POLITICS vs. RELIGION

(The following was published as a Letter to the Editor in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Friday, December 10, 2011.) Your self-serving November 23 editorial assures the reader that your call for more religious expression from political candidates does not "impose a religious test" on candidates, contrary to the explicit language of Article VI of the US Constitution. Of course, the First Amendment guarantees your RIGHT to be wrong, but you can't fool most thinking people by slyly imposing such a noxious, repugnant test then haughtily declaring that you have not done so. There is absolutely no place for religion in political debates. None whatsoever. Contrary to your assertions, it does not inform diddly about a particular "candidate's intellect and character." Political candidates are not running for priest or bishop but for secular political offices. If an overtly religious candidate should win an election, do we voters then get to blame God if that candidate does not perform up to par? I doubt it. Why not instead support the ideals and patriotic spirit of Article VI by making it clear that all political candidates should keep their personal religious beliefs to themselves? After all, Jesus said as much in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Ch. 6.