Mitt Romney was recently asked if he thought his religion would hurt him in his fight for the presidential nomination. He told the Fox interviewer that it would only be a problem ”among a narrow group of individuals.” The first Catholic elected president, John F. Kennedy, was also optimistic he could prevail. But the Kennedy experience proves that the candidate himself never knows the power of prejudice beforehand. It’s only when you’re headed for victory, or when you’ve reached frontrunner status, that bigotry shows its ugly face.
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Comments
If you don't bring your religion into the White House, I won't bring your religion into the ballot box. Republican candidates (Perry especially, but I include all of them here) are touting their religious credentials and telling us how their religion would have an impact on what they do. Many of them want to overturn constitutional protections of civil rights like the separation of church and state and a woman's right over her own body-- all on religious grounds. This isn't 1962, with a candidate saying "I won't bring my religion into the White House," this is 2011, and the Republicans are promising to do just that.
Sorry, but I think that questioning a person's religion is absolutely legitimate. I was raised as a Catholic and yet I would definitely want to question a Catholic candidate regarding what his religion means to him and to what extent it dictates his beliefs and actions. There are some Catholics (I've known a few) who absolutely do believe that they have to follow the dictates of the Pope and I certainly wouldn't want one of those people in the White House or any other elected office. Questioning Romney about his religion and it's place in his life is also legitimate. He is not just a Mormon. He is, or has been, actually an official in the Mormon church. What does that mean to him? If there is a conflict between public policy and church teachings how will he deal with that? I don't think being Mormon, Catholic, Baptist, whatever, should automatically exclude anyone from office, but I do think it's possible that their practice of that religion could be a reason for exclusion. I'll also be interested to see how clear cut a question this is for people when a Scientologist finally runs for high elective office. On a side note, it is very difficult to write a comment when the type in the comment box is so tiny I can't read what I'm typing. It would also be nice if I could click like or dislike on a comment without having the entire page reformat and jump back up to the headline. This isn't rocket science and there's no reason for the Globe's web site to be so pathetically difficult to read and interact with.