And then I thought, what if ... one of the Santorum children ... rebels? (After all, there are seven of them, remember?)
Rick Santorum and his wife practice a particularly conservative brand of Catholicism (surprised?) that includes, among other things, celebrating the Mass in Latin, not in the vernacular as has been the case since the Vatican II reforms back in the early 1960s (when Santorum and I were in kindergarten). It's a type of Catholicism that even my parents would have found a little ... extreme. (And that's saying something!)
Even Catholic schools (which Santorum attended) aren't conservative enough for the former senator and his wife. Instead, all seven children were homeschooled. (I think even my sister would roll her eyes at that one!)
So, again, what if one of the Santorum children grows up to -- oh, I don't know -- marry a more mainstream Catholic, for example? (And practice birth control.) What if one of them grows up to marry a Protestant, or a Jew? (How about a Muslim? Now I'm getting crazy!)
What if one of them should announce to the family that, "I'm not so sure about all this religion stuff after all. What if none of us really knows anything about that which exists beyond our experience?"
What if one of the Santorum children comes out to the rest of the family as gay?
What then?
Would the Santorums take it as an opportunity for personal growth? Would they reconsider some of their most basic assumptions? Would they start to realize that maybe they don't have it all figured out? Would they begin to look at the universe differently -- in shades of gray, rather than in simple Black and White?
Or would they cling to their peculiar worldview and shun their own child?
I wonder.
But stay tuned; there are seven Santorum children, remember? Something's bound to happen.
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