Ohio Press Pass

Criticism of the prevailing hypocrisy in the conservative movement has been sharp, pointed and well documented in this space as this reporter maintains the struggle to understand how a political party that purports to shrink the size of government, can at the same time fall over itself to enact broad, sweeping federal legislation that restricts a person’s autonomy on a range of social issues.

These clear contradictions show up most obviously in the GOP’s opposition to same sex marriage and abortion, but the government should only do what we say it should do and nothing else mentality is also evident in the party’s foreign policy and its ongoing, ill-fated drug war.

Now, it would seem in an economy as fragile as this — in an election year, no less — a presidential hopeful’s greatest worry should be finding ways to ensure more than two in 10 working-age Americans can find work.

Instead it seems the Republicans’ flavor-of-the-week front-runner Rick Santorum’s most pressing concern is laying the groundwork for the kind of theocratic government for which he would most like to oversee.

Nevermind the fact he seems to miss the entire point of the theology which he claims to subscribe.

Mr. Santorum offered plenty of dog whistles and red meat to a group of tea party Evangelicals Saturday in Columbus, claiming President Obama’s agenda was “not about you. It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible. A different theology.”

Read: A different theology, not based on our theology — the Christian theology.

Let the record reflect I’m a God-fearing, 10-percent-giving, increasingly monotheistic, card-carrying Protestant.

I also believe strongly in the kind of separation of church and state doctrine spelled out in the Constitution, arguing these kinds of overt references to religion are not appropriate for a candidate seeking public office.

Mr. Santorum, though, isn’t exactly the first politician to engage his supporters this way, so whatever.

It’s not too much to ask, however, or it shouldn’t be, to demonstrate at minimum a working knowledge of your theology’s foundational principles.

Admittedly — sorry, Pastor Dwight — my Biblical knowledge is not as sharp as it probably should be. That said, my study of the Bible has revealed that Jesus’ primary concern seemed to be rooted in caring for the poor, sick and neglected without first inquiring as to how they ended up in such an impoverished condition.

A list of Biblical references to support the above-stated claim is available upon request.

It stands to reason then that Rick Santorum must care an awful lot about shoring up a social safety net ravaged by short-sided funding cuts and increasing need for public assistance. I bet his primary goal as president is to shrink the ever-widening gap between the haves and have nots, those with real opportunity and those without a puncher’s chance.

Not exactly.

This is what Mr. Santorum said during an address at the Detroit Economic Club last Thursday: “There is income inequality in America. There always has been and hopefully, and I do say that, there always will be,” he said. “Why? Because people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace and that’s as it should be.”

Allow me first, as briefly as possible, and I apologize I’m so long-winded today, to address the intellectual dishonesty of that statement.

Yes, it would seem that some form of wealth discrepancy is inherent to a healthy Capitalist system, but at a time when the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans — with an average yearly income of about $320,000 — accounts for 40 percent of the nation’s wealth and CEO pay is easily 200 percent more than those working for the company, this statement reeks of elitism.

And, I’m the one waging a class war?

Moreover, Mr. Santorum’s comments make you wonder precisely to which theology was he referring before the tea partiers in Columbus over the weekend: Christianity, in his case, Catholocism, or Capitalism?

Mr. Santorum and, by extension the Republican party (the former Pennsylvania senator is hardly alone), can’t have it both ways.

If its intention is to be the party of the religious right, then the GOP has a moral obligation to prioritize its agenda according to the most fundamental tenants of the Christian faith: Love, compassion and grace for all people, especially the meek; not just the most divisive, controversial aspects of the religion.