While barbarity and violence are hard for the human race to shake (after all, why stop what you’re good at?), there are some outdated habits we can nip in the bud in the spirit of progress. True, the long and arduous fight to abandon nose-picking is one that requires society’s undivided attention, but I’m referring to the reaffirmation of the U.S. Constitution’s most important tenant: the separation of church and state. It’s time we ignore faith when taking part in the selection of the leader of the free world.
Amid the hustle and bustle of the 2016 Presidential elections, a hot topic for voters, pundits and super PACs have been forced to consider the religiosity of the candidates they stand behind. Between Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pandering to evangelists and the scrutiny of Hillary Clinton’s devotion to Jesus, it is clear that faith plays an important role in how the American public elects their leaders. A very particular kind of faith.
But why?
Why is being faithful, particularly Christian, a de jure prerequisite for being president of the United States?
According to a Gallup Poll done in July of 2015, 40 percent of Americans would not vote for an atheist and 38 percent would not consider voting for a Muslim president. Though the general consensus is that Americans have become more accepting over time, the need to see a god-fearing president elected still reigns supreme. It doesn’t hurt to fear the right god either. The prospect of a polytheist president punctuating addresses to the nation with “May the gods bless America” is as humorous as it is sacrilegious for a sizeable majority of Americans.
Scripture’s irrevocable role in American politics has led to a culture of discrimination against those who don’t believe in the right god or don’t believe at all, leading a number of voters to write off leaders with great potential and perspective. In the worst case, it has seeped into the mechanics of policy in deciding what students of public schools can and cannot learn, as well as the rights of Americans in deciding who is allowed to love whom.
As a president should never be discounted for being a Christian, so should he or she never be obliged to be one in order to hold office. The unfettered influence of Christianity in politics is a complete disregard of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, a constitution that many of these same religiously devout people hold next to God in sanctity. When the right to bear arms or a state’s right to deny rights are at hand, the Constitution might as well BE the Bible. But the First Amendment seems to have been tossed aside and ignored altogether like the Apocrypha.
The Founding Fathers of our nation intended a government that held no religion higher than another. Yet for all the veneration they receive from Americans, religious or not, their vision for progressiveness is vastly ignored and understood only as one of those superfluous wisdoms the Constitution is full of.
Some of these men were religious Christians themselves, yet they nonetheless understood the importance of keeping faith from the workings of government. They understood the complexity of religion could be perverted and used as a political tool by rousing factions, alienating minorities and legislating unfair laws. We seem to have forgotten that.
Beyond the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers echoed the sentiment of no religious affiliation in Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, saying, “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." If we as a nation could hold these truths to be self-evident, we would be better off.
People who demand Muslims denounce those who commit murder and war in the name of Islam should apply their enthusiasm to religious Americans: Have them denounce the meshing of church and state.
Justin Ford is a UF journalism junior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
