Opinion

Healthy faith in America — less so in the pols

The Issue: References to religion by some of the candidates in next year’s presidential race.

The media’s religious test for Republican presidential candidates is absurd (“The Anti-God Squad,” Michael A. Walsh, PostOpinion, Aug. 30).

Mitt Romney’s Mormonism and Michele Bachmann’s fundamentalism don’t concern me in the least.

The press should be more concerned about President Obama’s sense of social justice.

Richard Rizzo

North East, Pa.

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Bachmann and Perry are using their faith on the campaign trail to win votes from a vast number of like-minded Christians.

They are entitled to their beliefs, and it’s OK for them to express them, but they should know there are huge numbers of devout Christians in America who are not fundamentalists.

And there is a multitude of citizens of other religions.

If Bachmann and Perry are going to be so open in using their personal faith as campaign strategy, they should have to answer the question: Does a person have to be a follower of Jesus to get into Heaven?

Paul Whiteley

Louisville, Ky.

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Democrats continue to prove they have no religion other than the religion of themselves.

The Founding Fathers had a deep belief in God. They didn’t care what God you believed in, only that you have the right to do so.

To criticize someone for that belief is despicable.

As a Jew, I don’t care that Bachmann or Perry call on God to help. In fact, I’d rather have a candidate for president who does than one who doesn’t.

The day Americans take God out of the equation will be the day America ceases to exist.

Bret Wallach

Hicksville

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Walsh’s claim that there can be no conflict between a presidential candidate’s religious faith and the Constitution because that document is a “product of the Judeo-Christian Enlightenment” is pure rubbish.

The Enlightenment was a secular reaction to Judeo-Christianity and has been recognized and denounced as such by religious fundamentalists to this very day.

Indeed, the harshest critics of the Constitution when it was ratified were Christian ministers who condemned it as a godless and blasphemous document because the text made no reference to God and failed to allow for an established national church.

Dennis Middlebrooks

Brooklyn

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It’s not their being Christian that alarms me about some of the current GOP candidates as I, myself, am Christian.

What is alarming is the tone of exceptionalism that they seem take on when speaking about religion.

This is the same tone that Republicans use when speaking about patriotism.

They posture their belief in God or their patriotism as being so acute and resolute that it elevates them over those who may not agree with their positions.

And to disagree with them calls into question one’s own love of country or implies a lesser relationship with God.

Dan Bianco

Manhattan

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The GOP is anti-science. It denies global warming and wants to do away with stem-cell research and people’s right to chose abortion.

Republicans deny Darwin’s theory of evolution because it goes against their religious beliefs.

They think there are too many crooks on welfare taking money from them, yet this goes against their Christian belief of loving the less fortunate.

Having an unlimited supply of money to outspend opposing candidates isn’t enough. Republican candidates would also like to enlist the shield of God.

And, from their point of view, if you are not with the Republican Party, you are against them and God.

“The Anti-God Squad” articulates the GOP defense against any negative criticism with a warning to stop picking on them because they represent the Christian majority in America.

Are their complaints justified?

If so, America’s future looks a little scary.

Gil Martin

West Palm Beach, Fla.