That's a serious misstatement of the law. In court you can get in real trouble for doing that. But not here of course. Anyway, the point of the Constitutional prohibition on religious tests is not to restrict a voter’s free expression under the First Amendment, but to restrict the federal government from limiting voter ballot choices based on religion. Constitution 101. This is not rocket science.
That is not the American Way
What’s not the “American Way?” You do realize the early English settlers of America came here primarily to exercise their God-given natural right to quarrel over religion, don’t you? Religious liberty means nothing at all if not the inherent right to try and persuade someone that religion A is true and its opposite, religion B, must therefore be false. It is hard to imagine anything more American, by history and principle, than folk like us on the FR Religion forum duking it out over how Mormonism contrasts with Christianity and what significance that has to our life as Americans. That’s what Americans do. We think and act like free people.
This isn't a general discussion about religion, it's an argument to not vote for Romney.
Now there you go trying to read minds and attribute motives that haven’t been stated. That’s a violation of the “no personal attacks” rule for this forum. Don’t worry. I won’t report you.
But I would like to challenge your assumption. Not all things revolve around “pragmatic” political outcomes. In fact, pragmatism at the expense of principle is a distinctly sub-Christian ethic, and it is a forbidden fruit to me (and those like me). Like Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?”
So we’re not primarily saying “don’t vote for Romney.” That may be a side-effect if our message is believed. But please know I am telling the truth when I say our interest in this is not who sits in the WH. Our interest is in knowing the truth and using that knowledge to live in obedience to Christ, because that way lies real freedom. Like Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” No one is freer than one who is free to live obediently to God, regardless of the shifting winds of the world around him.