Religion has always been a rather controversial topic in politics. Most Republicans, like Santorum, have a rather negative attitude towards separating it from the state. While many Democrats, however, while acknowledging its value in American society, believe that faith should not interfere with any political deeds and processes. The following text will review two articles about the issue, the first depicting Rick Santorum’s position and the second describing Barack Obama’s views on the matter.
The Republican politician expressed his concerns about the separation of church and state. He was told by a responder at a conference call with STAND America that most of the deeds supported by the Democrats are in line with the Communist Manifesto, such as voter fraud, pornography and illegal immigration (Tashman, 2022). In response to that, Santorum stated that keeping religion and politics separate was not a part of the US Constitution, while being a part of the Soviet one, where he believes it belonged.
Moreover, he told Pastor E. W. Jackson that Barack Obama failed to do something that would change the country and that the President failed to improve race relations in the country. Upon reviewing Obama’s speech about the separation of church and state, it becomes clear that Santorum’s political bias prevents him from properly understanding Barack’s goals and the concept in general, which make the former’s statements quite misleading.
In actuality, Obama was not opposed to religion at all. On the contrary, he acknowledged the role it played in US Society. Which is why the President was in full support of assisting secular organizations that would help confront issues such as poverty, poor education and AIDS (Jose, 2008). Meanwhile, Obama fully supported church and state, because he believed it would set reasonable boundaries between the two. Said boundaries would prevent conversion and discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs, and permitting federal funding that go to religious institutions to support only secular programs.
In conclusion, this shows that Rick Santorum’s perception of separation of church and state and Obama’s deeds are most likely misguided by bias. The former President has demonstrated awareness of the impact and the role religion plays in US society. Meanwhile, his idea of separation of church and state is a set of reasonable boundaries between the two, to avoid discrimination and other negative consequences.
References
Jose, K. (2008). Obama’s separation of church and state. Observer. Web.
Tashman, B. (2022). Rick Santorum: Separation of church and state a communist idea, not an American one. Church and State. Web.