Santorum is the biggest joke ...
Times-Picayune columnist James Gill and Washington bureau reporter Jonathan Tilove talk about Saturday's Louisiana primary and its impact on the Republican presidential race.
Louisiana primary March 24. In this climate, it is hard to predict success for the campaign to repeal the creationism law in the state legislative session that has just begun.
The wall of separation was conceived to prevent government intrusion in matters of conscience, and we owe it in large measure to Roger Williams, subject of John Barry's latest absorbing book. When Williams, exiled from Massachusetts in the 1630s, found refuge in what was to become Rhode Island, he acknowledged the hand of God by naming his settlement Providence. The faithful who now chafe at the Establishment Clause cannot be more devout than its progenitor.
And chafe they do, none more than Santorum, who has just announced that JFK's celebrated 1960 speech on the "absolute" separation of church and state makes him want to throw up. That notion, according to Santorum is not right for America. "That's France. That's a naked public square where people of faith are out of bounds."
If Santorum will tell us where in France nude atheists may be found cavorting in a public square, we can book our tickets now.
Santorum is the biggest joke in a preposterous slate for the GOP nomination. The wall of separation he abhors was erected so that government could not favor, say evangelicals over Catholics, who have by no means always seen eye to eye. Right now, however, evangelicals are lining up behind Santorum and seem to love him more than his fellow Catholics do.
Still, fashions change, and a Catholic opposed to the Establishment Clause clearly lacks historical perspective.
Louisiana Republicans choose their delegates through a convoluted process, with caucuses coming a month after the primary, while a few grand panjandrums get automatic tickets to Tampa. The GOP race is so tight this time that Louisiana might for once have a role to play. Santorum will doubtless neglect no opportunity to denounce heresy.
Questioning the wall of separation isn't going to alienate many voters in Louisiana, where public school kids may not be sure whether they are in biology or Bible class. State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, is trying, as she did last year, to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act.
No legislation ever had a more fraudulent title. This act is just the old creationism law, slyly recouched as an exercise in academic freedom with a spurious caveat that it is not to be construed to advance religion. That its purpose, in allowing science teachers to introduce extraneous materials, is precisely to trump Darwin with Genesis, was obvious from the start, since its proponents were chiefly of the fundamentalist persuasion. When attempts to beef up the caveat with a ban on creationism and intelligent design were indignantly rejected, there was no longer any point in continuing the charade.
The Senate Education Committee did so anyway when Peterson's repeal bill came up last year, supported by a letter signed by 43 Nobel science laureates. The committee chairman was Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, author of the act, so perhaps the bill was always doomed.
Nevers no longer chairs the committee, and this year the number of Nobel laureates urging repeal is up to 75. But legislators likely lack the courage to defy the likes of the Louisiana Family Forum.
As Peterson has pointed out, since educational reform is high on Gov. Bobby Jindal's agenda, it makes no sense to retain legislation that permits religious indoctrination to interfere with a discipline that relies on demonstrable fact.
But Jindal won't see it that way for he is a fan of creationism in the public schools. The historical ironies multiply. Not only does Jindal have a degree in biology, but it is from Brown University in Providence, where Roger Williams did much of his seminal thinking on the wall of separation.
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Times-Picayune columnist James Gill and Washington bureau reporter Jonathan Tilove talk about Saturday's Louisiana primary and its impact on the Republican presidential race.
Louisiana primary March 24. In this climate, it is hard to predict success for the campaign to repeal the creationism law in the state legislative session that has just begun.
The wall of separation was conceived to prevent government intrusion in matters of conscience, and we owe it in large measure to Roger Williams, subject of John Barry's latest absorbing book. When Williams, exiled from Massachusetts in the 1630s, found refuge in what was to become Rhode Island, he acknowledged the hand of God by naming his settlement Providence. The faithful who now chafe at the Establishment Clause cannot be more devout than its progenitor.
And chafe they do, none more than Santorum, who has just announced that JFK's celebrated 1960 speech on the "absolute" separation of church and state makes him want to throw up. That notion, according to Santorum is not right for America. "That's France. That's a naked public square where people of faith are out of bounds."
If Santorum will tell us where in France nude atheists may be found cavorting in a public square, we can book our tickets now.
Santorum is the biggest joke in a preposterous slate for the GOP nomination. The wall of separation he abhors was erected so that government could not favor, say evangelicals over Catholics, who have by no means always seen eye to eye. Right now, however, evangelicals are lining up behind Santorum and seem to love him more than his fellow Catholics do.
Still, fashions change, and a Catholic opposed to the Establishment Clause clearly lacks historical perspective.
Louisiana Republicans choose their delegates through a convoluted process, with caucuses coming a month after the primary, while a few grand panjandrums get automatic tickets to Tampa. The GOP race is so tight this time that Louisiana might for once have a role to play. Santorum will doubtless neglect no opportunity to denounce heresy.
Questioning the wall of separation isn't going to alienate many voters in Louisiana, where public school kids may not be sure whether they are in biology or Bible class. State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, is trying, as she did last year, to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act.
No legislation ever had a more fraudulent title. This act is just the old creationism law, slyly recouched as an exercise in academic freedom with a spurious caveat that it is not to be construed to advance religion. That its purpose, in allowing science teachers to introduce extraneous materials, is precisely to trump Darwin with Genesis, was obvious from the start, since its proponents were chiefly of the fundamentalist persuasion. When attempts to beef up the caveat with a ban on creationism and intelligent design were indignantly rejected, there was no longer any point in continuing the charade.
The Senate Education Committee did so anyway when Peterson's repeal bill came up last year, supported by a letter signed by 43 Nobel science laureates. The committee chairman was Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, author of the act, so perhaps the bill was always doomed.
Nevers no longer chairs the committee, and this year the number of Nobel laureates urging repeal is up to 75. But legislators likely lack the courage to defy the likes of the Louisiana Family Forum.
As Peterson has pointed out, since educational reform is high on Gov. Bobby Jindal's agenda, it makes no sense to retain legislation that permits religious indoctrination to interfere with a discipline that relies on demonstrable fact.
But Jindal won't see it that way for he is a fan of creationism in the public schools. The historical ironies multiply. Not only does Jindal have a degree in biology, but it is from Brown University in Providence, where Roger Williams did much of his seminal thinking on the wall of separation.
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