Rick Santorum's Religious Hypocrisy

One of the few commendable opinions Rick Santorum has expressed this campaign is his criticism of Iran’s religious legal system. Santorum is entirely justified in criticizing Iran for imposing Islamic shariah law on its people. However, Santorum is both wrong and hypocritical for attempting to do the same with Christianity in America.

During the August 11th debate in Iowa, Santorum criticized Iran for “trampling on the rights of women [and] … gays”. However, it is unclear why Santorum is upset about this unless he wants a monopoly on it. Santorum cites Christian law for his opposition gay marriage, contraception, and abortion. Isn’t this combining religion and government? Yes, Santorum is doing the exact same thing he is accusing Iran of. It is no more acceptable with Christianity than it is with Islam.

Nobody is forcing Santorum to become a homosexual or use contraception. Any efforts to do so would be forcibly imposing one’s morals on another. As Santorum says about Iran, this is wrong. However, if a Santorum administration prevents loving same-sex couples from marrying or outlaws abortion, this would be imposing religious moral law on a secular nation.

While Santorum’s comments on Iran are commendable, he should take the same position with his own policy and not impose religious law on everybody in America. Just because Santorum is a religious Catholic doesn’t mean that everybody in America is. Imposing Biblical Law on an entire nation is just as wrong as doing the same thing with shariah law. If Santorum is to be taken seriously, he needs to hold his policies to the same standards as other countries’. If not, we will soon be executing virgin women who do not cry out upon being raped.