Rick Santorum:  Stealth Candidate of the Religious Right

			    by Donna Riley


	My stomach turns when I hear Senate candidate Rick Santorum
portray himself as a moderate.  When I attended the Christian
Coalition Leadership School at Beaver County Community College last
April, I learned of his close ties with the radical religious
right. Santorum couldn't make the conference himself, but he sent
longtime staffmember Bruce Barron to educate us about campaigning, and
pass out bumper stickers and yard signs.
	Santorum's staffmember warned us against supporting moderate
Republicans and accepting their party affiliation as sufficient
evidence of right-wing politics.  "God is spelled G-O-D, not G-O-P,"
he quipped.
	Barron suggested the "ungodly" distribution of condoms in
schools stemmed from "a lack of true wisdom." He said, "We have God's
authority and need to use it. Where do the ungodly get their
authority? Maybe they shouldn't be involved."
	The goal of the Christian Coalition Leadership School was to
get conservative Christians to run for office; the slick pamphlets for
the conference read, "Think like Jesus. Lead like Moses. Fight like
David.  Run like Lincoln." To Christians who avoid politics because
it's dirty, Barron anesthetized their moral sensibilities with this
justification: "there's politics in your church, too."
	To his credit, Santorum's staffmember deplored theocracy: "If
I need the Bible to prove my point, it shouldn't be civil law." He
noted that Santorum therefore makes policy arguments--not religious
arguments--against abortion rights, even though he assured us it is a
religious issue for the congressman.  Barron admired conservative
Christians who slid into office in Virginia emphasizing their clean
water platform because their pro-life platform wasn't politically
palatable. This is the core of Santorum's stealth candidacy.
	 Barron pointed out that "Integrity is not number one
anymore," for candidates. In the midst of empty rhetoric about honest,
golden-rule-abiding Christian candidates, he said, "I want to dispel
any moral qualms you have about negative campaigning in elections,"
emphasizing the strategy's effectiveness, as if the ends justified the
means.
 	Finally, Barron offered one valuable piece of advice: Santorum
is counting on the complacency of his opposition.  Our apathy works in
his favor.  This is a call to action.



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Editor's Note:

The Christian Coalition, as a tax-exempt organization, is forbidden to
endorse candidates.

-jab