A Politician's Faith

[Dr. Shane]

This evening on the O'Reilly program a columnist for the Washington Post stated that since she believes in separation of church and state, a politician's faith is none of her concern. it is his or her private life and she doesn't need to know anything about it.

Does separation of church and state mean a candidate for political office shouldn't speak about his or her faith? Regardless if they are Mormon, Jewish, Evangelical Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist or whatever faith... is it appropriate for a politician to talk about their faith?

[Dr. Shane]

The First Amendment to the US Constitution has two clauses:

The Establishment Clause: Congress shall not establish any religion.

The Free Exercise Clause: Congress shall not forbid the free exercise of any religion.

Those two clauses are the basis of religious liberty in the United States. I have no problem with a politician talking about his religion as long as he or she doesn't want to establish it as a government religion or ban the free exercise of other religions.

[doug yowell]

Don't forget Article VI. which is what many people are trying to eliminate thru the backdoor approach.

[phkrause]

Don't forget Article VI. which is what many people are trying to eliminate thru the backdoor approach.

Not sure what Article VI is Doug. Could you elaborate? Thanks

And as far as back door is concerned, isn't everything in Congress or the Government in general done that way? LOL

[phkrause]

SHANE

making a statement that they are a certain faith is no

problem to me it is when the politician uses that

belief to try to get votes and promote his/her agenda

in getting those votes

dgrimm60

That's the sad part dgrimm