Rick Santorum, former presidential candidate of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, visited BYU-Hawaii on Tuesday, March 8. Held in the Heber J. Grant building, Santorum spoke on religious freedom and political activism from his own Catholic perspective, saying the United States was built on God-given rights and no other society has been founded on this principle.
“If you do not have the right to believe what you believe, what is the freedom of speech worth?” asked Santorum in defense of religious freedom.
He continued, “What good is freedom of the press? What good is the freedom of assembly if you can’t assemble for things that are essential to who you are? It is the foundational right and it is under assault in America today for the first time in the history of our country... on a massive scale.”
He said most other university students are not being taught like BYUH students. He said those others are being indoctrinated to believe people with moral codes and traditional values are a threat and impede their freedom. He encouraged students to “know their stuff” so they can effectively stand up for traditional values in the next generation of leaders.
Later in his speech, Santorum said this election will be the most consequential in the history of America. One of the reasons for this is the vacant position in the Supreme Court left by Justice Scalia’s death.
Santorum said with Justice Scalia’s death, the remaining justices included four Democrats, three Republicans, and one flopper. “If justice Scalia is replaced by a Democrat, then the likelihood will be that there is a block of five democratic Justices.” He also mentioned that two of those five are expected to retire during the next Presidency.
Greg Gibson, a BYUH associate professor of business and law, agreed with Santorum’s concerns of freedom of speech, specifically about hate speech statutes.
Gibson said, “If we have the hate speech statutes they have in England, Canada, or France, we’re in big trouble. I don’t know if our missionaries will be able to cry repentance because that will be looked at as hate speech, because we’re saying to them that people are doing wrong and that they're bad people and really all we're doing is quoting the Bible and the Book of Mormon.”
PJ Rogers, a BYUH professor of business, responded to Santorum’s speech: “I always say, ‘You control your world, but it’s hard to change the world.’ So the more you change your world… you can influence other people to help change ‘their world’ in the direction that Heavenly Father would like us to go.
"So can I change the Senate? No. But I can change [my] world and hopefully my children’s world and my students thinking to think we can control our destiny if God’s in it.” Santorum said it is ultimately up to the individual, not Congress, to bring change to the country.