Judging Candidates' Religion

AM770 CHQR ^ | 3/27/2008 | Rob Breakenridge

[Alex Murphy]

Looks like Canada's not the only jurisdiction with human rights commissions acting as speech police - although in Delaware they're called human relations commissions:

A Delaware state human relations commission is investigating allegations that a fifth-grade teacher told her class she wouldn't vote for Barack Obama because he is "scary" and a Muslim.

 

The mother of a 10-year-old student complained, saying her daughter's teacher made the comments during a mock primary on Super Tuesday last month at a southeastern Delaware elementary school. The student is a Muslim.

 

The Democratic presidential candidate is a Christian, but he's had to fight against false Internet rumors suggesting he's really a Muslim intent on destroying the United States.

First of all, this would seem to be a highly inappropriate thing for a teacher to say (at any grade - let alone elementary school), and perhaps this is a matter best addressed with this teacher's employer.

It's unclear, though, exactly what was said. Did the teacher say Barack Obama is scary and he's a Muslim, or that he's scary because he's a Muslim. In any event, Barack Obama is clearly not a Muslim, although as the story notes there have been rumours to that effect (I'm not sure about the "destroying the United States" part).

But the rumours seem to arise from the apparent fact that Obama was - for a while, at least - a practising Muslim in his youth. That ought to be highly irrelevant to the average US voter, but Dr. Daniel Pipes makes an important observation:

All this matters, for if Obama once was a Muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed. Were he elected president of the United States, this status, clearly, would have large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.

In sum: Obama was an irregularly practicing Muslim who rarely or occasionally prayed with his step-father in a mosque. This precisely substantiates my statement that he "for some years had a reasonably Muslim upbringing under the auspices of his Indonesian step-father."

Here's the rub in all of this: voters may well vote or not for for a candidate based - in part, perhaps - on that candidate's religion. At times, it may arise from ignorance, as in the apparent case of this teacher, but obviously one cannot force voters to not be ignorant. There may well be some bigots who will vote for someone other than Obama simply because Obama is black. There's no way to read a voter's mind before handing him or her a ballot.

Certainly, US President Bush' religion seems to be quite relevant in shaping people's opinions of him - as you can see here.  I wonder if a teacher who were to call George Bush a "scary Christian" would be in as much trouble - somehow I doubt it. And, maybe Bush's religion should be an issue - maybe anyone's religion should be on the table. Once one reaches adulthood, joining a religion or continuing a religion involves a choice - what does that choice say about the person? Take this view on Mitt Romney's religion:

Which leading US presidential candidate believes that ancient Israelites migrated to America before Columbus, where they were – get this – visited by Jesus Christ?

This pseudohistorical fantasy is just about the battiest single idea I encountered when I was researching Counterknowledge. Yet a man who believes it currently has more delegates to the Republican convention than any other candidate.

Yup, we’re talking about Mitt Romney, who belongs to the only world religion built on a foundation of pure counterknowledge: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To be sure, all religions make claims that the outside world believes to be false. But the Book of Mormon is unique.

Why? Because, unlike the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Koran, nothing in it actually happened. Nothing. The “Jaredites” from the Middle East did not travel to America 2,000 years ago and found a civilisation that Mormon “historians” have the nerve to identify as the Olmecs. In fact, the Jaredites never existed.

Israelites did not arrive in the New World in 600 BC and split into Nephites and Lamanites; this is total fiction, devised by young Joseph Smith from New York in the 1820s. And – do I really need to point this out? – Jesus of Nazareth never set foot in America.

Mormonism is the only religion whose major claims (solemnly discussed in Mormon academic journals that have all the credibility of Star Trek fanzines) have been officially declared to be untrue by the Smithsonian Institution.

 

UPDATE: Many of the commentors below have taken exception to the above remarks with regards to Mormonism. For one, they are not my words, and secondly they do not necessarily represent bigotry towards Mormons. Critiquing the claims of a religion - or rejecting them outright - is not the same as discrimination, and we should be very careful about conflating the two. If you don't believe that Jesus Christ cured the blind and raised the dead, or if you don't believe that Muhammed flew on a horse-like creature to Jerusalem, that hardly equates to bigotry towards Christians or Muslims. And if you don't believe such claims, you may have some issues about voting for those who do.

[Alex Murphy]

All this matters, for if Obama once was a Muslim, he is now what Islamic law calls a murtadd (apostate), an ex-Muslim converted to another religion who must be executed. Were he elected president of the United States, this status, clearly, would have large potential implications for his relationship with the Muslim world.

[stuartcr]

That’s a pretty big IF...probably not that easy to prove if he was, besides, Bush 1 wasn’t a Muslim, and a lot of Muslims in the ME wanted to kill him anyway. I don’t see where it would make much of a difference.

[Eva]

We are not involved in a religious war with Mormons. Mormons have not attacked the US, nor have they declared a Jihad against the United States.

I have no problem with Mormons. Their beliefs are their own business, as long as they do not try to take away my coffee.

[Gumdrop]

I’m insulted in trying to show any comparison between a candidate being a Muslin sympathizer and being a Morman. I have Mormon friend, and they are all loyal and good citizens. It does not influence my vote on iota. On the other hand, Obama is claiming to be a Christian, but behaves like a Marxist and an black power candidate. He speaks like a lamb, but cavorts with lions.