i’m a little startled to realize that I agree with Pastor Jeffries’ editorial in the Washington Post. He’s right that the Constitution bans any religious test for people holding public office, but it does not prevent you or me from imposing our own religious test. What a candidate believes or professes to believe matters quite a lot. For me personally, I care much less whether a candidate is Protestant or Catholic or Jewish or Mormon or Muslim or Buddhist or agnostic or whatever, than I do about whether they accept the expertise of scientists and whether they support a woman’s right to choose. If your religious beliefs lead you to doubt the theory of evolution or the theory of plate tectonics, I’m not voting for you.
I think it’s bigotry to rule out voting for someone just because they profess some religious belief that I find strange or implausible. But the moment that belief translates to policy, I have every right to take notice of it, and reject it.
There are members of every major religious faith that I could vote for. I suppose there are some religions or cults that I’d reject out of hand, but only because they’ve taken the crazy to a level I just can’t trust (the Hale-Bopp comet people, for example).
To bring this down to the here and now, it would be unconstitutional to deny Mitt Romney a place on the ballot because he’s a Mormon, but you and I can decide whatever we want about his religious faith and vote accordingly.
Of course, this all came up because Pastor Jeffries said the following about Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit:
“We understand Mormonism is not Christianity and thus the difference between somebody who’s moral and good like Mitt Romney and a true born-again follower of Christ,” Jeffress said after Perry’s speech, adding that Perry had welcomed his endorsement. “I really think the decision for conservative evangelical Christians right now is going to be, do we prefer somebody who is truly a believer in Jesus Christ, or somebody who is a good moral person but he’s a part of a cult.”
“It’s not politically correct to say, but it’s true. Mormonism is a cult. And for those reasons, besides Governor Romney’s lack of consistency on social issues, I think Rick Perry is the most electable choice among Christian conservatives,” he went on.
I don’t really have a strong opinion over whether Mormonism should be classified as a religion or a cult. Most people would say it is a religion. I also don’t have a strong opinion about whether it is a form of Christianity or not. Opinions will differ and I don’t really care. I find it to be an odd religion, but it’s not any more objectionable to me than the brand of Christianity practiced by Pastor Jeffries. In fact, I’d say it is less so.
I don’t like how Pastor Jeffries is using Romney’s religion as a political weapon. But he has the right to do so.