Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum applauded a sermon from an evangelical supporter telling non-Christians to "get out" of the United States, but now says he disagrees with that particular aspect of the speech.
Introducing the GOP Presidential candidate at a church service in Louisiana, Rev. Dennis Terry insisted that non-Christians should "get out" of the country if they are not willing to accept Christian values.
"I don't care what the naysayers say. This nation was founded as a Christian nation," Terry said. "There is only one God. There is only one God, and his name is Jesus. ... Listen to me. If you don't love America, and you don't like the way we do things, I've got one thing to say, 'Get out! We don't worship Buddha, we don't worship Mohammed, we don't worship Allah. We worship God. We worship God's son Jesus Christ."
Santorum denies clapping for the remarks, but stood to applaud at the end of the speech, which was also marked by calls to end abortion and stop gay marriage.
Grilled by reporters, Santorum said he wasn't paying much attention to the comments about non-Christians, and does not agree with Terry on the issue.
"If the question is, do I agree with his statement that America shouldn't do that? No, if he was speaking for himself he's obviously allowed to believe what he wants to believe," Santorum said. "But, obviously I believe in freedom of religion and all religions are welcome and should be."
"I wasn't quite listening to everything to be honest with you," Santorum added. "But I wasn't sure whether he was speaking for himself or speaking generally, but I didn't clap when he said that because it's not how I feel."
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