Your Republican frontrunner (according to some polls, at least for the moment), ladies and gentleman:
One of the things I will talk about that no President has talked about before is I think the dangers of contraception in this country, the whole sexual libertine idea. Many in the Christian faith have said, "Well, that's okay. Contraception's okay." It's not okay because it's a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They're supposed to be within marriage, they are supposed to be for purposes that are, yes, conjugal, but also [inaudible], but also procreative. That's the perfect way that a sexual union should happen. We take any part of that out, we diminish the act. And if you can take one part out that's not for purposes of procreation, that's not one of the reasons, then you diminish this very special bond between men and women, so why can't you take other parts of that out? And all of a sudden, it becomes deconstructed to the point where it's simply pleasure. And that's certainly a part of it—and it's an important part of it, don't get me wrong—but there's a lot of things we do for pleasure, and this is special, and it needs to be seen as special. Again, I know most Presidents don't talk about those things, and maybe people don't want us to talk about those things, but I think it's important that you are who you are. I'm not running for preacher. I'm not running for pastor, but these are important public policy issues. These how profound impact on the health of our society.
Whole thing, via Time's Swampland blog via CaffeinatedThoughts.com (a Christian blog). Video here. The vid went live in October 2011.
Note that Santorum is not talking about mandatory coverage of contraceptives under Obamacare. It's the very idea of non-procreative sex that his knickers in a twist. Which is something one can expect from a Roman Catholic. And it's personally nothing I've got a problem with (different strokes for different folks, anything that's peaceful, and all that).
But when you're talking about a politician who is talking about being president and this rises to the level of policy noodling…
Calling all conservatives: Is this the sort of anti-Obama limited-government candidate you really want to get behind? And indeed, Santorum is out of touch in at least two distinct ways: First, the president shouldn't be concerning herself with rubbers, IUDs, and birth control pills (whether she's a Republican or a Democrat). Second, all the social indicators he seems to be worried about—including sexual activity among teens and teen pregnancy rates—have been declining.
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