LITTLE ROCK — It’s easy to sympathize with President Obama over the drumbeat of misrepresentations of his religion, place of birth and even the validity of his Social Security number. But in protesting too much that he is a Christian-and one, moreover, who prays daily-the White House may be encouraging the impression that there is a religious test for the presidency and that a Muslim would fail it.
The White House insisted on Obama’s Christian bona fides after last week’s release of a Pew Research Center poll showing that 18 percent of respondents thought he was a Muslim, compared with 11 percent who expressed that belief in March 2009.
An Obama spokesman minimized the importance of the poll. Yet a clergyman who is one of Obama’s spiritual advisers-and who also counseled President George W. Bush-materialized to complain that “never in the history of modern-day presidential politics has a president confessed his faith in the Lord and folks basically call him a liar.”
One pollster suggested that growing misconceptions about the president’s religion reflected the fact that Obama hadn’t “made religion a part of his public persona” as much as he did during the campaign. Instead of flaunting his Christian faith, the president should urge Americans to honor the spirit as well as the letter of the Constitution, which says that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
Editorial, Pages 14 on 08/26/2010