U.S. Constitution prohibits a religious test for office
If the point of the letter by the Rev. Harold Waldruff (Jan. 1) is that there is no constitutional wall preventing religious arguments in our current political discussion, I quite agree. But if his meaning exceeds this, and even slightly suggests that this is a Muslim, Jewish, Christian or even a godly nation, then he implies a religious test for office.
The position is a clear rejection of our right to the free exercise of religion under Article VI of our federal Constitution.
May we never forget that we broke away from the awesome power of His Britannic Majesty George III, designated so by the grace of God and who was by law an Anglican Christian. We adopted a constitution, a government, simply by "We the people ..."
Leigh Rodenbough
Greensboro
Comments (7)
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Only one comment for your great letter:
AMEN!
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Posted on January 7, 2008 9:41 AM
Leigh Rodenbough is quite correct in the statements above. The men who founded these united states were very well aware of the dangers of living under religious rule as they all had personal memories of having fought religious rule as part of their efforts to found this once great nation.
Mankind has always used religion to his own means and only through the total seperation of Church and State will humanity ever be protected from itself.
Sadly, too many Americans think the Bible is a history book and look to the Bible for every answer to every problem when in-fact the Bible contains far more questions than answers. No where in the Bible does it state, "Thou shalt not educate yourself in the knowledge of history and science."
Posted on January 7, 2008 10:07 AM
Many people use a religious test when it comes to selecting a President. Nothing unconstitutional about people making their choice based on many factors, including religion.
Personally, I'm more interested in a person's convictions, whether I agree with them or not, and whether I think they are strong enough to gain support from others.
Posted on January 7, 2008 4:22 PM
Nit,
Does that explain your view that an Obama Presidency would make Hitler look good? I'm still stupefied by that ridiculous post you made.
Are you still standing by that, or are you going to admit your ignorance on it? I'm throwing you a lifeline here....
Posted on January 7, 2008 6:44 PM
Leigh Rodenbough is right on target.
Posted on January 8, 2008 11:17 AM
My belief is that Obama is the worst thing that will EVER happen to this country and life as you know it will soon change tremendously.
Thankfully, God will win in the end.
You'll just have to wait and see won't you?
In a way, I'm hoping I'm wrong. So far, when it comes to Obama, I'm batting a perfect thousand when it comes to what I've said will happen. I don't know how I know this but I feel so strongly and surely about it. I've claimed for quite some time here and other places that he'll take the White House. We'll have to wait and see.
Then again, it's kinda hard to root against seeing the believers, living and dead, rise to be with God.
Posted on January 8, 2008 1:51 PM
God's running for president? I thought he couldn't run for another term...
Posted on January 8, 2008 2:44 PM