help.
But what if friends and family can’t afford the cost? Or refuse? If some suffer and die, well, too bad.
On another note, gays and lesbians must live lives of loneliness because God created marriage for procreation. Aside from the fact that many straight people have not procreated, what good comes from inflicting widespread loneliness?
And few Christians agree with Santorum on birth control. More than 99% of sexually active women have used contraceptives at some point. Birth control can even save lives when women’s bodies cannot tolerate pregnancy.
Many pursue religious ideals without humanity. The Spanish Inquisition tortured those who dissented. European and American religious zealots burned, crushed, and hung thousands of women accused of being devil worshiping witches. In parts of the Middle East today women are eagerly stoned to death.
I know some who are downright mean, but they won’t play cards, and especially not on Sunday, because that’s against their religion.
These individuals follow the letter of the law without catching its spirit, as if a selfish concern for their own rule-bound salvation trumps loving their neighbor.
Yet the greatest commandment of the Christian faith is to love God and second is like unto it: love your neighbor. I don’t see a whole lot of love in Santorum’s pious mindset.
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Posted on January 20, 2012, in feminism, gender, LGBTQ+, reproductive rights, sexism, women and tagged feminism, gender, LGBTQ+, religion, reproductive rights, Rick Santorum, sexism, women. Bookmark the permalink. 8 Comments.
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I think a lot of people misunderstand and misuse religion too often. Santorum is a prime example of that. He only picks and chooses what he likes best and wishes to impose these beliefs on others. What many people don’t realize is that God did not create marriage. Human’s created marriage, and the term is misused in the bible or rather misunderstood. It’s a shame that someone like Santorum is getting more power from these beliefs that that people fall into it. They forget the time period and culture the bible was written in and the context it was written in. I think Santorum is lost in the concept of religious superiority and has the mentality of a crusader; all infidels must conform to God’s will or they are devil driven. What’s sad is that Santorum is doing exactly what God commands not to do; using his name to gain power or abuse others.
True, the Bible also says women should veil and cease from wearing braids, gold, and pearls. Wonder when he’s going to start railing on that.
It is hard to believe an informed person would willingly harbor such kind of thoughts. It completely goes against maintaining respect and decorum among fellow humans. Coming from a camp that deeply values deregulation it is disgusting he suggests that the government have controls over peoples wants and desires. It is well within a person’s right to pursue avenues of pleasure as long as they are within legal bounds and do not harm any other being, and what a person decides to do their self,body and life is not to be determined some kind of authority.
Most of Rick Santorum’s political beliefs are one’s which hurt rather than help. He is intervening his faith with his politics; I am pretty sure that that policy should not be welcome in politics in the United States. His view regarding contraception is outrageous. He is not recognizing the thousands of benefits that birth control provides. I am sure that he is guilty of using contraception at some point in his life. And his justification for his opposition towards gay marriage or relationships is taking the individual freedoms of many people away. All humans should be treated with respect and love. Because you believe in a certain way of living does not mean that you should disregard the happiness of your neighbor. Rick Santorum should not and will not run this country. He has a closed mind and a mean heart.
Rick Santorum is a walking contradiction on so many levels. For one, he preaches that he believes every child should be given the right to be raised in a healthy and loving society, yet his very definition of a healthy society is one that is founded on exclusion and discrimination. What happens if a child grows up to be gay? In Rick Santorum’s eyes, that child would then become a second class citizen. To me, a healthy society is one that respects diversity. Rick Santorum clearly does not. His idea of what it means to be a loving and accepting Christian is so clouded and downright ignorant that I am just appalled he has even made it this far.
Should Rick Santorum be elected, the important issues (foreign policy, healthcare, etc) would go undiscussed, or at least poorly discussed, and the focus would be on eliminating people’s rights: the right to marriage, the right to birth control, the right to disability assistance. Rather than saying anything of substance, he spews hate and that hate is used to marginalize a huge percentage of the people he’s trying to govern over.
I grew up in the church, and it was this sort of hypocrisy that has kept me away since. Jesus taught love and the church taught hate. Rick Santorum is a toxic, misguided man who would do nothing but damage to this country and its social progress.
I agree completely with Andrew: it seems bizarre that, because of some “moral code,” people feel that they have to right to decide what other people can and can’t do.
I am continually amazed and horrified by the endless diatribe espoused by Rick Santorum. Ever since he arrived in Washington he has ruthlessly pursued a fundamentalist agenda devoted to undermining American civil rights and our constitutional right to privacy which is possibly the core value of American belief. He has stated that he does not believe in the right to privacy and claims that our federal government should legislate personal sexual behavior as well as restrict women’s access to contraception.
The “Santorum Amendment” was a part of his agenda to promote intelligent design theory which he calls “a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes” He later told NPR that he would like to use these arguments to dismantle the theory of evolution that is presently taught.
He has repeatedly reversed himself and has been labeled one of Washington’s “most corrupt politicians” by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. TIME magazine accused him of a “multi-billion dollar scam” in connection with a synthetic fuel tax credit that would have benefited some of his chums. He is known “inside the beltway”as a “stealth lobbyist”; serving on the board of Universal Health Services Inc. and other corporate boards for huge monetary gain. He is even a contributor for FOX News!
Santorum continues to be one of the most polarizing voices in American politics today. He continues to target women and the LGBT with horrible slander equating homosexuality with pedophilia and beastiality, claiming that feminism made it “socially affirming to work outside of the home” as if it were immoral. It is this unrelenting trumpeting of fundamentalist theology that he promotes as political policy which many have labeled hate speech and gives voice to organizations such as the Family Research Council that seek to demonize people .
I question why others think they have the right to dictate other peoples lives? For instance, gays and lesbians should not have to feel lonley or discriminated by others. Society and people with such power misunderstand and stereotypically look at gays in such a harsh way. Its disapointing to acknowledge the fact that there is no exceptence for certain types of individuals and for the choice of how people want to live their own lives. The way individuals construct their lifestyle isn’t applicable to what others think and should not matter for one. I believe that gays and lesbians or anyone of that matter should not be targeted or misunderstood by what society says or thinks, and to a certain extent there should be exceptence about what goes on about these types of issues we face today.