Santorum: JFK Religion Speech Made Me Sick

Candidate defends role of religion in public life
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 27, 2012 4:00 AM CST
Santorum: JFK Religion Speech Made Me Sick
Rick Santorum speaks during a campaign stop at the Christ Redeemer Church in Cummings, Georgia last month.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Rick Santorum says reading John F. Kennedy's famous 1960 speech about the separation of church and state in America made him want to hurl. "To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes me want to throw up," the candidate said on ABC's This Week. "What kind of country do we live in where only people of non-faith can come in the public square and make their case? That makes me throw up," and it should make every American do the same, he said.

In the speech, Kennedy assured Baptist ministers that he would not impose his Catholic faith on them. Santorum, also a Catholic, has stepped up his rhetoric on social issues ahead of tomorrow's primaries in Arizona and Michigan, the New York Times notes. "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," he told ABC. On Meet the Press, Santorum slammed President Obama for apologizing for the burning of Korans by US troops in Afghanistan. (More John F. Kennedy stories.)

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