Religious Test

What a perfect headline: "GOP Pushes for Local Control of School Prayer" (Nov. 18). I cannot imagine a more locally controlled event than prayer in school. Rep. Ernest Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), conservative politicians and the religious right just don't get it. We already have prayer in schools. It is under local control by every student at all times. RONALD MOSSLER Northridge President Bill Clinton should know better than to acquiesce to the Republican proposal to violate the United States Constitution ("Clinton Signals Willingness to Consider School Prayer," Nov. 16)

Are Mormons, including Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Christians? Who cares? The Rev. Robert Jeffress does. The Baptist pastor from Dallas attracted attention last weekend for asserting, shortly after introducing Gov. Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, that Mormonism was not a branch of Christianity but rather a "cult. " Perry rushed to distance himself from that comment, saying through a spokesman that he didn't consider Mormonism a cult. All weekend long, the "Is he a Christian?"

Re " 'Under God,' and Under the Constitution," Commentary, May 9: Beneath his reassuring patina of balance and evenhandedness, Kenneth Starr asserts the seriously unconstitutional proposition that we must recognize "God as the foundation of our governmental architecture." Remarkably, Starr never acknowledges that the 1st Amendment begins by declaring that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" and that Article VI of the Constitution expressly provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Economic spark Re "Obama pitches jobs plan," Sept. 9 As a retired newspaper reporter, I couldn't have written President Obama's speech better myself. If Obama would have added $447 billion in stimulus to the original $787 billion in 2009, we might not be in this mess. I don't think the infrastructure spending he proposed is nearly enough, given the state of our roads and schools. And there is nothing for retired seniors like me on Social Security. We haven't had a Social Security increase for about three years, but our costs have gone up. A one-time payment to Social Security recipients would pump some money back into the economy.

Re "High Court Hears Scout Bias Debates," Jan. 6: I find the case of William and Michael Randall vs. the Boy Scouts appalling. It doesn't take too much common sense to not join a group that goes against what you believe. Maybe they just want to cause problems and make a name for themselves. The Boy Scouts of America set up its charter many years ago to conform to the ways the original leaders wanted the club to be. It set up one moral in specific, and that was to honor the monotheistic God. Members have followed this until now. The issue that bothers me the most is the fact that the Randall twins have applied to be Eagle Scouts, the highest honor as a Boy Scout.

Re "Make Miers pass a litmus test," Opinion, Oct. 18 Michael Stokes Paulsen and John Yoo, distinguished men of law both, nonetheless make a typical conservative error in describing "the judicial invention of rights not set forth in the Constitution." Surely they have read the 9th Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Surely they know that when the framers drafted the Bill of Rights, their intent was not to put a ceiling on individual rights but rather a floor.

Re "Miers' Faith in Spotlight," Oct. 13 If the president has been assuring the religious right that Harriet E. Miers is qualified for the Supreme Court because she attends a conservative evangelical church, then he has violated Article VI of the Constitution, which reads, "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." This is one of our founding fathers' greatest legacies. When our chief executive blatantly flouts it, how can America have any moral standing as its tries to persuade Iraq to write its own constitution to ensure equal participation in government by religious minorities?

Californians were selected to hear George W. Bush's first elaboration of his "compassionate conservatism" philosophy in his speech on education in Los Angeles (Sept. 3). If, after three years, schools receiving federal money for disadvantaged students cannot increase the number of students who pass a test, then their federal support will be yanked. How wonderfully inspiring, and it saves money, too. We will improve our schools by shooting the wounded! I eagerly await Bush's further explanations of such "compassionate" policies.

Things being what they are these days, and with Mitt Romney currently the front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, it's not too surprising that objections to the former Massachusetts governor's Mormon religion would resurface, particularly in Iowa, where evangelicals wield so much influence in the Republican caucuses. Romney was the target of both left- and right-wing Mormon-bashing in the last presidential campaign, proving once again that vulgar religious prejudice is one of the few areas of our national life where true bipartisanship still prevails.

Economic spark Re "Obama pitches jobs plan," Sept. 9 As a retired newspaper reporter, I couldn't have written President Obama's speech better myself. If Obama would have added $447 billion in stimulus to the original $787 billion in 2009, we might not be in this mess. I don't think the infrastructure spending he proposed is nearly enough, given the state of our roads and schools. And there is nothing for retired seniors like me on Social Security. We haven't had a Social Security increase for about three years, but our costs have gone up. A one-time payment to Social Security recipients would pump some money back into the economy.

Things being what they are these days, and with Mitt Romney currently the front-runner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, it's not too surprising that objections to the former Massachusetts governor's Mormon religion would resurface, particularly in Iowa, where evangelicals wield so much influence in the Republican caucuses. Romney was the target of both left- and right-wing Mormon-bashing in the last presidential campaign, proving once again that vulgar religious prejudice is one of the few areas of our national life where true bipartisanship still prevails.

It's easy to sympathize with President Obama over the drumbeat of misrepresentations of his religion, place of birth and even the validity of his Social Security number. But in protesting too much that he is a Christian — and one, moreover, who prays daily — the White House may be encouraging the impression that there is a religious test for the presidency and that a Muslim would fail it. Such defensiveness is unedifying in the context of a religiously pluralist society.

Re "Make Miers pass a litmus test," Opinion, Oct. 18 Michael Stokes Paulsen and John Yoo, distinguished men of law both, nonetheless make a typical conservative error in describing "the judicial invention of rights not set forth in the Constitution." Surely they have read the 9th Amendment: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Surely they know that when the framers drafted the Bill of Rights, their intent was not to put a ceiling on individual rights but rather a floor.

Re "Miers' Faith in Spotlight," Oct. 13 If the president has been assuring the religious right that Harriet E. Miers is qualified for the Supreme Court because she attends a conservative evangelical church, then he has violated Article VI of the Constitution, which reads, "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." This is one of our founding fathers' greatest legacies. When our chief executive blatantly flouts it, how can America have any moral standing as its tries to persuade Iraq to write its own constitution to ensure equal participation in government by religious minorities?

Re " 'Under God,' and Under the Constitution," Commentary, May 9: Beneath his reassuring patina of balance and evenhandedness, Kenneth Starr asserts the seriously unconstitutional proposition that we must recognize "God as the foundation of our governmental architecture." Remarkably, Starr never acknowledges that the 1st Amendment begins by declaring that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" and that Article VI of the Constitution expressly provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Californians were selected to hear George W. Bush's first elaboration of his "compassionate conservatism" philosophy in his speech on education in Los Angeles (Sept. 3). If, after three years, schools receiving federal money for disadvantaged students cannot increase the number of students who pass a test, then their federal support will be yanked. How wonderfully inspiring, and it saves money, too. We will improve our schools by shooting the wounded! I eagerly await Bush's further explanations of such "compassionate" policies.

Legislation requiring universities and colleges to make other arrangements for religious students when holy days and sabbath observances conflict with test dates has been signed by Gov. George Deukmejian. "This legislation will help end the conflicts of conscience faced by many students who have test dates on their holy days," said Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who sponsored the measure.

It's easy to sympathize with President Obama over the drumbeat of misrepresentations of his religion, place of birth and even the validity of his Social Security number. But in protesting too much that he is a Christian — and one, moreover, who prays daily — the White House may be encouraging the impression that there is a religious test for the presidency and that a Muslim would fail it. Such defensiveness is unedifying in the context of a religiously pluralist society.

Re "High Court Hears Scout Bias Debates," Jan. 6: I find the case of William and Michael Randall vs. the Boy Scouts appalling. It doesn't take too much common sense to not join a group that goes against what you believe. Maybe they just want to cause problems and make a name for themselves. The Boy Scouts of America set up its charter many years ago to conform to the ways the original leaders wanted the club to be. It set up one moral in specific, and that was to honor the monotheistic God. Members have followed this until now. The issue that bothers me the most is the fact that the Randall twins have applied to be Eagle Scouts, the highest honor as a Boy Scout.

What a perfect headline: "GOP Pushes for Local Control of School Prayer" (Nov. 18). I cannot imagine a more locally controlled event than prayer in school. Rep. Ernest Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), conservative politicians and the religious right just don't get it. We already have prayer in schools. It is under local control by every student at all times. RONALD MOSSLER Northridge President Bill Clinton should know better than to acquiesce to the Republican proposal to violate the United States Constitution ("Clinton Signals Willingness to Consider School Prayer," Nov. 16)