Written by tom kando   

It’s becoming curiouser and curiouser. We now have at least one major presidential candidate who preaches the re-unification of Church and State. Rick Santorum has announced that the absolute separation of Church and State is nonsense (and that President Kennedy was wrong in defending that aspect of the 1st amendment). Presumably, Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution are also wrong. Millions of evangelicals appear to support Santorum’s views.

Are these people suggesting that we should model ourselves after countries like Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan? Those countries do not practice the separation of Church and State. There, Sharia Law controls much of human behavior, especially sex and gender-related behavior.
Secularism may also be in retreat in other parts of the Arab world. In Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere, the Arab Spring may be leading to an Islamist Renaissance.

Recently, our troops in Afghanistan burned some old copies of the Quran by mistake. This was not meant as an affront to Islam. The copies happened to be among a bunch of other old books. But the local reaction was violent, causing a dozen deaths, including that of several Americans. President Obama and several of our military officers apologized profusely.

(Question: what happens to old copies of the Bible, say, when a new edition comes out? Or to old copies of the US constitution, or any other book, for that matter? How do you get rid of old, obsolete, decrepit copies?)

But religious vehemence and zeal are wonderful, we are now told by Republicans. Today, we have suicide bombers, honor killings and holy jihad. A few centuries ago, we had crusades, the Inquisition, witch burnings, the reformation wars pitting Huguenots, Anglicans, Lutherans and Calvinists against the Catholic Church and causing millions of deaths.

What a marvelous record, the mixing of religion and politics throughout the centuries! By all means, let’s return to that, Mr. Santorum.