One major theological disagreement between Obama and religious conservatives concerns salvation. Obama happens to be the kind of Christian who believes non-Christians, including his beloved mother, can go to heaven.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/the-religion-and-politics-of-division/2012/02/22/gIQArmLVVR_print.html

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Two days before the Arizona and Michigan primaries, Rick Santorum made a broad appeal to social conservatives on Sunday, arguing that religion and conservative principles were at risk, both on college campuses and in the public square.

On the ABC News program “This Week,” Mr. Santorum repeated his belief that President Obama was wrong — was, indeed, a “snob” — for encouraging all Americans to go to college.

And he defended his view that John F. Kennedy, before he became president, was wrong to assert that the separation of church and state should be absolute.

Mr. Santorum spoke with the program’s host, George Stephanopoulos, from this town in far Northern Michigan, where he is campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. Michigan’s primary is Tuesday. He told Mr. Stephanopoulos that college campuses were liberal bastions that remained hostile to conservative students.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/santorum-says-religion-and-conservative-principles-are-at-risk/?hp

 “It’s the biggest issue in this race,” Mr. Santorum said. “It’s about government control of your life, forcing you to buy things then forcing their values on you and your religion, which, by the way, Governor Romney did in Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts by forcing them to distribute the morning-after pill. Why would we give those issues away in this general election?”

Mr. Romney, speaking to about 300 people on the floor of a manufacturing plant in Rockford that makes office electronics, upbraided Mr. Santorum for focusing more on social issues than on the economy.

“It’s time for him to really focus on the economy,” Mr. Romney said, adding that it was also time for voters to consider who has more experience.

“Senator Santorum’s a nice guy, but he’s never had a job in the private sector,” Mr. Romney said. “He’s worked as a lobbyist, he’s worked as an elected official, and that’s fine, but if the issue of the day is the economy, I think to create jobs it helps to have a guy as president who’s had a job, and I have.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/us/politics/santorum-and-romney-make-l...      

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But in the final debate in Arizona - yet another state with a hefty Hispanic population - Romney applauded the state's vicious crackdown on illegal immigrants, repudiated by the Obama administration as unconstitutional, as "a model". For good measure, Romney launched an attack on Sonia Sotomayor, the first Puerto Rican member of the US Supreme Court. In terms of political strategy, it's like watching a man put a rope around his neck and kick away the chair.

Republicans win by stressing their superior ability in standing tall, defending the United States against its enemies, steering the ship of state in the right direction. They don't win campaigns on social issues, like abortion. There's just been a tussle here about contraception, and whether employers should be paying for birth control in their health plans. Romney condemned the Obama administration for requiring church-affiliated organisations to do so.

For a couple of weeks Americans have been listening with some incredulity to Santorum denouncing the separation of church and state, and saying he "threw up" when he read a speech by President John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, endorsing just such a separation in his campaign in 1960. So does Santorum want America to become some sort of snooping theocracy, with no bedroom free from its intrusions? Santorum seems quite blithe at the prospect. And over in the other corner is a Mormon, active in his faith and secret rites. Is this a recipe for victory in modern America?

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/us/us-election-2012/45605/romney-beats-santorum-hell-never-take-white-house#ixzz1nlGjlpwh