ADL to Santorum: Keep Religion Out of Race
The Anti-Defamation League called on Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum to avoid religious appeals to voters.
Santorum on Jan. 5 told listeners of a Boston radio show that “We always need a Jesus guy” in the campaign, in response to a caller who had commented that the economy was the main issue of the campaign. “We don’t need a Jesus candidate; we need an economic candidate,” the caller said.
“We need someone who believes in something more than themselves and not just the economy,” Santorum continued. “When we say, “God bless America,” do we mean it or do we just say it?”
“Senator Santorum’s remark comparing himself to a ‘Jesus candidate’ was inappropriate and exclusionary. It essentially says that those of other faiths or of no faith – whether Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, non-believers or others – do not belong,” said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director in a statement. “Religious appeals to voters are simply unacceptable and un-American. Voters should be encouraged to make their decisions based upon their assessment of the qualifications, integrity and political positions of candidates, not the intensity of their religious beliefs.”
The statement continued: “The League has long maintained that candidates should feel comfortable explaining their religious convictions to voters, but that there is a point at which an emphasis on religion in a political campaign becomes inappropriate and even unsettling.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
