Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Bernie Sanders imposes a religious test for public office
Bernie Sanders imposes a religious test for public office
Aug 26, 2025 12:16 PM

This week the U.S. Senate held a hearing in which an explosive revelation was made that threatens to undermine the Constitution.

And no, I’m not talking about the Comey hearing (that was rather a dud). I’m referring to the confirmation hearing for the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

You probably didn’t hear much about that hearing, or the nominee, Russel Vought. And you likely wouldn’t have heard about it still if Bernie Sanders hadn’t decided to impose a new religious test on anyone who wants to serve in the government.

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states that, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” But Sen. Sanders and his protégé Sen. Van Hollen, D-Md. have implemented a religious test that requires government officials to espouse universalism, the belief that all humankind will eventually be saved whether they accept or reject Jesus.

The issue came up because Vought, an evangelical Christian who graduated from Wheaton College, wrote a defense of his alma mater’s statement of faith for the conservative website The Resurgent.

“Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology,” wrote Vought, pushing back against a claim made by theologian John Stackhouse. “They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ his Son, and they stand condemned.”

This claim that Muslims who reject Christ “stand condemned” was brought up by Sen. Sanders during the confirmation hearing. “In my view, the statement made by Mr. Vought is indefensible, it is hateful, it is Islamophobic, and it is an insult to over a billion Muslims throughout the world,” said Sanders. “This country, since its inception, has struggled, sometimes with great pain, to e discrimination of all forms … we must not go backwards.”

Then, when he is allowed to question Vought, Sanders reiterates his claim. Watch the exchange in the video below.

A few minutes later, Senator Christopher Van HollenJr. of Maryland quoted from Vought’s article and said,

“I think it is irrefutable that these kinds ments suggest to a whole lot of Americans that, number one . . . you are condemning people of all faiths. I’m a Christian, but part of being a Christian in my view is recognizing that there are lots of ways that people can pursue their God. . . . It’s ments that suggest a violation ofthepublic trust in what will be a very important position.”

What Sanders and Van Hollen do not know is that most Christians throughout history have rejected universalism and subscribed to Jesus’s own claim that no one can go to heaven if they reject him (John 14:6). This isn’t a surprising claim to anyone with a passing familiarity to Christianity.

Just like his economic views, though, Sen. Sanders seems to have gotten his perspective on religion from a bumper sticker. He seems to think the “Coexist” bumper sticker he once saw on a ’96 Volvois a profound summation of world religions. That mustbe why he believesit is “hateful” and “Islamaphobic” for Christians to say that Jesus is the only way to salvation.

The fact that Sanders and Van Hollen are profoundly ignorant about both Christianity and Islam is neither surprising nor all that disconcerting. But for them to imply that anyone who holds a traditional Christian view on salvation is unfit for public office is repugnant and unconstitutional.

Although most of America has been distracted by the Comey hearing, we shouldn’t ignore this threat to our religious freedom. We must send a clear message to Washington: Such displays of anti-Christian bias by politicians like Senator Sanders and Van Hollenhas the potential to set a dangerous precedent and will not be tolerated.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Religion & Liberty: David W. Miller update
The feature interview for the Winter issue of Religion and Liberty was Dr. David W. Miller, who at the time served as the Executive Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. With his permission, Dr. Miller has agreed to let us inform our readers that he is taking a new position at Princeton as the Director of the Princeton University Faith & Work Initiative. The Trinity Forum is the only organization with an updated biography mentioning his new...
Nannyfornia
Writing in the London-based Times, Chris Ayres in e to Nannyfornia” looks at the “frenzy of puritanical edicts from California’s politicians” that cover a host of sins, ranging from transfats to the highly objectionable use of the terms “Mom” and “Dad.” Ayres raises a “disturbing” question: Is Nannyfornia providing us with a glimpse of what Obama’s America might look like? After all, Obama is a classic banner. He recently proposed banning all toys from China. He banned his own staff...
Anthony Bradley discusses cultural moral failings
Anthony Bradley has written a thoughtful and mentary titled, “John Edwards is the Real World.” Bradley discusses the moral bankruptcy and sexual infidelity that plagues our culture, and further highlights the seriousness of sin and its consequences. Bradley notes: In the decades e, stories like this will be the American social narrative because Americans are not inculcating virtue in children. Are parents today raising children to be women and men of prudence, courage, justice, and self-control? Or are we raising...
Christians at the movies
As The Dark Knight sets box office records, and the Acton Institute plunges deeper into the business of film production, it might be an opportune time to revisit the question of Christianity and movies. Scads of ink have already been spilled on the subject, which is of course part of the larger question of the relationship between Christianity and art, upon which many great minds have ruminated. (See, for example, Jacques Maritain on Art and Scholasticism.) On the PowerBlog, besides...
CRC Sea to Sea tour comes to GR
I’ll be blogging more about this week’s developments in the CRC Sea to Sea Tour in my regular Monday entry, but I wanted to note that the tour is making a pit stop in Grand Rapids this Sunday, August 17. The Red Letter Christian Shane Claiborne is the featured speaker. Unfortunately my schedule won’t allow me to attend the ministry fair and worship service at Fifth Third Ballpark. So far the “Shifting Gears” devotional has not been too overt in...
The conservative coalition crack-up
Earlier this week the Detroit News reported (HT: Pew Forum) that supporters of Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and Republican candidate for this election’s presidential nomination, would be meeting with representatives of John McCain in the key swing state of Michigan. Among the “battleground” states, Obama holds his largest lead in the polls here in Michigan (RCP average of +3.2). The purpose of yesterday’s meetings was ostensibly to urge McCain to pass over Mitt Romney as a possible running mate,...
China’s march against religious freedom
In this week’s Acton Commentary, I make the case that persecution of Chinese Christians has increased since the government’s preparation of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Freedom House is really leading the way piling a wealth of information to substantiate China’s recent crack down on freedom and human rights. Jimmy Lai, who was featured in The Call of the Entrepreneur, has a great quote on the makeup of China’s moral failings and its relation to the Olympics. I included his...
‘Solzhenitsyn, Optimist’
In the Wall Street Journal, Edward E. Ericson Jr. asks whether “this week’s evenhanded obituaries signal merely momentary respect for the newly dead or augur better days ahead for Solzhenitsyn’s reputation.” In “Solzhenitsyn, Optimist,” Ericson observes that the writer “had the last laugh” in his struggle against the Soviets. Solzhenitsyn has described himself as “an unshakable optimist.” On a dark day when one of his helpers had been arrested and interrogated and ended up dead (who knows how?), he could...
CRC Sea to Sea tour week 6
The sixth week of the CRC’s Sea to Sea bike tour has pleted. The sixth leg of the journey took the bikers from Fremont to Madison, a total distance of 548 miles. The “Shifting Gears” devotional for this week does a good job reminding us of the appropriate relative value of temporal vs. eternal things. “A human being’s life consists not in the abundance of his or her possessions, but in the blessing of loving relationships. May we be shrewd...
Quick thoughts on the Saddleback Civil Forum
I just got a chance to catch part of the Saddleback Civil Forum. I’ll have to go back and watch a replay of Sen. Obama’s appearance. I’ll just say a couple things right now. First, I have had a hard time understanding a lot of the criticism of Rick Warren, through the lead-up to this event especially. There are a lot of conservatives who want to cast Rick Warren as Jim Wallis-lite, a politically progressive Christian who stealthily is trying...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved