The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is against Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and tried to use religion against him. Some of their emails were recently leaked, and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the DNC, Brad Marshall, said this about him in them:
“It might may [sic] no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”
They are using Atheist as a slur. Some people think being Jewish is better because they have faith in a God.
We have the separation of church and state because of the First Amendment. Article 6 guarantees that no one will ever have to pass a religious test to hold public office.
Hillary Clinton backed this view in an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday night:
“I am adamantly opposed to anyone bringing religion into our political process. I mean, the Constitution says no religious test, so that is just absolutely wrong and unacceptable.”
Religion should not even be brought up with politicians, but it is anyway. Right-Wingers are generally very religious. Americans may be getting warmer to the idea of an atheist politician, though.
A Pew Research survey in 2007 found that 61 percent of people polled would be less likely to vote for an atheist. Now, the number is down to 51 percent. We could do better, but this is a good start.
Greg Smith, associate director of research at Pew and the author of the report, said:
“We asked, ‘How important is it to you to have a president who shares your religious beliefs?’ And that turned up much smaller numbers.”
Results were what you might expect. For Republicans, 64 percent said that it is important for the candidates to share their religious views. However, only 41 percent of Democrats thought it was important. The people surveyed care more about the economy, foreign policy, taxes, terrorism, and climate change than religion in the 2016 election.
Religion does not need to be important for politicians. The separation of church and state needs to be upheld.
Here is a clip from one of the debates where Sanders was asked about religion:
https://youtu.be/8uBiDYh1sLU
Correction: Article 6 guarantees that there shall be no religious test to hold public office. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the Sixth Amendment.
Featured Image: Screenshot Of YouTube Video.
