The Devil and Mr. Santorum

So a couple years ago, Rick Santorum said this:

"This is a spiritual war," Santorum said in 2008. "And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies, Satan, would have his sights on: A good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age. There is no one else to go after other than the United States."

Santorum goes on to say that Satan has been "most successful and first successful" in attacking academia, saying Satan exploited the "pride of smart people." Then, he said, Satan went after the church, and now "we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it." (source)

Which isn't really surprising. Of course Rick Santorum believes that the US is under siege by the devil. Of course he does.

But now in 2012 he's being asked about the Satan-is-gonna-getcha comments, and he says this:

When pressed about whether he believes the country is under attack by Satan, he said:
"You guys are asking questions that are not relevant to what's being discussed in America today. What we're talking about in America is trying to get America working, that's what my speeches are about, that's what we're going to talk about in this campaign.

Not relevant?  Not relevant? How can it be not relevant. If you are asked whether or not you believe that Satan himself is attacking the nation, the only two acceptable answers are "yes, I still believe that" or "no, not any more." You can't say "Demonic forces laying waste to our country? Oh, that's not relevant anymore!" If you believe that the king of evilness is attacking America, how can anything else be relevant? How is that not problem #1?

 

Not for nothin' but this is a really good album.

Then he goes on to say this:

If they want to to dig up old speeches when I'm talking to a religious group, they can go right ahead and do so but I'm going to stay on message, I'm going to talk about what Americans want to talk about, which is creating jobs, 

So, what it doesn't count because you were talking to a religious group? Like we're supposed to know that you didn't really mean it, you were just giving the God squad want they wanted to hear? And now, you're out among the general public, so it's jobs, jobs, jobs?

I'm going to talk about what Americans want to talk about, which is creating jobs, getting our country safer and secure and yeah, taking on the forces around this world who want to do harm to America. You bet I will take 'em on."

So which is it? Are you going to be the country's chief defender against the devil, or is the whole devil thing no longer relevant? Because it doesn't really seem like you can have it both ways.