On the Constitution and Religious Beliefs

From the November 9th issue of the Washington Post

All Americans are absolutely entitled to adhere to the worldview that the United States was founded as a Christian nation to defend Western values. However, when they take an oath of office to defend and protect a Constitution that is incompatible with that deeply held view, pluralistic democracy has a serious problem.

There are two ways to resolve the issue. [Jay] Ashcroft [Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri] presents one: Resign if you cannot put your religious views aside. The other is to admit that you must put those views aside to hold public office. When the issue is not evangelical Christianity, but rather John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism or Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, politicians have taken pains to assure voters that their religion would not dictate their actions in office. We should expect no less of today’s elected officials, including [Speaker of the House Mike] Johnson.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable take on the responsibilities of elected officials in a pluralistic democracy.