Rick Santorum Is The Antithesis Of Christ’s Teachings

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Every politician eventually gets stuck with a label from their opponents and supporters that is not always completely accurate. Often, it is best to let the politician’s record speak to whether or not they are, for example, Liberal or conservative and in this technological age, it is relatively simple to gather up-to-the-minute press releases and candidate statements to discern where a politician or candidate stands to attribute the appropriate label. It is problematic, though, for a political candidate to label themselves unless they have integrity to their cause and own a record that verifies their self-description perfectly. Rick Santorum describes himself as a compassionate conservative and although there is absolutely no doubt the man is a conservative of the first order, there is certainly nothing compassionate about him.

Santorum claims to be a Christian, but it is evident that his type of Christianity is founded in Old Testament severity and not the charitable Jesus. In fact, it is difficult to find any of Jesus Christ’s teachings in Santorum’s style of Christianity. What is evident, is that Santorum hates gays, a woman’s right to choose their own reproductive health, African Americans, and any group that does not adhere to evangelical fundamentalism. A more apropos label for Santorum is a hateful conservative that aligns him with the rest of the Republicans; except the former Pennsylvania senator says in public what other Republicans keep under their hats.

Last Sunday Santorum inferred that everyone on welfare is African American during a campaign stop in Iowa. Santorum said, “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.” There are several problems with his statement, none the least that he had to single out African Americans as more inclined to receive government assistance than other groups. For the record, in Iowa, 84% of food stamp recipients are white and 9% are Black. However, why did he have to attribute any minority group as the sole beneficiaries of welfare? It is because, unlike the biblical Jesus, Santorum is a racist.

Santorum also must have missed the Sunday school lesson that covered Jesus Christ’s admonition to care for the poor and infirm among us. In New Hampshire, Santorum expressed the notion that universal healthcare is un-American and is responsible for “destroying most countries in the world.” He derided President Obama for passing healthcare reform that gives every American access to affordable, quality healthcare. He ranted that, “No, we have to have something for everybody! We can’t have people having access to better health insurance than other people. No! It all has to be the same! Is that American? Equality of result? Is that what built the greatest country in the history of the world? No. That’s what’s destroying most of the countries in the world.” The former senator argued that Americans can and should have the freedom to “go out and work for an employer or find an employment that has health care, or if not providing for that health care for yourself.”

Santorum was also critical of extending government-sponsored health insurance for children and said that many recipients live above the poverty level. His statement is right out of the Heritage Foundation that claims Americans at or below the federal poverty level are really not poor, and that really, they are doing pretty darn good with microwave ovens and more than two rooms in a residence. Regardless of how Santorum or Heritage defines poverty, it is ultimately un-Christian to deny any human being healthcare regardless of age or economic station.

One of Jesus Christ’s famous messages to his followers was to seek peace, and he famously told Peter that those who “live by the sword, will perish by the sword.” Santorum said if he was president, he would bomb Iran to deal with their attempt to acquire or develop nuclear weapons. He said that bombing Iran would prevent a war, but perhaps his brand of Christianity prevents him from understanding that bombing is war. It is possible, that Santorum the Christian is enamored with the idea of killing innocent Muslims.

There is no end to examples of Santorum’s anti-Christian positions on nearly every subject under the sun. Not only is he not compassionate and un-Christian; he is inhumane. What kind of human being, Christian or otherwise, is critical of extending healthcare to children regardless of the parent’s income level? Jesus said to care for the sick and injured and did not attach conditions of employment or income level. Santorum’s remark that Americans should go find employment that offers healthcare is a slap in the face to Americans who cannot find any employment, and especially since employer-based health insurance is disappearing as the insurance industry raises rates at alarming levels prohibiting millions of Americans who do have jobs from buying even the cheapest coverage.

Not all Christians are inhumane like Santorum, and yet there is little, if any, outrage at his un-Christian statements. However, Santorum is tapping into the anti-gay, anti-women’s rights, anti-minority, and anti-Muslim element in the Christian evangelical community and they apparently believe his anti-Jesus rhetoric that garnered him a close second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday. Santorum is a conservative, but he lacks compassion associated with Christianity and should be admonished by every Christian congregation in the country for his hate-filled statements. Rick Santorum is a true believer and, sadly, he is sincere in his convictions that are the antithesis of Christ’s teachings. He is not compassionate unless it is toward white, Christian, heterosexual, and wealthy Americans that makes him a typical Republican and no amount of self-labeling will change that; especially when the compassionate conservative label he chose is an oxymoron.

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Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.