No Religious Test?
Article VI, section 3 of the United States Constitution states that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. Presumably this means that no federal employee, be they elected or appointed, can be required to adhere to any belief, doctrine or religion.
While that may be the true in the letter of the law, it’s often not the case in practice–particularly with the presidential elections.
Every four years we have a non-stop parade of candidates who try to out Christian one another. Who can be seen attending the most churches and speaking from the pulpits? Who has the strongest relationship with their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Who can infuse their speeches with the greatest number of Christian references?
There is, of course, the more disturbing element to this. LGBT citizens are denigrated and candidates promise to restrict their rights or eradicate them completely. Those of faiths other than Christianity and the non-religious are made to feel like second (or even third) class citizens. More and more promises are made to the faithful while others are left in the dust lest the faithful be “offended”.
Not all of the candidates go unscathed. While some gladly throw people under the political bus for votes, others do it less willingly. They must jump through all the right hoops to please the voting public, much of which is Christian, and a minority of which is comprised of the vocal and demanding RRRW. It is a deep-rooted prejudice among many such individuals that non-Christians, and non-believers in particular, are untrustworthy. Accordingly the potential for any such candidate to win an election is next to impossible. Indeed, if you are not a Christian, and preferably the right type of Christian, you’d best not even consider running for the office of president. Just look at what Mitt Romney has gone through because he is a Mormon, for example.
It is a vicious circle. Certain voters force the candidates to behave as they do, and the candidates act in a way that is harmful to other voters. Cycle after cycle the dance goes on, and it only seems to be getting worse.
Take, for example, this page on Barack Obama’s Website.
Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, And Is a Committed Christian
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Obama Spokesman Robert Gibbs Issued A Statement Explaining That “Senator Obama Has Never Been A Muslim, Was Not Raised As A Muslim, And Is A Committed Christian.” “Obama’s campaign aides have emphasized his strong Christian beliefs and downplayed any Islamic connection. The Illinois senator was raised ‘in a secular household in Indonesia by his stepfather and mother,’ his chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said in a statement in January after false reports began circulating that Obama had attended a radical madrasa, or Koranic school, as a child. ‘To be clear, Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ in Chicago,’ Gibbs’ Jan. 24 statement said.”
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Obama “Beckoning” Felt At Trinity United Church Of Christ, “Submitted Myself To His Will, And Dedicated Myself To Discovering His Truth And Carrying Out His Works.” Obama said, “So one Sunday, I put on one of the few clean jackets I had, and went over to Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th Street on the South Side of Chicago. And I heard Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright deliver a sermon called “The Audacity of Hope.” And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. I learned that my sins could be redeemed. I learned that those things I was too weak to accomplish myself, He would accomplish with me if I placed my trust in Him. And in time, I came to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world and in my own life. It was because of these newfound understandings that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity one day and affirm my Christian faith. It came about as a choice, and not an epiphany. I didn’t fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. The questions I had didn’t magically disappear. The skeptical bent of my mind didn’t suddenly vanish. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works.”
Barack Obama Is Not and Has Never Been a Muslim. Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.
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OBAMA IS A PRACTICING CHRISTIAN
Obama Has Been A Member Of Trinity United Church Of Christ For Twenty Years. Monroe Anderson stands up for Reverend Wright’s ministry, “For the past two decades, Barack Obama has been a faithful member of the congregation at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ.”
Obama Was Baptized And Attends Church Once a Week When He is Able. In the Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote, “I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized.” In 2004, he “attend[ed] the 11 a.m. Sunday service at Trinity in the Brainerd neighborhood every week — or at least as many weeks as he is able. His pastor, Wright, has become a close confidant.” When asked about his decision to be baptized, Obama said “Kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt I heard God’s spirit beckoning me,” he said of his walk down the aisle of the Trinity United Church of Christ. “I submitted myself to his will and dedicated myself to discovering his truth.”
Obama Reads The Bible, Finds Time to Pray On Campaign Trail. The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “Obama says he reads the Bible, though not as regularly as he’d like, now that he’s on the campaign trail. But he does find time to pray. ‘It’s not formal, me getting on my knees,’ he says. ‘I think I have an ongoing conversation with God… I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why I am doing it.’”
How strong the denials that Obama is or ever has been a Muslim. They even go so far as to deny Obama has ever prayed in a mosque. It’s as if being a Muslim is something dirty, depraved and shameful. Now I’m a mere atheist, but I can only imagine how offensive that page might be to Muslims who might come across it.
Then, of course, we learn how very devout a Christian Obama is. Because in order to prove that he’s not a Muslim he must proclaim his Christian street cred in every manner possible. Hence the myriad sources documenting in minute detail his conversion to Christianity, his weekly church attendance, his swearing into office with his personal Bible, his campaign trail prayers, etc, etc.
Mitt Romney, as I noted before, came under fire because he is a Mormon rather than a Christian. His website makes no reference to his religion that I could find. Better not to mention it, of course, because anything but Christianity is a no-no. In fact competitor Mike Huckabee attacked him with the Jesus and Satan are brothers according to Mormon theology claim not so long ago. Romney found very early that the less he said about his faith the better, and went to great lengths to assure voters that he would not impose “any one faith” on people should he become president. (Funny how Christian candidates never make any such promise, nor do they feel compelled to.) He then turned around and proclaimed that freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom. Translation: I won’t impose my faith on people, but I will impose faith on them.
Constitutionally there is no religious test for public office, and that should be enforced both officially and unofficially. Religion should not be part of a candidates race for office in any way, shape or form. Only when candidates are judged solely on their platforms will the races be truly equitable.
