Joe Tomaszewski
Daily Sundial

A literal interpretation of the Bible says adulterers should be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 22:22-24), and you must be put to death if you touch Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:13).  And for all of you out there who worship other gods or none at all, fear thou a Santorum presidency, for in Deuteronomy 17:2-5,  “Moses spake ..if there be found among you… man or woman … that … hath gone and served other gods, and worshiped them … Then shalt thou … stone them with stones, till they die.”

Although Santorum  will probably not become president,  I find it frightening that he has gotten as close as he has.

Santorum is a man of blind faith who follows an extreme Christian ideology. He rejects the science of evolution and global warming, he is intolerant of sexual variance and he believes that anyone who does not share his faith has a false world view. Men and women like him are dangerous and should not be in positions of power.

Santorum believes if you are a liberal, you cannot be a true Christian. He is not a man of conviction, but a dangerous ideologue who values blind faith over reason and common sense. In a 2008 interview with the Oxford Center for Religion and Public Life, Santorum, an avowed Roman Catholic, was asked if he believed President Barack Obama is a “sincere liberal Christian.” Santorum essentially said you cannot be a Christian if you don’t believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

“I don’t think there is such a thing,” Santorum said. “To take what is plainly written (in the Bible) and say that ‘I don’t agree with that, therefore I don’t have to pay attention to it,’ means you’re not what you say you are. You’re a liberal something, but you’re not a Christian.”

Obama has said he doesn’t believe that everything written in the Bible should be taken literally, which puts him in the same category as most Christians and sane people in general.
Since then, Santorum has said he does believe Obama is a Christian. But remarks he made about Obama’s policies during a February tea party rally in Columbus, Ohio, suggest he said this for political expediency, rather than because he believes it.

“It’s about some phony ideal, some phony theology,” Santorum said about Obama’s beliefs. “Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.” Santorum is implying here that the right way to govern our country is according to biblical theology.

This goes far beyond issues of separation of church and state; it speaks to the necessity of the separation of fanatics from positions of power.
And, according to numerous Bible passages, if you believe in what Santorum calls a false theology, then you will end up in hell.

Even the Catholic church and Pope Benedict XVI realize everything in the Bible shouldn’t be taken literally.  During the 2008 Synod of Bishops, the Vatican released a position paper in which it warned against literal interpretations of the Bible.

“It demands an unshakable adherence to rigid doctrinal points of view and imposes, as the only source of teaching for Christian life and salvation, a reading of the Bible, which rejects all questioning and any kind of critical research,” it said.
My point isn’t to poke fun at the Bible or religious belief. I am against “the unshakable adherence to rigid doctrinal points of view,”  about which the Vatican warns.

When it comes to solving the world’s problems, there are not always easy answers to complex problems. Rigid adherence to any one doctrine often leads to unreasonable solutions like rejection of scientific evidence, warfare, ethnic cleansing, discrimination and intolerance. Adolf Hitler and Osama Bin Laden had such rigid adherence.

People often make the mistake of admiring rigid conviction. They equate it with morality. But blind faith in any book, or religion or political philosophy is not moral or admirable.  It is an abdication of personal responsibility to view the world with a critical eye and to think for oneself.