Last Thursday, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz appeared on Hugh Hewitt’s radio program. After Senator Rubio’s comments in which he stated that he would attend a gay marriage, Hewitt asked Santorum and Cruz if they would do the same:

Hewitt: What matters more, Senator Santorum, knowing if a candidate will attend a gay wedding, or whether he or she will destroy the Islamic State before it throws hundreds if not thousands of gay men to their death?

Santorum: It is amazing that the left has not risen up and looked at Sharia Law, looked at Iran, looked how they treat minorities, looked how they homosexuals, looked how they treat a variety of different people over there under Sharia Law and condemn them and focus their energy on that. But you’re right, they don’t. They don’t focus their energy on anything but the attempt to gather more power in this country by using this issue of same-sex marriage as a tool to do that. So, the answer is: defending human rights everywhere is something that a President should be involved in. And if I were to run for president and get elected, that’s what I would do.

Hewitt: Now, let me ask you the question that was asked of Senator Rubio yesterday: Would you, Rick Santorum, attend a same-sex wedding of a loved one, a family friend, or anyone you were close to?

Santorum: No, I would not.

Hewitt: Well, why not?

Santorum: No, I mean, because I don’t—as a person of my faith that would be something that would be a violation of my faith. I would love them and support them, but I would not participate in that ceremony.

Hewitt also asked Cruz if he would attend a loved one’s same-sex marriage ceremony. Cruz responded:

Well, I will tell you that I haven’t faced that circumstance. I have not had a loved one go to a—have a gay wedding. You know, at the end of the day, what the media tries to twist the question of marriage into is they try to twist it into a battle of emotions and personalities. And they try to make it say, so for example, you know they routinely say ‘well gosh, any conservative must hate people who are gay.’ As you know, that has nothing to do with the operative legal question. And listen, I’m a Christian and scripture commands us to love everyone, and to love everyone and all of us are sinners. But, the legal question—I’m a constitutionalist, and under the constitution, from the beginning of this country, marriage has been a question for the states, it has been a question for the elected legislatures in each of the fifty states. And what we’ve seen in recent years from the left is the federal government and unelected federal judges imposing their own policy preferences to tear down the marriage laws of the states. And so, if someone is running for public office, it is perfectly legitimate to ask them their views on whether they are willing to defend the constitution, which leaves marriage to the states, or whether they want to impose their own extreme policy views like so many on the left are doing, like Barack Obama does, like Hillary Clinton does.

Joshua Pinho works for American Principles in Action.