He also thinks Kennedy was a chump for assuring the public that his Catholic views wouldn’t lead his policy…

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said Sunday that he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state, adding that he was sickened by John F. Kennedy’s assurances to Baptist ministers 52 years ago that he would not impose his Catholic faith on them.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” Santorum, a devout Catholic, said in an interview from Michigan on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The First Amendment means the free exercise of religion and that means bringing people and their faith into the public square.”(via)

Not only is this foolish, do we really want to live in a theocracy? But it shows that this man has very little understanding of history, or the American Constitution. The only way to maintain freedom of religion in this country is to maintain freedom FROM religion. Look at any political state that instates an “official” religion. They either become barbaric theocracies (Iran, Israel, Palestine, etc etc), or the public by and large become atheist (most of Europe). And you know why most of Europe is now atheist? Because they remember the dark ages, the last time theocracy ran the world. I am all for people becoming atheists, but not if it means we have to have a second dark age.

The sad part about this is that Santorum actually thinks these things, and that a large number of Americans do to.