Oh ye of little faith, do not be too hard on U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum for his abandonment of the Thomas More Law Center.

The Republican from Pennsylvania is looking at a tough re-election fight next year. That's why some are scornful of Mr. Santorum's announcement last week that he's withdrawing his affiliation with the public interest law firm that bills itself "as the sword and the shield for people of faith.''

That would be the Christian faith, which I happen to share. But it turns out Mr. Santorum, whose photo was still there with the rest of the advisory board on the law center's Web site yesterday, has just figured out how much religion goes into the work of this firm named for a Catholic saint.

It only took a losing court fight in his home state to put him on the path to enlightenment. Mr. Santorum now says the center "made a huge mistake'' in backing the Dover Area school board in its failed effort to move the notion of "intelligent design'' into science classrooms. Mr. Santorum told The Philadelphia Inquirer he is cutting ties with the firm.

Many see that as a curious turn. "The evolution of a flip-flop,'' one critic called it. Earlier in the year, Mr. Santorum had commended the school district for having "taken a step in the right direction by engaging in the debate and attempting to teach the controversy of evolution.''

But if Mr. Santorum wishes to grant himself retroactive naivete, who are we to judge? Perhaps he honestly didn't know this case was steeped in religion from the start.

Let us not waste our time today debating the unknowable. Let us rather increase it. We don't know how many precedents for Santorum-like disavowals of previous affiliations may exist. Consider these possibilities:

"It has recently come to my attention that the University of Notre Dame is a leading Roman Catholic institution of higher learning, and I am, evidently, the son of Norwegian Lutheran immigrants. I therefore see no choice but to submit my resignation as coach of the football team.

-- Regretfully,

Knute Rockne."

"Though this letter comes fairly late in our conquest of the known world, I recently have been made aware that some of my men may have inadvertently done some sacking and pillaging along the way. As I cannot abide such behavior, you may now consider me an ex-Khan.

-- Sincerely, Genghis."

"Nobody told us this job would involve so much travel! We can no longer in good conscience spend so much time away from our families. St. Louis is as far west as we care to go.

-- Yours truly,

Meriwether Lewis

and William Clark."

"While it is true that a handful of pages in our magazine are devoted to photography, I recently have learned that many subscribers ignore the articles entirely. I hereby resign as editor-in-chief of Playboy, but I'm keeping the pajamas.

-- Love always,

Hugh Hefner."

"I recently learned that teenagers have been shaking about rhythmically in disturbing and immodest fashion, entirely contrary to the religious principles by which I was raised. Perhaps I should have been clearer, but my music is intended for a sedate audience not given to emotional outbursts. Consequently, I must terminate my relationship with Sun Records and return to truck driving.

-- Sincerely, Elvis Presley.''

Mr. Santorum appears late to his understanding that the Dover case offers "a bad set of facts'' to test the teaching of intelligent design, and so the Thomas More Law Center lost not just the case, but a senator. Yet things could be worse.

St. Thomas More lost his head in 1535 for standing up to King Henry VIII. Lucky for modern lawyers, for whom More is the patron saint, the law has evolved since then.