Rick Santorum and the religious right have turned the U.S. Constitution on its head by inventing a new definition of religious freedom: their right to force their beliefs on others.

Do you want to use birth control or does your doctor recommend an amniocentesis? They claim that it is a violation of their rights for your insurance to pay for your health care. Need a mammogram? They pressured the Komen Foundation to cut funding.

They won’t stop there. In a 2008 speech at Ave Maria University, Santorum said, “We look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it.”

Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians beware: a potential U.S. president dislikes your religion enough to say so in public.

For more than 200 years, the Constitution, particularly Article 6 and the First Amendment, has enabled Protestants, Catholics, Jews, people of other faiths and unbelievers to peacefully live together.

This freedom is under attack more than ever before. We have only to look at history — centuries of inquisitions, pogroms, crusades and witch trials — to see just how dangerous Santorum and his followers are.

Robert Collins
Birmingham