RELIGIOUS TESTS

Regardless of how "devout" a given public figure is, his or her "faith" or religion has no place being discussed in the public square.  Article VI of the US Constitution explicitly provides that government (at any level) shall not impose a religious test for holding public office.  Obviously, this does not empower a "gag order" for people nor publications, yet it does present a good idea, and private individuals and journalists and publications would do well to heed the principle, that no one's religion or "faith" is any business but his or her own.  One's religious beliefs or practices, per se, are not "news items."

This unwritten rule also applies to candidates, who have no business injecting their religious beliefs or practices into the public square, thus implicitly validating the notion that there SHOULD be a religious test for public office!  Regardless of his many obvious shortcomings, Mitt Romney did try to minimize public discussion of his personal religion last year, as well he should have.  Too bad that Barack Obama won't follow suit, desperate he seems to prove, over and over, that he's not a Muslim (as if it was some dead animal) but is a Christian!