Santorum: Religious freedoms new battleground

WEST CHESTER TWP. – If America values its Christian religious freedoms, then it must be prepared to battle for them, says possible presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaking here Tuesday evening.

The former Pennsylvania senator and presidential candidate also told The Enquirer he is considering running for the White House and expects to make his decision "by June, give or take a month."

And if he runs, he said, Ohio communities like West Chester Township will be key.

Though Santorum was the featured speaker at a religious freedom event that drew 400 to the Imago Dei Christian Fellowship Church, he intermixed politics and even a little pulpit pounding.

He punched on his familiar pro-Christian, limited-government themes popular among his social conservative supporters, including contentions that popular culture and left-leaning institutions are threatening Christians' religious freedom.

"This is the battle in America today," said Santorum, who won the Iowa caucus as a Republican nominee in 2012 and finished second to Mitt Romney nationally, winning 11 state primaries and caucuses.

"And this is something we have not seen in our country, a direct assault on people of faith living their faith," he said, citing among examples a recent, high-profile case of a small-business owner on the West Coast who was fined thousands of dollars for refusing to cater a gay wedding.

When asked prior to his speech about New York City schools' recent decision to observe two Muslim holidays starting next school year, Santorum said, "Of course we have to respect everyone, everyone individually, but it doesn't mean you have to respect their ideas.

"And it doesn't mean you have to adopt their ideas and it doesn't mean you have to evaluate their ideas to the same level as to the ideas that made our country unique in human history.

"And it's not that we shouldn't respect everybody or treat people with dignity or certainly respect their own holy days. There can be religious liberties for everybody. But when it comes to the schools ... the schools (are) trying to teach young people growing up in America what America is, what our foundational principals are, where they come from and what makes America unique in the world. There is certainly some confusion about that in America today."

Dick Knodel, chairman of West Chester chapter of the tea party, was in the audience and predicted Santorum will be the first of more possible presidential candidates to appear here.