I’ve spent plenty of time talking about Donald Trump during this primary season. Who can blame me? As he’d likely say himself, he’s entertaining. As a result, I’ve given his other underqualified peer, Dr. Ben Carson, less column inches. Sunday morning, though, I watched Meet the Press.
At the end of his interview with Carson, Chuck Todd posed a question: “Should a president’s faith matter? Should your faith matter to voters?” Carson responded, “Well I guess that depends on what that faith is. If it’s inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter.”
Carson went on to explain that he did not feel the Islamic faith is consistent with the Constitution. In his own words, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation."
Since Carson brought it up, let’s talk about the Constitution. Perhaps Carson didn’t pass ninth grade civics, as Mike Huckabee alluded to in the debate.
The First Amendment protects religious freedom in two ways: freedom of and from religion.It guarantees that an individual may practice his or her own religion, free from the interference of religious governance.
Millions of Americans, thanks to the free exercise clause, practice Islam today. The government may only restrict actions of American Muslims if they go outside of general applicable neutral laws — just like every other religion in this country, including Christianity.
In tandem with the free exercise clause, the establishment clause of the First Amendment exists to keep church and state separate. It is the establishment clause that has prevented a national church of the United States, or some other theocratic revolution.
If Carson had said that religion shouldn’t matter because church and state should be separated, you’d be reading a column about the GOP debate. But Carson’s interview made me want to dissect his made-for-TV image.
Like most fundamentalists, he can appeal to the notion that he’s a good-hearted gentleman. The longer he’s in front of the cameras, though, his bigotry starts to show.
Who is he to say that a Muslim American should not be president? It is Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution that defines the requirements for president, and religion is not mentioned.
So why exactly is Carson opposed to the idea of an Islamic president? Truthfully, I doubt that it is as much about dogmatic religious differences as it is a personal emotional reaction to Todd’s question.
Carson seems to still be suffering from the mass anti-Muslim paranoia that this nation developed after 9/11. It’s part of the same strain of emotional disease that made this nation put Japanese-Americans into interment camps during World War II and caused the Trail of Tears.
The simple fact is that some people fear those who are different from them. It’s an old, fundamental problem, and it has led to horrible bigotry and mistreatment of people in this country. It isn’t fair, and it should stop.
Carson, try and tell the country that Ahmed Mohamed shouldn’t have the right to be president, and we’ll see how your principles hold up. Truthfully, though, if I were aspiring to become president of this melting pot of a nation, I’d be sure to read the Constitution first.