From Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.One of the strangest aspects to being a religious liberal is that your beliefs are often assaulted from both sides: right wing fundamentalists have taken what you consider to be one of the most profound and beautiful aspects of existence, and bastardized it into a hatemongering fascism; while some atheistic liberals, whose understanding of religion has been defined by the bastardized version, make blanket denigrations of what they apparently don't understand; and while it's impossible to briefly explicate a non-dogmatic spirituality, it is both possible and necessary to emphasize the single most important aspect of religious liberalism, as it pertains to American politics. It's from Article VI of the United States Constitution:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.Bill Maher and Duncan Black (Atrios) are two of the most prominent American critics of religion's role in American politics. They are both atheists. Not that either would necessarily be interested, but both know that their atheism precludes the possibility of their ever being elected to high public office. Both are disgusted by this fact. They should be. We all should be.
To keep it in simple terms, Kurt Vonnegut is an atheist and a secular humanist; and while, from a purely literary standpoint, he may not be the greatest of writers, he is certainly one of the most humane. It would have been much to the world's benefit had most ostensibly religious American presidents shared just a fraction of Vonnegut's humanity.
It is an outrage and a moral failure that an atheist cannot be elected to high public office in the United States. It's also clearly not in the spirit of the U.S. Constitution.
From Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.Right wing religious nuts often claim that the Constitution is really meant to be a religious document. They point to the legitimate fact that many of the Constitution's Founders were deeply religious. For emphasis, they often come armed with quotes from the Founders' personal and public writings. To rebut the claim that these personal beliefs were intended to be part of the Constitution, critics burrow deep into the arcane writings of other Founders, including those of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It is not necessary to engage in such debates. There is only one argument that needs be made, to thoroughly and definitively eviscerate the right wing argument. It comes from another document written by the Framers, and adopted by the Founders. It's called the U.S. Constitution. From Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.If I've been repetitive, it is not without purpose. This simple fact cannot be overemphasized. It's salience in the debate over separation of Church and State cannot be overstated. It should be repeated, over and over, again and again. It should be inscribed on every federal office building. It should, in fact, replace the slogan "In God We Trust" on our currency. It is simple and concise, and its meaning could not be more clear. It is the only reference to religion in our Constitution. From Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.It has become so standard for Presidential candidates to be asked about their religious beliefs, that none any longer even blink. Their answers are as rehearsed and ready as are their answers to any questions on any major political issues; but this question should not be a political issue. I would love to see a candidate have the courage to tell anyone who asks about their religious beliefs that it is none of their business. Religion is a personal matter, and what one believes or claims to believe about it does not in any way necessarily reflect on what kind of person they are, or how they will behave in office; more importantly, it has no place in our political process. All a candidate needs to say, to prove qualification for public office, is that she or he believes in the Constitution of the United States; and the Constitution includes the following passage, in Article VI:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.Do our Presidential candidates believe in the Constitution, or do they not? They shouldn't be afraid to say so.
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