Sunday Reflections: Santorum's Theology a Cynical Way of Life

By The Rev. Dr. George Hickok

According to U.S. presidential candidate Rick Santorum, President Barack Obama undermines the United States' "Judeo-Christian values" through his implementation of his policies.

Several speeches delivered by Santorum offer some insight into how he delineates between "real" theology (one "based on the Bible") and Obama's "phony" theology.

Santorum dismissed those Christians who do not hold an inerrant view of scripture as being "a liberal something but not a Christian" as if any human could interpret ancient scripture without error. Santorum’s perversion of Christian theology excludes “mainline denominations” which include about 26 million Americans, according to The Association of Religion Data Archives.

Theology according to Santorum is cynical about the poor, racist, sexist and homophobic. And that is not the worst of it. Theocracy comes to mind conjuring images of Puritanism, Emperorworship or Sharia law. History is replete with horrendous models of theocracy in most faiths. The Christians in power in Europe launched the Crusades, one of the darkest chapters in Christian history. ”Manifest Destiny” girded with a jingoist perversion of Christianity resulted in the destruction of the Native American civilization.

Maybe I missed something when I was a political science major but I thought the U.S. Constitution was to be the supreme law of the land; not the Judea Christian bible. The Presidential Oath of Office might look like this: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability,preserve, protect and defend the Bible and not the Constitution of the United States."

Next time maybe I will write about quantum physics. Perhaps I know more about that than Santorum knows about theology or Constitutional democracy.

The Rev. Dr. George Hickok is minister of the Spring Hill Furnace Presbyterian Church in Lake Lynn, Pa. and adjunct professor of sociology at the Community College of Allegheny County south campus. He is married to the Rev. Beckie Hickok, minister of