Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Devil of a Mess

Rush Limbaugh is not happy with Rick Santorum’s Satan speech.

“It’s part of the predictable attempt to impugn Santorum as an absolute religious nut and wacko,” El Rushbo says. “But he did say these things and he’ll have to have an answer...I don’t know. It’s just not the kind of stuff you hear a presidential candidate talk about.”

Ahead of tonight’s debate, Santorum is trying to explain away what he told Catholic students only four years ago: “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.”

Now, the candidate insists, “These are questions that are not relevant to what’s being discussed in America today. What we’re talking about in America today is trying to get America growing.”

Lots of luck with that, but perhaps even more troubling is that Santorum has opened a Pandora’s box of religiosity, and the usual clerical suspects are all over TV, mouthing off about whether Mormons are Christians and rehashing claims that the President is a Muslim because his father was.

Talking about fathers, the Rev. Billy Graham’s son is getting face time on cable, questioning both Romney’s and Obama’s Christian credentials on those scores.

Franklin Graham comes by such beliefs as an inheritance. In tapes released a few years ago made on the eve of the Great Unindicted Co-Conspirator’s abrupt departure from office, the Rev. Billy can be heard telling Nixon, "Congratulations on everything," and "I believe the Lord is with you."

In that conversation, the pastor of presidents agrees with Nixon’s low assessment of American Jews and calls them members of “the synagogue of Satan.”

For true believers, God may be omnipotent, but Satan gets around in modern America.

1 comment:

daniel noe said...

I just looked up Santorum's speech and listened to the whole thing. It seems he is introducing a historical narrative of cultural decay and proposing a theory that Satan is behind it. This isn't exactly controversial. I can't imagine any non-atheists having any objections to that.

He goes further by claiming that because the USA is such an important target, and because most people here are protestant, it was the protestant churches that were attacked more so than the catholic church. Whether he also believes that the catholic church is not in shambles, or whether he believes it is in shambles in countries with more catholic influence (I'm sure Satan isn't restricted only to the US) isn't clear, but is hardly important.

I hope this explained things.

Personally, I'd like to hear more details of specifically, in what ways, he believes these churches to be in shambles. Also, I'd like to hear his response to the specific ways that the catholic culture has contributed to the loss of liberty and prosperity in the US. I can think of a few.