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A Muslim, a Catholic, and a Mormon walk into a White House: Theological Racism in the 2012 Presidential Race
GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum
As the Republican presidential primaries ramp up for Super Tuesday, religion has, once again, become a central topic of public discourse. Presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, has been the most vocal and controversial in the last couple weeks, but Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have also gotten into the theological bashing. This explosion of religious rhetoric erupted after the Obama Administration faced off against the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops on issues of contraceptive healthcare coverage.
As public attention grew, advocates on both sides of the issue, both religious and secular, as well as Catholic and people from other traditions, turned this topic into two interestingly similar, yet distinct headlines: Obama’s War on Religion vs. Republicans’ War on Women. While a great analysis of these competing headlines is valid and needed, I am interested in deconstructing a new term that has been bouncing around in my head ever since I heard some recent remarks by Rick Santorum about Obama’s religious identity: theological racism. Read the rest of this entry
