Daniel Nichols of Caelum et Terra has written a wonderful piece that takes on the cult of Santorum and the cultural blind spots of the Catholic right. By the way, this is what an authentic conservative voice sounds like, unlike the uber-liberals over at American Catholic. This is good stuff, let me quote:
“I saw the nascent Catholic counterculture transmute into a subculture: adjusting a little here and there, it more or less adopted the bourgeois American model of life…they fancy themselves “orthodox Catholics”, and in reality think of themselves as the Real Catholics. They are with the Church on birth control and abortion and sexual morality and dogmatic theology. They are personally devout. They pray the rosary and receive the Eucharist with thanksgiving.
And they are unconsciously so blinded by Americanism that they unthinkingly dismiss anything in the words of Jesus Christ or Church teaching that challenges their faith in America, in its exceptionalism and goodness.
Rick Santorum.. is their candidate, made in their image. Like many of my friends he is affluent, personally pious, has a bunch ofkids that he homeschools, and then sends to Opus Dei high schools. And he is an Americanist first, a Catholic second.
Non-Catholic pundits are quick to agree that he is the Catholic candidate and to denounce him for it. Few challenge how far he diverges from Catholic social teaching on any but sexual issues. The bishops, who should be clarifying this, are strangely silent. Conservative Catholic bloggers are in love: “Rick Santorum, Catholic Hero” chirps the American Papist.
One wonders when one sees all this what they are thinking. This is a man who deemed it “wonderful” when an Iranian scientist, the father of young children, was, in defiance of international and divine law, assassinated. This is a man who sees no problem with “enhanced interrogation”, ie, torture, who thinks it fine to inflict pain and terror on someone suspected of terrorism. This is a man who has stated his intent to engage in preemptive war, against a nation that cannot be said in any way to pose a threat to the US.
This is a man, in the final analysis, despite his piety, is willing to contradict what his Church teaches to serve America.
This, my friends, is idolatry.
To choose Rick Santorum for president is to choose Nation over Church, this world over heaven, and Mammon over God.”
Amen.
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