“We must never judge the fitness of individuals to govern on the basis of where they worship, whether they follow Christ or Moses, whether they are called ‘born again’ or ‘ungodly.’ Where it is right to apply moral values to public life, let all of us avoid the temptation to be self-righteous and absolutely certain of ourselves.” –Ted Kennedy

It was said of Al Smith, a Catholic, that if he won the 1928 presidential election he would take orders from the Vatican and not uphold the Constitution.

John F. Kennedy famously confronted that prejudice in a 1960 speech. He said in part, “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the president — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote …”

We’ve moved past the Catholic issue, thanks largely to that speech. It is the second part of Kennedy’s pronouncement that we are now forced to deal with.

A Protestant minister, Robert Jeffress, said at the recent Values Voter Summit that he believes Mormonism, the religion of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, is “a cult.” He is entitled to that belief, but he went further. He suggested evangelical Christians should vote for Texas Gov. Rick Perry and asked the audience, “Do we want a candidate who is a good, moral person — or one who is a born-again follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Two points about this, one theological, the other political:

There are at least two other presidential candidates who would qualify as “born-again followers of Jesus Christ,” Rep. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain. What are they, chopped liver?

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