Rick Santorum: JFK’s 1960 Speech Made Me Want to Throw Up - East Idaho News
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Rick Santorum: JFK’s 1960 Speech Made Me Want to Throw Up

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Getty 111411 GOPCandidates?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1330289859912AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said on Sunday that watching John F. Kennedy’s speech to the Baptist ministers in Houston in 1960 made him want to “throw up.”

“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up.  What kind of country do we live [in] that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?” Santorum said.

Santorum also said he does not believe in an America where the separation of church and state is “absolute.”

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute. 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,” Santorum said. “This is the First Amendment. The First Amendment says the free exercise of religion. That means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square. Kennedy for the first time articulated the vision saying, no, ‘faith is not allowed in the public square. I will keep it separate.’ Go on and read the speech ‘I will have nothing to do with faith. I won’t consult with people of faith.’ It was an absolutist doctrine that was foreign at the time of 1960,” he said.

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