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Posted on 01/15/2012 10:25:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
With the New Hampshire primaries behind the GOP and South Carolina on the horizon, Mitt Romney seems the likely presidential candidate. Perhaps surprisingly, Romney’s Mormonism has yet to be a major stumbling block, and as time passes it doesn’t appear that it will become a hindrance.
But let’s consider another question. Could America vote for a Muslim?
Say a Muslim arrived on the scene with powerful and equitable ideas and challenged the status quo. Perhaps doubts are cast that a Muslim could actually become president, but the same was once said about Catholics and people of color.
One stumbling block to the potential Muslim candidate would be that many people think America is a “Christian nation.” At one time even this would have been questioned. If you had said to the predecessors to what would become the United States that “America is a Puritan nation” they likely would have agreed.
Simply put, there very well could come a day when a president who prays to Allah sits in the Oval Office. As Christian privilege slowly erodes due to tidal waves of globalization and pluralism, America’s hope is that religious differences will not erode but become respected. This is thanks in large part to the Constitution.
Just this week the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court order striking down an Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would prevent state courts from considering Sharia law. The decision is based not on respect for Muslim tradition, but rather for the First Amendment -- the same First Amendment that protected Baptists early in the American experience.
If anyone should be the greatest allies with Muslims in America, it is Baptists. Yet time after time many Baptists lead the charge against religious differences, even at the risk of harming their own self-interest. Many Baptists have kowtowed to political power in order to protect their power and privilege, in the process sacrificing their prophetic voice.
As Roger Williams stated in The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience, “the blood of so many hundred thousand souls of Protestants and papists, spilled in the wars of present and former ages for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.”
A truly Christian nation not only imposes no formal religion on its citizens but also fosters freedom to express one’s own conscience – Muslim, Mormon or whatever.
-- Zachary Bailes is an M.Div. student at Wake Forest University Divinity School. He is editor of Those Crazy Liberals … and Conservatives and a contributor for Progressive Christian Alliance .
RE: Only when prompted to “correct” himself.
Obama: “My Muslim Faith”
___________________________________
Not sure if we can use this against him. Sarah Palin was known to have made a similar gaffe when she said : ‘We’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies’
I am not going to hold it against her for a small mistake like this. Therefore, I have to be fair to Obama. I can’t use that gaffe as PROOF that he is a Muslim either.
RE: We won’t eat in a place where muslims work.
Would you work in a place where Muslims work?
Most that voted for Obama were fooled into thinking he wasn’t a Muslim follower, and the Obama campaign got real upset when people even used his middle name, Hussein.
Nowadays I think most of America, the left right and center do fully know now about his “Muslim faith”.
He will come out of the closet and start going to the mosque in his 2nd term if reelected.
One of those in your face things muzzies do.
They're intent on running countries, even leaving America to make sure of it (while America continues to import more of them).
US muslim group aiding insurgents in Somalia
The October al Qaeda video shows a light-skinned man handing out food to families displaced by famine in Somalia. But the masked man is not Somali or even African -- he's a Wisconsin native who grew up in San Diego.
A handful of young Muslims from the U.S. are taking high-visibility propaganda and operational roles inside an al Qaeda-linked insurgent force in Somalia known as al-Shabab. While most are from Minnesota, which has the largest Somali population in the nation, al-Shabab members include a Californian and an Alabaman with no ancestral ties to Somalia.
I didn’t vote for the One.
It’s an oldie but a goodie. I learned everything I need to know about Muslims on 9/11. So...NO!
“Could a person who HONESTLY and OPENLY calls himself a Muslim be President of the USA?”
Not with my vote.
RE: It’s an oldie but a goodie. I learned everything I need to know about Muslims on 9/11. So...NO!
There are over a billion Muslims on this planet. Surely you are not going to tar and feather everyone of them because of a handful of fanatics...
Only if I wanted to destroy our nation!
Accord to islams command of taqueria(sp.) a muslim could only openly and honestly identify “Himself” (No female allowed to rule under islam) after all had submitted to islam first.
How big is a handful?
I would say they are millions of handfuls!
Our first Muslim president has assured us that America is no longer that.
Yes. I could certainly vote for a Muslim candidate who supported principles of political, religious, and economic freedom.
;>)
I didn’t in 2008...why would I consider it now?
What do you think is sitting in the White Hut now? A Baptist?
There is one and I did not.
There seem to indeed be a number of people here willing to condemn all Muslims, even their fellow citizens, even those serving in our armed forces or as first responders. I have a feeling though that they won’t mind if their heart surgeon turns out to be Muslim.
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