In my Examiner column today on Rick Santorum, I noted how his espousal of his strong religious beliefs threatens to get him into political trouble. But this Huffington Post piece by Sam Stein indicates that Santorum did not always have such strong beliefs, and that when he first ran for Congress in 1990, the year he turned 32, he was not as strong an abortion opponent as he is today. Stein quotes the 1992 Santorum campaign’s response to a questionnaire and a 1995 Philadelphia Magazine article quoting Santorum as saying, “I was basically pro-choice all my life, until I ran for Congress.”
Does this mean Santorum is some kind of hypocrite? I don’t think so. It does suggest he changed his mind on this and perhaps many other issues around the time of his marriage to his wife Karen in 1990. Whatever their previous lifestyles and practices, they embraced a strong Catholicism, gave birth to eight children (one of whom died shortly after being born) and home-schooled their children. Many people change their beliefs and lifestyles in young adulthood, often around the time of marriage; there is nothing necessarily hypocritical about this. Another example is Senator Harry Reid and his wife. He grew up in an irreligious household and she in a Jewish family; when they married they decided to join the Mormon Church and, from all outward evidence, have been faithful adherents ever since.
I don’t see any reason to criticize the Reids or the Santorums as hypocrites. From what I can see, each couple found a way that worked for them and pursued it faithfully.
