“Not exactly what that means”
Sphere: Related ContentMitt seems a bit confused about the Constitution:
COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) - Republican Mitt Romney declares in a speech being delivered Thursday that he shares “moral convictions” with Americans of all faiths, but should not have to explain his own religion just because he’s striving to become the first Mormon elected president.
“To do so would enable the very religious test the founders prohibited in the Constitution…,” Romney said in remarks prepared for delivery at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Article VI of the Constitution reads, in part, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” But Romney seems to share the typical politician’s misunderstanding of the purpose of the Constitution, which is to limit the government, not the people.
Many governments have legally excluded people from holding office for religious reasons. In fact, the New Jersey Constitution of 1776 said that only Protestant Christians could be elected:
all persons, professing a belief in the faith of any Protestant sect…shall be capable of being elected into any office of profit or trust, or being a member of either branch of the Legislature…
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December 7th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I don’t like Romney but don’t think the criticism applies. If he didn’t know there was a difference between the people and the document he would think the people were as prohibited as the document. His point pretty clearly seems to be that the Founders put it in there because they hoped for that sentiment from the people.
But to each their own.