Santorum speaks out

Former presidential candidate criticizes the government for foreign policy

Rick Santorum, a 2012 presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania senator and current CEO of EchoLight Studios, spoke for the first time at Liberty University’s Convocation Monday, Nov. 10.

Following midterm election season, the senator’s speech was focused on foreign policy and religious liberty. Highlighting on how his faith has guided his policy-making, Santorum echoed the necessity for religion in the public square.

“Faith is (central) to who I am, so, of course, (my faith) is integral to every decision I make,” Santorum said. “But in America today, we see faith under assault here at home and we see an assault around the world. Religious liberty is declining in the world.”

Santorum insisted that faith must govern all facets of decision-making, urging students to reject the idea that religion causes war. He described a time in the United States — at the fall of Communist Russia — when the government was not “afraid to call evil, evil.”

“We are no longer as bold at identifying and confronting evil,” Santorum said. “This month is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. … Communism had been defeated. The Berlin Wall had fallen, and thus ended a century of bloodshed. You will hear people say, ‘Religion causes more conflict’ … (but) if you look at the 20th century, look at Nazism, fascism, communism, Japanese Imperialism — all atheistic. None of them constrained by God’s laws.”

Santorum was critical of both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama for perpetuating the decline of religious presence within the U.S. government’s decisions on foreign policy.

Santorum shared legislation that he passed during his time in Congress, urging then-President Bush to openly address the war in Iraq as what the senator believed to be a religion-centered war. The statesman called for clarity in the government’s efforts to counteract radical Islam in Iraq and Syria as well as insisting on a
robust military.

“We do need — absolutely need — a strong military,” Santorum said. “We also need strong policies to back up that might.”

Santorum ended his speech by telling students “secularism is creeping here,” pointing out that, according to a Harris poll, there has been a decrease in the amount of people who say they believe in God, from 82 percent in 2009 to 74 percent today.

“Take the fire that I know is here,” Santorum said of Liberty’s Christian atmosphere. “Nurture it, understand it — understand your religious liberties.”

Goins-Phillips is the opinion editor.