Trigger warning for Rick Santorum talking about sex:
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, for purposes that are, yes, conjugal ... 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.
Okay. So many possible directions here. We could go the facts route—like how 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women use contraception, so even the vast majority of people who are supposed to oppose contraception, you know, don't.
Or how a majority of Americans support insurance coverage of contraception because despite the culture war against sex, Americans don't want to get pregnant every time they screw for—sorry, Rick—pleasure.
Or how no one should be taking sex advice from a guy who thinks homosexuality is just like "man on dog" sex.
But really, I think the obvious take-away from Ricky's screed against people having sex for—gasp!—pleasure is that, really, we should just pity poor, misguided Rick Santorum. And we should really pity his wife.
(h/t Think Progress)
