MOLINE, Ill. - Rick Santorum told reporters Monday he did not agree with a controversial statement about non-Christians made by a Louisiana pastor at a church service Santorum attended Sunday in Greenwell Springs, La.

The Rev. Dennis Terry gave a rousing speech Sunday evening in which he suggested that non-Christians "get out" of the country.

"I don't care what the naysayers say. This nation was founded as a Christian nation. The god of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. There is only one God. There is only one God, and his name is Jesus. I'm tired of people telling me that I can't say those words. I'm tired of people telling us as Christians that we can't voice our beliefs or we can't no longer pray in public. 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!" Terry proclaimed loudly at the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church Sunday evening. "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."

After an event in Moline Monday evening, Santorum was asked repeatedly by reporters if he agreed with the pastor's words.

"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 but, obviously I believe in freedom of religion and all religions are welcome and should be. I think I've made that pretty clear throughout my campaign that I believe very much in freedom of religion, and folks should be able to worship whoever they want to worship and bring their thoughts in the public square and have at it and give them the opportunity to make their faith claims, and make their claims to reason and any other claims. That's what America's all about. As far as I'm concerned they should be here and make their arguments the best they can," said Santorum.

Santorum said he did not clap when the pastor made these comments.

"I didn't clap when he said that. I do remember him saying that, I said, well, I wasn't quite sure he was saying it for himself, I wasn't quite listening to everything to be honest with you. 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."

Terry also preached from the pulpit that the church should serve as "the conscience of the nation" and people should pray for God's forgiveness while abortion and same-sex marriage abounds in this country. "I believe the church is to be the conscience of the nation. The church needs to be the conscience of our state and our local community," said Terry.

"As long as they continue to kill little babies in our mother's womb, somebody's got to take a stand and say it's not right. God be merciful to us as a nation. As long as sexual perversion is becoming normalized, somebody needs to stand up and say God forgive us, god have mercy upon us. As long as they continue to tell our children that they cannot pray in public schools or pray in open public places today, somebody's got to take a stand and say God forgive us, God have mercy upon us. As long as they continue to tear down traditional marriage, listen, God intended for marriage to be between a man and a woman and as long as they continue to attacks marriage, somebody's got to take a stand and say no, no, no, no."

Terry handed over the podium to Tony Perkins, who introduced Santorum afterward.