Devil in the details of 2008 Santorum political speech
Contention that Satan is targeting U. S. puts Republican under new scrutiny
WASHINGTON — The devil, you say.
Just when it seemed the Republican presidential race couldn’t yield any more true surprises — or become any more surreal — suddenly Satan is part of the political conversation.
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum is coming under new scrutiny over an old speech in which he said the United States was under threat from Lucifer himself.
“Satan has his sights on the United States of America,” Santorum told a Catholic university audience in 2008.
“Satan is attacking the great institutions of America — using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that [ have] so deeply rooted in the American tradition.”
The remarks, publicized this week by the Drudge Report and other websites, have sharpened the focus on religious and cultural issues within Republican circles just as the party’s presidential contenders grapple with how to respond to an improving U. S. economy.
It also has given supporters of Mitt Romney, who is struggling to contain Santorum’s recent surge in the polls, an opening to raise questions about his rival’s appeal beyond the evangelical base of the Republican party.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of Romney’s most prominent backers, on Wednesday warned the Republican against making religion or faith central to the 2012 presidential campaign.
“Do I think it’s the thing we should be, as a party, talking about and emphasizing at the moment? No,” Christie told ABC’S Good Morning America.
Santorum’s remarks at Ave Maria University in Florida in August 2008 were part of a discourse on the erosion of moral values that he saw in American sports and entertainment culture.
“This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war at all. This is a spiritual war,” said Santorum. “And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies, Satan, would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country: the United States of America.”
Santorum, a conservative Catholic, also expressed the view that mainline Protestant churches in America had drifted away from the Judeo- Christian ethic on which America was founded.
“If we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country … it is a shambles. It is gone from the world of Christianity,” he said.
Santorum is standing by the speech, saying he believes in “good and evil” and that hardly should disqualify him from being president.
Santorum has raised the issue of religious faith and personal values throughout his campaign for the Republican nomination. His faithbased views against abortion and homosexuality have won him the endorsement of a coalition of evangelical leaders.
Last weekend, he accused U. S. President Barack Obama of following a “phoney theology” that placed stewardship of the Earth above the needs of mankind.
With the economy getting better, I think the Republican field is seeing that they will have to differentiate themselves from President Obama on a wider range of questions.
MATTHEW WILSON SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY
“Santorum is a Catholic who speaks a language that evangelicals are comfortable with, whether it is talking about spiritual warfare or whether it is talking about the moral decline of America,” said Matthew Wilson, who teaches religion and politics at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “These are themes that resonate with evangelicals.”
But Santorum could benefit from “message discipline” to lessen the risk of alienating moderate Republicans or independent voters he will need to woo if he wins the Republican nomination, he said.
“What a large number of Americans want from a president is innocuous Christianity,” Wilson said. “They want a president who professes a religious faith without any hard edges — a president whose religious faith is worn rather lightly.”
Santorum has surged to the top of national Republican polls following victories two weeks ago in presidential nominating contests in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado.
The next two primaries are set for Feb. 28 in Michigan and Arizona, with poll results showing Santorum holding a narrow lead in the former state and Romney ahead by a small margin in the latter.
Santorum and, to a lesser extent Romney, lately have shifted their campaign messages from the economy to social issues, such as contraception, as U. S. unemployment numbers have improved.
“With the economy getting better, I think the Republican field is seeing that they will have to differentiate themselves from President Obama on a wider range of questions,” said Wilson.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin accused the media of manufacturing controversy over Santorum’s Satan speech.
“For these lame- stream media characters to get all wee- weed up about that, first you have to ask yourself, ‘ Have they ever attended a Sunday school class even?’ ” Palin said on Fox News, where she is a commentator.
Wilson agreed there is a “media role” in the prominence given to statements about religion and faith by Republican candidates.
“Social issues are the domain where the values of most folks in the media are most sharply at odds with the Republican electoral base, and where the conservative positions that Republicans hold are going to seem to media elites to be most outlandish,” he said.