Does Press Commentary Reflect Religious Bigotry?

Writing in The Los Angeles Times, Tim Rutten explores the anti-Mormon bigotry that has surfaced in some otherwise respectable journals as they cover the presidential candidacy of fomrer Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. An excerpt:

A few weeks ago, Jacob Weisberg, editor of the influential online journal Slate, posted a piece that began, "Someone who refuses to consider voting for a woman as president is rightly deemed a sexist. Someone who'd never vote for a black person is a racist. But are you a religious bigot if you wouldn't cast a ballot for a believing Mormon?" According to Weisberg, no. "If he gets anywhere in the primaries, Romney's religion will become an issue with moderate and secular voters — and rightly so. Objecting to someone because of his religious beliefs is not the same thing as prejudice based on religious heritage, race or gender. Not applying a religious test for public office means that people of all faiths are allowed to run — not that views about God, creation and the moral order are inadmissible for political debate…. Nor is it chauvinistic to say that certain religious views are deal-breakers in and of themselves … I wouldn't vote for someone who truly believed in the founding whoppers of Mormonism … [which] is based on such a transparent and recent fraud."Worse, Romney "has never publicly indicated any distance from church doctrine."

Thank God Weisberg's antipathy to Romney isn't based on religious bigotry.


[HT: RealClearPolitics ]