54% of Republicans say that, "deep down," Obama is a Muslim

[Qin_Shi_Huangdi]

@Hail_Ants

You also seem to have absolutely no grasp of how closely linked politics & religion are in this country.

Unfortunately this is very much the case.

If he were to come out and say he was a Catholic it would still result in the biggest Constitutional crisis since the Civil War.

How come?

The Republicans would pounce and the Democrats would abandon him wholesale.

As others pointed out, most of us wouldn’t.

It could practically bring down the whole modern Democratic party.

lolno. The GOP survived Watergate and did respectably in 1976 despite it.

And it would be worse than what Nixon did in that he would be guilty of essentially lying about nearly everything he’s ever said or done to every single individual, both during two presidential elections and terms.

How so? The President lying about his religious beliefs would not mean he was lying about supporting the Affordable Care Act or that Bin Laden was dead.

But like every good liberal you can just scream “RACE CARD!” all day long.

I never said anything about race, but yes if you think someone shouldn’t be President solely by virtue of being Muslim you are a bigot, just as if you were if you thought a Jew or a Roman Catholic shouldn’t be President solely by their adherence to that religion.

You’re right, there’s absolutely no connection whatsoever between being muslim and your opinions & actions regarding terrorism. How silly of me to even suspect such a thing. An all-muslim jury would be just as unbiased as an all-white one…

You might as well say a Jew or a dispensationalist shouldn’t be President since he can’t be trusted to be objective regarding Israel. I’m sure the Kurdish militiamen currently fighting ISIS in northern Iraq and Syria would be happy to hear that their religion makes them “unobjective” and “soft” against their ISIS opponents. Same with the President-regardless of his religion, its obvious he has little reluctance killing terrorists as evidenced by the killing of Bin Laden and the numerous drone strikes carried out with his approval.

[Trinopus]

@adaher

If you lie about your faith, then you don’t really have any to begin with. An exception would be someone who was persecuted and had to pretend lest they be killed, but anyone who hides their true beliefs for personal ambition doesn’t really have true beliefs to hide. . . .

This would seem to excuse religious persecution that falls anywhere short of putting people to death.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@adaher

If you lie about your faith, then you don’t really have any to begin with. An exception would be someone who was persecuted and had to pretend lest they be killed, but anyone who hides their true beliefs for personal ambition doesn’t really have true beliefs to hide.

This is a total non sequitur. Christianity has a long tradition of martyrdom, but there’s no reason at all that this should be universal. Imagine, purely theoretically, that I’m a Discordian who worships the sacred goddess of chaos. What good do I do by declaring my faith honestly? Or suppose I am a Satanist: what debt of honesty do I owe you? Perhaps I owe allegiance to Elder Gods and wish to summon them, and I know that my rituals will be disrupted if I make them public. Or I’m a divorced Pagan who lives in the Bible Belt, and I know of other Pagans who have lost custody of their children based on their religious beliefs.

Unless one of the tenets of your religion is that you should Go Tell it On The Mountain, there’s no reason whatsoever that you need to let others know what you believe.