There should be a religious test for politicians.
If you’re too religious, you should not be a politician
That is the opposite of what this country was built on; freedom of religion.
Being religious should not disqualify anyone, but if you push past separation of church and state then and only then should you be disqualified
I’m pretty sure that was the point of the original comment.
Who decides what is too religious?
When you start talking like Mike Johnson about how people need to follow his religion and how our government needs to enforce his religious values, you’re too religious to be allowed in government.
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Me
I know a guy named Doug he’s, pretty smart
Being too religious should absolutely disqualify you, just like believing the world is flat or any number of other complete nonsense should disqualify you.
So… you’re saying ….
If they’re too religious… they should be disqualified…
The line for you being that they try to force their beliefs on others. Which, personally, I view as a given when their campaign platform includes “Christian Values” (or any other religion’s values,)
If you can’t make a secular argument…. It doesn’t belong in government.
The Puritans came here to seperate THEIR church from the state, after that it became them imposing their religion on natives.
The actual country’s founding in 1776 was. Far from religious, and many of the founding fathers were not religious or outright anti religion
Bring religious should be a disqualification. You have a higher master you serve. You can’t be trusted to put the country and the citizens first.
I imagine they weren’t being serious
Religious beliefs are not disqualifying, but if that’s your whole way of being, you should not hold public office. Render unto Caesar.
There’s a Canadian politician I refuse to vote for because he’s seihk, wears the turban and religious regalia. Of course you get called racist, but I wouldn’t vote for a Jewish person in Orthodox garb, or a Christian carrying a Bible everywhere. It tells me that you put your religion above everything, even your constituents.
Of course there’s an India/seihk scandal going on right now. Having a super religious seihk in power would have made that one a way bigger shit show.
Perhaps start by learning how to spell Sikh before passing judgment on them.
Right cause that’s the issue
I don’t understand what people think of when they read…
If you’re too religious, you should not be a politician
but it’s literally part of what you’re saying. Why the downvotes, because they’re naming specifics of what signals to them being too religious? Make it make sense, Lemmy.
It’s because adherence to religious dress codes is not a clear indicator of fundamentalism or evangelism. Women who choose to wear burkas, niqabs headscarves etc are not immediately downtrodden and subservient women who agree with religious sexism. A Sikh man choosing to wear a turban and not shave his body hair is not a clear indicator that he’s a fundamentalist in any way.
Judge politicians by their words and actions, not by how they look. There are many religious zealots who wear simple suits and dresses.
You took the ACTION of putting on garb that says your religion is above everything else. I will judge you for that on the political field
You took the ACTION of putting on garb that says your religion is above everything else
Incorrect assumption. A dominant religion in any given society will influence cultural and societal norms. Sometimes, perhaps even more often than not, the reason for wearing religious clothing is social conformity. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the wearer is a fundamentalist or even religious at all. There are even atheists who wear religious clothing just because the community they belong to excepts them to do so and they don’t want to stand out (applies to all genders). And that’s just one of several possible reasons other than the one you assumed to be the only possible explanation.
At the end of the day my argument is that I want politicians of any stripe or religion to leave their religion at the door. Anyone who puts their god’s will into their decision making process (which all religious people do) has no business in politics
That’s reasonable and I agree with that. I’m just pointing out that religious clothing doesn’t necessarily mean that that person will do what you fear. As Instigate points out, their words and actions are what matters and what we should be paying attention to.
You know what? Yes. And if you’re found to be swayed by your religion while making law? You should be barred from office.
Shot for treason
I’d like to test him about feeding the hungry. Sheltering the homeless. Comforting the widow. Coveting your neighbors goods. Doing to others as you would like have done to you. I’m not even fucking talking about religion, either.
I’d like to test him about the desire for control and dictatorial tendencies. He would fail every time
I wish these chucklefucks would realize not all of us believe in god let alone the same one they pray to.
They do realize this. They see it as a problem that needs fixing.
They seem to forget one of the main reasons people founded this country in the first place. Freedom OF religion includes freedom FROM religion.
That’s not how they see it though.
The US Constitution was set up and amended in such a way that religions could not be interfered with by the state, but such that religions could invade the state and exert influence there. It’s not so much a Freedom from Religion as it is a Freedom for Religious People. Goddamn puritans.
No, that’s what Barton wants people to believe. But when you read what the Founders had to say about church and state, they made it pretty clear they wanted to keep religion out of the state as well.
“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”
- John Adams
The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. … But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding…
meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Mohammeden, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
- Thomas Jefferson again
If they are good workmen, they may be from Asia, Africa or Europe; they may be Mahometans, Jews, Christians of any sect, or they may be Atheists…
- George Washington, to Tench Tilghman, March 24, 1784, when asked what type of workman to get for Mount Vernon, from The Washington papers, edited by Saul Padover
…I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.
- George Washington, to United Baptists Churches of Virginia, May, 1789 from The Washington papers, edited by Saul Padover]
For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
- George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island | Wednesday, August 18, 1790
While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable.
- George Washington letter to Benedict Arnold | Thursday, September 14, 1775
Surely if they wanted to keep religion out of the state, they’d have written that into the Constitution or one of the early amendments, right? It’s not like they didn’t have the power to do so. They specifically chose not to, knowing that their government could easily invaded by religion, which indicates at least that they were ambivalent to the idea.
Those quotes are all well and good but what matters is the letter of the law. These men wrote the law, and the law doesn’t forbid religion in the state. It doesn’t matter what a politician says, but what they do - and what they did allowed for what we’re seeing today. It was obviously on their minds as they spoke about the idea of wanting to keep church and state separate, but then they did nothing at all to safeguard the state - the only protections are for the churches.
They were either in favour of the church being able to control the state, or wilfully ignorant that this could happen unless it was forbidden in the Constitution. If they wanted to stop this from happening, they would have.
There is a ‘no religious test’ bit in the constitution It turns out that the only religious test the constitution sanctions is DON’T PROPOSE RELIGIOUS TESTS
That’s the one that tells us you can’t be trusted with secular authority
Now we got to listen to this bullshit. Would love to see him take a test on the bible.
We’ll start by asking him to list all twenty commandments, since conservatives usually claim that they love them so much.
Um, excuse me!? There were 15!
Uh, 10! Only 10!
Start with “Which came first, people or animals?”
Genesis 1:
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 2:
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
Indeed. Two stories from two regions mashed up into the Septuagint along with a number of other writings, much of it proven to be anachronistic, meant to unify a kingdom politically against its rivals under one religion and one god where before there were many of each. It’s also why you see god being named in different ways in different books.
Yup. Genesis 1 is the Elohist creation myth, Genesis 2 is the Jawhist creation myth. But try telling that to biblical literalists.
Thanks; I couldn’t recall the details of which was which.
Biblical literalists are in for some disappointment or further self delusion if told this, I am guessing.
meant to unify a kingdom politically against its rivals
Someone has been reading their Finkelstein, haha. I am not saying he isn’t right I remain on the fence about it as of this time.
I feel like a major lesson from the Trump era is that no one has to take American evangelicals seriously when they talk about how their faith informs their politics. They can and will justify anything so it’s just a waste of everyone’s time to pretend they’re sincere in their beliefs.
This is it exactly. Start with what someone is trying to justify doing first and foremost. It doesn’t matter what they believe. A nihilist fascist should be exterminated all the same
I fully support this. Anyone who claims to be religious - of any kind - will not get my vote.
Ironic considering that Jews and atheists tend to be more knowledgeable than Christians about religion: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/07/23/what-americans-know-about-religion/
Man, these guys just hate this country so very much. It’s so obvious because they keep ignoring and/or gaslighting about one of the most important things about this country, and that is that it is a SECULAR country.
This is turning into a South Park episode.
🌎👨🚀🔫👨🚀
I would love to see how closely they follow “love thy neighbor”
thats why they try so hard to change who is allowed to move in next door
Praze ba jeebuz
It seems like he was urging people to vote based on candidates’ religious beliefs. This is not a “religious test” in the Constitutional sense.
What do you think the Constitution means when it says “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
That you don’t have to profess any particular religious beliefs in order to qualify as a candidate for office.
This is precisely what Johnson is advocating. If you’re not a Christian, if you’re not his kind of Christian, he thinks you shouldn’t be eligible for office. He’s explicitly telling people not to vote for people who don’t share their religious identity.
That’s a religious test.
I think you misunderstand what the constitution does and doesn’t do. It defines the structure, powers and limits of the Government.
The clause means that the Government cannot instate a religious test on candidates for office. It does not dictate how individuals are allowed to decide which of those candidates they vote for.
It should be in there. Article 2 section 9 paragraph 4 “don’t vote for a dumbass”
He’s telling voters what he’d like them to do. He’s allowed to do that, and voters are allowed to take religious beliefs into account when casting their ballots.
How would you even enforce a rule that prohibited voters from doing that? Particularly on a secret ballot?
When preaching from the pulpit, people assume the authority of their god. He’s not suggesting, he’s telling them how they have to behave in order to be good Christians.
Don’t make excuses for villains like this.
I’m not making excuses, I don’t even support this guy. And if I were in his district, I would take his religious beliefs into account and vote against him. As would be my right.
I’m simply pointing out what is and is not covered by the US Constitution. The Constitution pertains to the government, not the people. It limits what the government can do, to include making religious tests a qualification for office, but does not say a damned thing about what the voters are allowed to consider.
If he’s preaching politics from the pulpit…
There’s a good chance a 501c corp needs to loose it’s 501c status
As soon as he provides proof that he’s not made out of wood.
My boy crawled right out of Madame Tussauds for the speaker position
