Whether we want to admit it, American voters establish arbitrary litmus tests for political candidates. These may ultimately disqualify certain individuals from ever holding office. As a member of a religious minority, one of these qualifications stings: the asinine requirement that we have a Christian president.
I bring this up because, once again, President Barack Obama’s religious beliefs are being called into question. This time, it’s Wisconsin governor, and likely Republican presidential candidate, Scott Walker. When asked whether Obama is a Christian, Walker responded he didn’t know.
In Walker’s defense, he chastised the media for asking the question, but the fact remains: Six years after Obama’s election, the press and politicians are still questioning his religious beliefs and background. It’s getting a little trite, but there’s far more to it than the repetitive nature of the question.
The six-year-long obsession with the president’s religion is especially disconcerting, because the subtext appears to say if you aren’t a Christian, you absolutely shouldn’t serve as president. What’s more disconcerting is the large number of Americans who actively subscribe to this belief. Freedom of religion is a founding tenet of the U.S., yet we still apply a religiosity test to presidential candidates, and it’s growing unnerving.
Is it not enough to judge a presidential candidate based on how well he or she could perform the duties required of the office? The belief among some that a president must subscribe to Christianity is downright offensive, and it’s something we should strive to end.
Thankfully, those who demand Christian presidential candidates or desire a theocracy are blocked by a constitution that guarantees the separation of church and state. But these lines are certainly blurred when you consider legislatures across the country regularly have religious leaders provide invocations during legislative sessions and that the president is expected to attend the National Prayer Breakfast each year.
It may all seem a bit overblown, and perhaps as a religious minority myself, I’m reading too much into the desires of some Americans, but recent poll data indicates otherwise. Public Policy Polling released a national poll this week and found 94 percent of those supporting Republican Mike Huckabee for president want Christianity established as the national religion. Overall, 57 percent of all Republicans would like to establish Christianity as a national religion.
A majority of those who identify as Republican want to establish an official religion in a country founded on the freedom of religion. That is terrifying.
What makes the U.S. great is our diversity. Religious diversity is included in this. While we may be predominantly Christian, we are also a country of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, atheists and other religious — or irreligious — beliefs. We cannot and should not let Christians seeking an official religion terrify or vilify others for their religious beliefs.
The first English colonists to the New World sought religious freedom from the persecution they faced in England, yet hundreds of years later, we continue to ignore the reasons why many settled in what would become the U.S. We can laugh off the religious fundamentalists trying to impose national religion on 300 million Americans, but when you look at it from the perspective of a religious minority — especially one that’s faced enormous persecution in the past — it’s hard to ignore the desires of a few extremists.
There’s no questioning the presence of rampant Islamophobia among many in this country. After Obama defended Islam and stated people — not religions — are responsible for terrorism, the right wing freaked. In a moment of awful word vomit, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed the president doesn’t love America, and once again started the debate of where Obama’s loyalties lie.
Instead of bashing the president for doing his best to prevent widespread Islamophobia in the U.S., we should question those who want to impose a religious order on our own country. When you consider it, what’s the difference between those supporting a theocracy in the U.S. or a theocracy in the Middle East aside from religious beliefs? Nothing. That’s why significant support for a theocratic America should terrify you.
Joel Mendelson is a second-year UF political campaigning graduate student. His column appears on Fridays.
[A version of this story ran on page 7 on 2/27/2015 under the headline “Beware those who support the establishment of national religion”]
