If Santorum met James Madison

I see Rick Santorum, has proclaimed that separation of church and state should not be absolute. That statement can sound reasonable to some Christians, but why would President James Madison have written that separation of church and state should be "total"?

Rick Santorum might be a wannabe, and James Madison was the 2nd President and "The Father of the Constitution"

Madison said it was good for the piety of the people, and today, many attribute American secularism to the vibrancy of religion in America, compared to the staleness of European religion (socialized religion).

Is secularism the ironic little secret to religious freedom and fervor?

First Madison's words:

The civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State (Letter to Robert Walsh, Mar. 2, 1819).

Secondly, Rick Santorum's:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/26/santorum-church-and-state_n_1302246.html?

 

Note the pic of the late JFK. In the 1960's, JFK felt obliged to assure protestant clergy in Texas that he was not The Pope's Manchurian Candidate.

 

Salty, I doubt you wish for a watered-down religious freedom, if you stop and think about it. Should certain denominations hold special privilege? According to numbers? Wealth? Skill at politicking?

Regardless, just allow me to ask, politely, what might Madison have been thinking when he used the word "total" in his letter? Why did he think that -good- for religion?