The Tribune’s Aug. 11 edition included two articles; one describing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s Lutheranism and the other describing Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s Catholicism.
I urge The Tribune to publish a follow-up article exploring the U.S. Constitution’s Article VI, Section 3, containing the following plain-as-day language: “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
The framers wrote the “no religious test” clause into our Constitution for very good reasons — they knew how toxic the blending of religion and politics was to democracy.
Is Gov. Walz a good man because he is a Lutheran, or is it because he is at his core an honorable and compassionate human being with a strong sense of right and wrong?
When JD Vance says cruel and stupid things about women and flip-flops between calling Donald Trump “America’s Hitler” and “America’s greatest president,” is that because he is a Catholic, or is it because he’s just another amoral opportunist?
Is it really necessary to review the long and horrifying history of what happens when religious affiliation becomes the metric for choosing who is given political power?
We must be clear-eyed and objective about who we elect to represent us and how we discuss the complex public policy challenges before us today. When religion enters politics we are forced to contend with ideas that demand immunity from critical examination at precisely the time in our nation that the critical examination of ideas is most urgently needed.
Religion mixed with politics is never, not ever, conducive to a free, just and healthy society. So please, Salt Lake Tribune, no more stories about the religious affiliations of candidates.
Seth Jarvis, Millcreek
