by Alan Dershowitz
Audience member: “And I want my testimony to read that I voted for a man who stands for the lord Jesus Christ. And you sir, you’re a pretender. You do not know the lord. You’re a Mormon.”
Romney: “One of the great things about this great land is we have people of different faiths and different persuasions. And I’m convinced that the nation does need to have people of different faiths, but we need to have a person of faith lead the country.” (Emphasis added.)
Mitt Romney on CNN 02/19/07
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Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has himself been a victim of bigotry because of his religion, engaged in a bit of religious bigotry himself recently. In the process, he also indicated that he does not believe in Article 6 of the United States Constitution, which declares that “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office…under the United States.”
Romney said he would impose such a test. He declared that “we need to have a person of faith lead the country.” Faith, of course, has become a euphemism for a certain kind of religious belief and practice. “Faith voters” are those who would generally support the religious right on abortion, gay rights, and school prayer, etc. But even if “person of faith” means only a person who believes in God, that too would be a religious test. Although Thomas Jefferson believed in a “Nature’s God,” (rather than the God of the bible) he was most assuredly not a “person of faith.” He rejected faith for reason. It is doubtful that President Lincoln would qualify as a person of faith since he rarely, if ever, went to church and was a member of no religious group.
If the current status of America proves anything, it is that we need people of reason—more Lincolns and Jeffersons. The last thing we need is a religious test for our Presidents.
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