In the Republican debate held on Washington's Birthday the candidates were asked to describe themselves in one word. Santorum chose the word courage. If fits after a week of dancing with the national news media over the issue of Satan. Does he exist? Santorum says yes. The media says no.
It all started Monday when Matt Drudge posted audio of Rick Santorum speaking at Ave Maria University in Florida four years ago. Matt Drudge often relies on tips, and campaign opposition research operations have worked overtime this year dishing him dirt for posting.
The nuggets revealed show a Rick Santorum who is concerned about what Christians call Spiritual Warfare. The concept is derived from Ephesians chapter 6: 11-13 where St Paul warns: "Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]."
Belief in Satan is pretty standard theology amongst Christians. Only the liberal, secular media finds it surprising that professing Christians hold such a belief.
We are pleased that Santorum stood his ground, saying to CNN, "If somehow or another because you're a person of faith and you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president, we're going to have a very small pool of candidates who can run for president."
In his speech, Santorum explains his beliefs this way: "This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war. This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age. There is no one else to go after other than the United States and that has been the case now for almost two hundred years, once America's preeminence was sown by our great Founding Fathers."
We couldn't agree more with Santorum, and he should challenge Obama, who claims to be a professing Christian, if he also believes in the Devil. This would not only put the controversy in perspective, but would shine light on whether Obama believes in Lucifer or if he is a Christian heretic, far outside the mainstream of Christian thought.
However, we won't hold our breaths waiting for a reporter in the White House Press corps to ask Obama if he, like Santorum, believes that the devil exists.
Santorum expounded his belief on why America is declining, saying," ... Satan has done so by attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition."
After trashing Santorum for these wise words he spoke, the media repeats in unison the old myth that Americans only care about jobs, the economy, and business. This just isn't true.
Millions of Americans believe like us that moral decay is a greater threat to liberty than the current economic downturn.
Moral decay impacts our families and lives as much as or more than money. Many a happy family gets by on modest incomes. In contrast, drugs, immorality, and lust have destroyed countless marriages, and when those marriages dissolve, economic hardship often results.
Plus, moral decay affects the economy in more ways than at first blush we might realize. Honesty and integrity in business dealings and commerce under gird the free enterprise system. Without moral people, economic decisions become mired in corruption, which leads directly to a lack of trust.
The basic underlying beliefs of socialism run counter to biblical Christianity. To covet your neighbors' goods and money, as a society, is as wrong as stealing it as an individual. Just because we steal to redistribute wealth as a collective (the US Government) doesn't make it moral, even if it is legal.
But we think that Santorum's words that really stung the elite media were his words about academia. In continuing his description of Satan's works, Santorum said, "The place where he was, in my mind, the most successful and first successful was in academia. He understood pride of smart people. He attacked them at their weakest, that they were, in fact, smarter than everybody else and could come up with something new and different. Pursue new truths, deny the existence of truth, play with it because they're smart. And so academia, a long time ago, fell."
In this election season Santorum has drawn a tough dance card dealing with the devils in the national news media.