Rick Santorum Defends Truth and Stands up To Piers Morgan on CNN

Rick Santorum struck a blow against relativism on CNN's Piers Morgan show

When intelligent, well formed Catholics like Santorum give a Natural Law basis for defending truth, people like Piers Morgan dismiss them as "bigoted." That is what he did in this interview. It was the equivalent of a frustrated child resorting to name calling. Well catechized faithful Catholic Christians - like Santorum - insist that there is a Natural Law, "present in the heart of each man and established by reason." This law "is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties." (CCC# 1956)

P>WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - It had been a very long day and I was exhausted. However, my publishing duties as Editor-in-Chief of Catholic Online were not yet complete. While on a short break to replenish my water glass I noticed that Presidential candidate Rick Santorum was being interviewed by Piers Morgan of CNN.

I stopped to watch the first part of the interview. Morgan tried to fluster the candidate by using an unsympathetic representative of the "super- rich", Warren Buffet, in an effort to draw Santorum into the class warfare approach which is gaining ground these days. The candidate acquitted himself well, explaining his position that expanding economic participation and lowering taxes will help people across the socio-economic spectrum. I went back to work in my home office.

Later, when I returned to grab my briefcase, Morgan was asking the candidate about Gabriel, the son whom Rick and his wife Karen lost. The story of Gabriel is a heartwarming example of genuine parental love and the true meaning of family. It gave rise to a beautiful book written by Karen Santorum called Letters to Gabriel.  I was deeply impressed by Senator Santorum's response to Morgan. I was also encouraged by Morgan's affirmation of the love shown by the Santorum's throughout the entire ordeal.

I later discovered that the period between Morgan's futile efforts to goad the candidate into "piling on" against Warren Buffet and the good exchange about the dignity of every human life, contained an exchange concerning Rick Santorum's defense of marriage as a union between one man and one woman, intended for life and open to children.

In that exchange, Morgan resorted to name-calling, essentially referring to Rick Santorum as a bigot. Because I missed it, I found the clip and obtained the transcript. Below is a portion of the exchange from that transcript.

*****

MORGAN: Well, let's clarify a few things. Do you think homosexuality is a sin?

SANTORUM: Well, that's a decision not for a politician. That's a decision for someone who is a cleric.  I'm not in that line of work. There are a lot of things in society that are, quote, "sins" or moral wrongs that we don't make illegal. Just because something is immoral or something that is wrong doesn't mean that it should be illegal, and that the federal government or any level of government should involve themselves in.

In the case that I was talking about that started the controversy and the case was Lawrence versus Texas. I said if I was a state legislator in the state of Texas, dealing with the Texas sodomy law, I would have voted against it, because I didn't -- I don't think that's not something the state should involve itself in.

But the bottom line is whether the court then has the right to create new rights and in creating new rights - it opens up, in my opinion, Pandora's Box, which it did in the case of the Goodridge decision in Massachusetts which led to gay marriage in Massachusetts, gay marriage in Iowa and a whole host of other states.

MORGAN: Let me stop you there. I mean, you keep referring back to this quite complex case. That's fine. Actually, there are simple arguments here. Michele Bachmann raised this as a huge hot potato. Christine O'Donnell walked off my show when I asked her about same-sex marriage. And these are perfectly justified questions. You are, I believe, a Catholic.

SANTORUM: Yes.

MORGAN: So, you must have a view about whether homosexuality is a sin. I think if American people want to vote for you either way as president, they are entitled to know an honest answer to a straightforward question. You did invite me to ask you any question I liked.

SANTORUM: Yes, I did. And, of course, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is a sin. I'm Catholic and subscribe to the Catholic Church's teaching. But that's not relevant from the standpoint of how I view these issues from a public policy of view and that's (why) I answered the question the way I did. From a public policy point of view, there are a lot of things I find immoral -- morally wrong or as you would use the term "sinful" that don't necessarily rise to the level that government should be involved in regulating that activity. And so, I answered it correctly. I answered it, in fact, succinctly and directly, that while I think things are morally wrong, that doesn't rise to the level of government involvement in that activity.

MORGAN: How many sons do you have?

SANTORUM: We have four boys and three girls.

MORGAN: How would you feel if one of your sons turned around one day and said, "Dad, I'm gay"?

SANTORUM: I would embrace them, love them and try to help them through what I would see as a very difficult and troubling time in their lives. I know a lot of gay people. I know a lot of the folks that I've talked to who have gone through this, go through a lot of very difficult times in their life in coming to that decision and struggling with it even after admitting it. So, this is a difficult issue. I understand it's difficult issue. And my job as a father is to love my son unconditionally which I do and would do, and would continue what I could do to support him so he could live a good, a healthy and decent and faithful life.

MORGAN: I guess one of the reasons it's troubling and difficult for people to come out is because of the level of bigotry that's out there against them. I have to say that your views you espoused on this issue are bordering on bigotry, aren't they?

SANTORUM: No. I think just because we disagree on public policy, which is what the debate has been about which is marriage, doesn't mean that it's bigotry. Just because you follow a moral code that teaches something wrong doesn't mean that -- are you suggesting that the Bible and that the Catholic Church is bigoted? Well, if that's what you believe, fine.

I think that -- I shouldn't say fine. I don't think it's fine at all. I think that is -- that's contrary to both what we've seen in 2,000 years of human history and Western civilization and trying to redefine something that has been -- that is seen as wrong from the standpoint of the church and saying a church is bigoted because it holds that opinion that is biblically based I think is in itself an act of bigotry.

MORGAN: Well, I'm a Catholic, too. I just think, unfortunately, we're in a different era. We're in a modern world. And the fact --

SANTORUM: I don't think -- Piers, I don't think the truth changes. I don't think right and wrong change based on different eras of time. Things are -- there are some truths that are in fact eternal and are truth and based on nature and nature's law. And that's what the church teaches and that's what the Bible teaches and that's what reason dictates. And if you look at it from all of those perspectives, I think it's a legitimate point of view. I certainly respect people who disagree with it. But I don't call them bigoted because they disagree with me.

*****

Since the interview several people have commented on Morgan's manner and intent during this exchange. Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League said it best, "Despite the obvious Catholic-baiting, Rick Santorum was eloquent in his exchange with Piers Morgan. The discussion proved once more the gap that exists between the thoroughly secular values of our cultural elites and the Judeo-Christian ethos shared by most Americans.

"Most Americans, like most people on earth, reject gay marriage. Moreover, not a single world religion accepts this alternative lifestyle as being on a par with marriage, traditionally defined. And throughout history, in eastern as well as western civilization, the very idea that two men can get married would have been seen as bizarre, if not delirious. But Piers thinks "we're in a modern world," so things should change. Well, from the flash gangs in Philadelphia to the barbarism in the Middle East, there are plenty of reasons to wonder how modern we are.

"If this is what we've come down to-cultural elites branding every person who holds to the traditional understanding of marriage as a bigot-then it's a clear indication that the elites are incapable of rational discourse."

I agree with Bill Donohue. Rick Santorum did an excellent job under the fire of an interviewer  who had ill motives in the entire exchange. Piers Morgan wanted to paint this good man, Rick Santorum, as a "bigot."  Morgan simply did not agree with - and does not like - Santorum's clear defense of marriage as what it is - ontologically.  However, Rick Santorum is a courageous defender of the existence of objective truths and does not back down. His approach is refreshing in an age of cowardice and compromise.

We live in what Pope Benedict XVI called a "Dictatorship of Relativism." The relativists of this age have managed to persuade even some Catholics - Piers Morgan among them - that there are no objective truths; there are only "my" truths and "your" truths. In addition, they spread the notion that truth changes over time.

Some relativists try to dismiss the defenders of truth by ascribing their position as "religious" in order to marginalize their ideas and question their right to participate in informing the social order. However, some even go a step further. When intelligent, well formed Catholics like Santorum give a Natural Law basis for defending truth, people like Morgan dismiss them as "bigoted." That is what he did in this interview. It was the equivalent of a frustrated child resorting to name-calling.

Well-catechized faithful Catholic Christians - like Santorum - insist that there is a Natural Law, "present in the heart of each man and established by reason." This law "is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties." (CCC# 1956)

It is in the Natural Law that we find the ground for the moral truths which should inform our life together in a truly just and free society. It is there where we also find the fundamental and foundational human rights which we insist must be recognized by the civil or positive law as rightfully belonging to all men and women.

Our position on homosexual sexual practices as objectively disordered and our opposition to  efforts to undermine true marriage through the "Homosexual Equivalency Movement" - the movement which wants to call what can never be a marriage a marriage and then use the Police Power of the State to force all of us to do the same - is rooted in this Natural Law which binds all men and women.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church wrote in 2003, "The Church's teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose.

"No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives."

Like our position on the right to life from conception to natural death, our position concerning the true definition of marriage is not only a "religious" position. We claim that the truth concerning the nature of marriage - and the family founded upon it - is rooted in this Natural Law which can be known by all men and women through the exercise of reason.

Catholics also insist that these objective truths should inform a true humanism which will help all us live together in peace by promoting human flourishing. There is a Cultural Revolution underway in the West with two conflicting visions of the human person, human freedom, marriage and the family founded upon it as the first cell of a truly just society.

Rick Santorum struck a blow against relativism on CNN's Piers Morgan show. He defended the existence of objective truth and stood up to the effort to disparage him by name-calling undertaken by Piers Morgan. Keep your eye on this presidential candidate in the upcoming debates.

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