{"id":3560,"date":"2015-09-21T21:36:28","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T02:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/?p=3560"},"modified":"2015-09-21T21:36:28","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T02:36:28","slug":"ben-carson-consistent-with-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/2015\/09\/21\/ben-carson-consistent-with-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Carson: Consistent with the Constitution?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A telling exchange from yesterday’s edition of Meet the Press<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Chuck Todd:<\/strong> “Should a President\u2019s faith matter?”<\/p>\n

Ben Carson:<\/strong> “Well, I guess it depends on what that faith is. If it\u2019s inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter. But if it fits within the realm of America and consistent with the Constitution, no problem.”<\/p>\n

Chuck Todd:\u00a0<\/strong>“So do you believe that Islam is consistent with the Constitution?”<\/p>\n

Ben\u00a0Carson:<\/strong> “No, I don\u2019t, I do not. I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If\u00a0Dr. Carson were\u00a0familiar with\u00a0his copy of the U.S. Constitution, he would know that the only mention of religion\u00a0therein strictly prohibits<\/a> making adherence to any one religion a qualification for holding office.<\/p>\n

…all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps, though, I am being uncharitable. Maybe Dr. Carson is thinking specifically of political Islam<\/a>, that is, the notion that the Muslim faith should guide all\u00a0social and political decision making. If so, then of course he is correct.\u00a0Any attempt to bend secular law to a specific\u00a0holy book is\u00a0incompatible with the secular government described by the Constitution.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0goes for Christianity<\/a> no less than any other faith, naturally.<\/p>\n

When asked (on an earlier episode<\/a>\u00a0of Meet the Press) whether the Bible holds authority over the Constitution,\u00a0Ben Carson failed to give the obvious correct answer<\/a>. This\u00a0indicates, at least to me, that he lacks\u00a0a robust understanding of why our Founders chose<\/a> to separate political and ecclesiastical authority in the first place. Which in turn explains why he did not see any problem with promulgating his own\u00a0religious test for public office.<\/p>\n

Until Carson and his fellow contenders for high office come to understand that America was founded\u00a0as a\u00a0democracy, not a theocracy, they are going to continue\u00a0blurring the lines between faith and policy, just as the Islamists would have us do. If I was a praying man, I’d petition all\u00a0the gods\u00a0to help them stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A telling exchange from yesterday’s edition of Meet the Press: Chuck Todd: “Should a President\u2019s faith matter?” Ben Carson: “Well,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/backgroundprobability\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}