A Religious Test for 2012?

Our Constitution is specific when it prohibits a "religious test" for "any office or public trust" -- Article VI, Paragraph III.

That doesn't mean that voters are prohibited from taking a person's faith (or lack thereof) into account when deciding for whom they will vote. No law could stop them.

Past elections have been decided when some Catholics voted for a Catholic politician because of their shared religion and Protestants voted against a Catholic because they did not share that faith.

Now come two Mormons -- former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman -- and two evangelical Christians -- former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann. There is confusion and division within once nearly solid evangelical ranks over what to do.

Some evangelicals say they wouldn't vote for a Mormon for president, even though Romney and Huntsman seem, on the surface, to fit with many of the political viewpoints of the majority of politically conservative Christians on social issues such as abortion and same-sex "marriage" (though Huntsman favors "civil unions" and Romney has been on both sides of this issue, as well as abortion, more than once).

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