Santorum Says Kennedy Speech Almost Made Him “Throw Up”
Rick Santorum this week renewed his past statement that he “almost threw up” while reading a seminal speech by John F. Kennedy on the separation of church and state.
Then-candidate Kennedy was facing serious concerns that he would be a puppet leader for the Pope. (Kennedy was the first, and is so far the only, Catholic US president. Santorum is also Catholic.) In 1960, he addressed these concerns directly in a speech to an assembly of Protestant ministers in Houston, vowing not to bring religion into his official public duties, and asking the ministers and the country to show the same consideration:
“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 don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum told ABC’s George Stephanopoulus on Sunday. “The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.”
When pressed about his throwing up comment, Santorum said “yes, absolutely,” he felt like that while reading the speech.
[Source: Washington Post]
