A speech Rick Santorum gave to Ave Maria University in 2008 is making the rounds; while I'm not thrilled to give People for the American Way any props, their partial transcript of the speech is useful.
Ave Maria is a conservative Catholic school set up by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan to counter the leftward list of a lot of Catholic colleges who have become essentially secular over the years. Thus, if you were going to give a spiritual warfare in America speech to a Catholic crowd, this was the one.
From an orthodox Christian standpoint, Santorum is spot-on. That's probably why he does better amongst evangelicals than he does Catholics since roughly half of the folks who declare as Catholic have a practical theology more like liberal Protestants.
Secular folks, or those who are of a more liberal but theistic bent, often discount the idea that a Hell and hands-on forces for evil exist, unless it is as a rhetorical tool to send conservatives to when they pass on. Thus, the Ave Maria speech will sound foreign to such ears.
That is why secular folks on the left are chomping at the bit to see a Santorum-Obama matchup this fall. They assume that swing voters are secular and will see Santorum as a pious kook (or some more nasty version of that sentiment).
They might be surprised. Gallup has the belief in the Devil at 70% as of 2004. That leaves a decent side block of voters who might not blow off a spiritual warfare argument, since I don't think that number went too far away in eight years.
This gambit of the left to make Santorum to be an out-of-touch dominionist can backfire. If I can play Master of the Obvious, Ave Maria means Hail Mary, and football fans know that a Hail Mary pass is a low percentage play.
More on this faith-and-politics topic later, as I've yet to hit on Santorum's slap at Obama's liberal theology.
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