4.2.12 WC: 191694 Justice O’Connor was not, of course, the first (or the last) public office to use Christianity in the of partisan politics. The issue got so bad during the 1984 presidential race that Walter Mondale found it necessary to remind Ronald Reagan that in the United States the president, unlike the queen of England, is “not the defender of the faith” but rather the “defender of the Constitution.” In 2012, A Republican candidate for President, Rick Santorum, said that the concept of an absolute separation of church and state, as articulated by John Kennedy when he was running for president, “makes me want to throw up.” Other candidates, though expressly themselves less graphically, have also railed against the separation of church and state. “Faith” has become synonymous with “values” in the minds of many although there is absolutely no correlation. Indeed, the “values” espoused by people who would impose their faith on others are highly questionable. They include denying gays the equal protection of the law, denying women (and young girls) the right to choose abortion, and sometimes contraception, even in compelling cases; and, often, other conservative political “values” that have nothing to do with religion, such as low taxes, the right to bear arms, the death penalty and widespread censorship. The debates over these issues, especially gay rights and the right to choose abortion, have become wedge controversies that are unduly influenced by the churches in violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of our Constitution. The rights of gays to absolute equality When I was growing up, it was impermissible to use any words that were demeaning to African Americans (who we called Negroes or colored), to other religions or ethnic minorities (except for the Germans and Japanese during World War IJ) or to women. But insulting gay boys (we had no idea there even were lesbians) was perfectly acceptable. Indeed, we commonly used “the F word” to insult non-athletic